27 country reports assessing national energy efficiency policies in every EU Member State have now been published within the Energy-Efficiency-Watch project. The reports are based on the screening of the National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAPs) as well as an expert survey, involving about 750 experts, on the implementation of those policies since the first NEEAPs were published in 2007. The country reports provide a unique overview of policy packages and the current implementation status of energy efficiency policies in each Member State.

Lessons learnt for the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive
The Member States´ profiles of this kind are a valuable source of information for every policy maker, especially with a view to the new Energy Efficiency Directive which is to be transposed by 5 June 2014. “As the new directive obliges the Member States to set indicative national energy efficiency targets for 2020 and to meet several binding requirements, it is crucial to review current policy packages and assess the progress made in their implementation. The country reports provide this information,” commented Jan Geiss, EUFORES Secretary General and coordinator of the Energy-Efficiency-Watch project.

Strengths and weaknesses of energy efficiency policies
Wuppertal Institute and Ecofys Germany screened the NEEAPs with the objective to highlight strengths and weaknesses of national energy efficiency policies, to identify policy gaps and to give policy recommendations. “We focused on effective governance frameworks, comprehensive sectoral policy packages and good practices. Thanks to the extensive EU-wide expert survey on the policy implementation, we could supplement the country reports with a reality check - the survey results from every Member State,” said Ralf Schüle from Wuppertal Institute. “Sectoral policy packages of some Member States are to a very large extent based on EU legislation. Out of the sectors, the transport sector is the one most neglected in national strategies,” continued Daniel Becker from Ecofys. Another worrying conclusion is that the majority of Member States has not yet adopted long term energy efficiency strategies.

Obviously, the second NEEAPs of 2011 differ in structure, contents and level of detail of measures but they have hugely improved compared to the first NEEAPs of 2007. “Thanks to the national process of drafting NEEAPs, Member States have started a comprehensive planning exercise on energy efficiency policies. This is probably the biggest achievement of the NEEAP process and the Energy Services Directive”, concluded Daniel Becker.

Background information on the country reports
The NEEAPs screening and the expert survey have been carried out within the framework of the Energy-Efficiency-Watch project which aims to facilitate the implementation of the Energy Services Directive (ESD) and provide lessons learnt for the implementation of the new Energy Efficiency Directive. The project is supported by the Intelligent Energy Europe programme and is coordinated by EUFORES.

To download 27 country reports please see the Energy-Efficiency-Watch web site
http://www.energy-efficiency-watch.org/