Unlike the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and large companies, SMEs have less technical human and financial resources to improve their energy efficiency. Barriers have been deeply investigated including lack of awareness, low capital and difficulty to access financing, doubts around actual saving potential and the lack of technical human resources. So, national schemes are finalized to provide them with technical resources such as methodologies, best practices, technologies inventories and subsidies. Some of the schemes introduce mandatory actions (energy analysis) to obtain such subsidies. Nevertheless, national policy schemes have failed to some extent to convince SMEs that the energy audit is something more than a “bureaucratic fulfilment” to obtain a contribution and to push also large companies to take the step from the analysis to the investment. To overcome that, DEESME aims at a) Enabling companies to manage the energy transition by taking profit of multiple benefits and energy management approaches, b) Supporting the development and the implementation of EU policies on energy efficiency in the framework of art. 8 of EED beyond the project by providing national authorities with guidelines proposals and recommendations on how to strengthen the national schemes and c) Enhancing the adoption of the DEESME approach by National Authorities beyond the project timeline through the implementation of institutionalization activities. DEESME will target primarily National Authorities to address their needs from the incumbent policies and to make them aware of the resources available to empower their schemes under art. 8 using the multiple benefits approach. Moreover, it will also target SMEs to assist them to develop and test the technical DEESME solutions by organising information and training initiatives, realising energy audit and implementing energy management systems starting from international standard and adding the multiple benefits energy efficiency approach.

Bulgaria is facing a serious challenge to radically transform its extremely grant-dependent energy efficiency support schemes, while at the same time preserving the speed and scope of the clean energy transition. This is especially valid for the residential sector, where the existing 100% grant mechanism for building renovation has to be quickly reformed into a sustainable financing scheme, at the same time targeting more ambitious energy targets and taking into account the overspread energy poverty. Similar situation is evidenced in the industry, where investments are usually prompted by operational programmes offering up to 80% grants. Considering the principles of functioning of the EU Green Deal and the possibilities under the Recovery Package, innovative financial instruments have to be quickly designed and adopted in a transparent and inclusive way, significantly improving the leveraging effect of public resources, while at the same taking into account the limited investment capacities and purchasing power of the consumers. To address these policy and market gaps, BeSmart aims to support smart financing implementation by setting up a permanent discussion forum, gathering central and local authorities, energy efficiency experts, the financial sector, ESCOs, homeowners, industry, construction and SME sector representatives. The discussion forum and the 9 roundtables planned under the project are specifically designed to support new business models and utilize investment opportunities derived from the increased financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy at EU level. They will gather and upscale existing best practices, support the development of national and local-level strategies, propose improvements in the national policy framework and implementation programmes, develop the institutional and legal framework, and increase the transparency in the policy-making process, leading to increased trust of the investors and better functioning of the market.

ENSMOV will support public authorities and key stakeholders in 14 Member States represented by its consortium (NL, BE, IT, FR, GR, AT, DE, PL, RO, UK, HR, BG, HU, LT) in implementing the Article 7 EED requirements. More specifically it will assist them to monitor, improve and complement the design and implementation of their energy efficiency policies by developing resources on practical issues they face. As the implementation of the Article 7 EED has shown, public authorities have limited time and resources to share experiences at the EU level and, as previous projects (EC IEE ENSPOL, EC H2020 MULTEE, PUBLENEF, EPATEE) demonstrated, the opportunity to share experiences is very welcome by public authorities. To find implementation challenges and solutions for energy efficiency obligations (EEOs) and alternative measures and monitoring and verification (MRV) schemes, ENSMOV has designed an experience sharing programme with a structured set of national, regional and EU workshops to address Article 7 EED requirements. These exchanges are underpinned by technical support to ensure that experience sharing results in positive impacts and actual improvements of policy implementation and monitoring. An important tool for active engagement of public authorities will be the Knowledge Transfer Platform, designed to enable discussion on Article 7 EED implementation issues (updated ENSPOL platform www.article7eed.eu). This programme will cover up to 10 crucial MRV and policy implementation topics and is expected to result in improved capacity of 150 unique participants (at least 45 public officers), at least 30 policies influenced through the action, 14 MS with improved implementation of Article 7 and improved and consistent MRV systems. These will all lead to a smoother transition in the new Article 7 EED era.

ENERFUND is a tool that will rate and score deep renovation opportunities – like a credit score used by banks to rate clients. The tool will be based on a methodology to be developed and on a set of parameters such as EPC data, number of certified installers, governmental schemes running, etc. By providing a rating for deep renovation opportunities – whether for private establishments or for public buildings – funding institutes can provide targeted loans, retrofit companies can identify sound opportunities, municipalities can promote targeted incentives and the public's trust for retrofitting will be enhanced. The objectives of the current proposal is to (a) analyse the status quo and needs of deep renovation stakeholders and the public, (b) build upon the outcomes of previous projects to create a tool for deep renovation financing, (c) promote the tool to all interested stakeholders, (d) measure and document the impact of the tool on deep renovation strategies and financing and (e) provide a powerful tool that will assist EU stakeholders meet their obligations on increasing renovation rates. The partners, from 12 countries, include 2 universities, in charge of the project management and the development of the methodology behind the tool, 2 SMEs with extensive experience on database management, EPC mapping, development of online decision-making tools, and 11 Ministries, Energy Agencies, NGOs, etc that are connected with the relevant stakeholders throughout Europe and can promote the tool. The expected impact is approximately 45GWh due to the use of the tool to promote deep renovation of buildings and through our training and dissemination activities. ENERFUND will account for approximately 1% of the current annual renovation rate during the project duration. The strategic, long term aim is to provide a unified global tool for the promotion, not only of deep renovation of buildings, but of all energy related activities in the building sector.

The 'Concerted Action EPBD IV', supporting transposition and implementation of Directive 2010/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings, is an activity which aims to foster exchange of information and experience among Member States and participating countries with regards to the implementation of the specific Community legislation and policy on the energy performance of buildings. It involves the national authorities implementing the Directive, or those bodies appointed and entrusted by them to do so. It is carried out under the coordination of Danish Energy Agency, DEA. The CA consortium is composed of organisations designated by all 28 Member States plus Norway. The CA is financed by the EU's Horizon 2020 Programme. The CA is the continuation of the first Concerted Action, CA EPBD, which ran from January 2005 to June 2007, then continued as the CA EPBD II from December 2007 until November 2010 and then CA EPBD III from March 2011 to October 2015. The CA IV will organise 4 CA Plenary meetings and some supporting activities over a period 30 months or approximately one meeting every 7-8 months, similar to the CA III. The work will be organised in Central Teams, which includes: a) 3 Core Teams on 'New Buildings', 'Existing Buildings' and 'Certification & Quality of Inspection'; b) 3 Cross-Cutting teams on 'Technical Elements', 'Policy & Implementation' and 'Compliance, Capacity & Impact'; c) 2 central functions on 'Collaboration with other actors' and 'Internal & External Communication'; and some additional functions and supporting measures. For each Central Team, issues are addressed on which the Directive does not require harmonised national implementation but where coordinated implementation would increase the impact of the Directive and reduce the implementing costs.