The seventh edition of the Efficient Romania Forum (Romania Eficienta), organized by the Energy Policy Group (EPG), with the support of OMV Petrom, brought to the fore one of the most important challenges of the coming years: the transposition and implementation at national level of the provisions of the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).
The event brought together representatives of public authorities, the private sector and international experts in the fields of energy and construction, who jointly explored the necessary measures to accelerate the pace of decarbonization while proactively protecting the potentially vulnerable population. The participants’ conclusion was unanimous: ambitious European goals can only be translated into concrete results through the effective collaboration of all actors involved.
When the public and private sectors combine their resources, expertise and vision, change becomes possible and can be accelerated. Christina Verchere, CEO of OMV Petrom, highlights the essential role of this partnership in modernizing the built fund and achieving Romania’s decarbonization goals. The public sector provides the legislative instruments and public policies, and “the private sector usually brings the resources, scale and speed necessary to effectively implement policies”.
An enlightening example of a successful public-private partnership is the Efficient Romania program, which uses the financial resources offered by OMV Petrom to serve the public good. In its 7 years of existence, the program carried out by the Energy Policy Group (EPG) has energetically renovated to the nZEB standard (almost zero energy consumption) 5 buildings used by schools, high schools and kindergartens in the public education system and has carried out numerous awareness and information campaigns on the benefits of energy efficiency in buildings for both adults, as well as for children.
And in the next stage of the program, “we will make efforts to prepare the construction and renovation market in Romania for the next wave which, starting with 2030, will bring the ZEB concept, with an additional level of complexity, and we will try to prepare the public in advance to understand these notions, what they mean, what kind of interventions it entails, what costs and what sources of financing”, said Radu Dudău, President of the Energy Policy Group (EPG).Preparing the audience is not a secondary objective.
Mihai Moia, ROENEF Executive Director, emphasizes that understanding the benefits of renovation is directly related to the owners’ willingness to access credit instruments, which is essential given that neither national nor European funds will cover the more than 30 billion euros needed for the complete renovation of Romania’s stock of old buildings. Public funds should be directed primarily to buildings with the worst energy performance, identified based on data from the National Register of Buildings, which is currently under construction, the expert believes.
Andrei Ceclan, President of the Society of Energy Auditors and Managers of Romania (SAMER), illustrates in an extremely intuitive way the importance and benefits associated with increasing the energy performance of buildings, through an analogy with the pyramid of needs. At the base of the pyramid is the reduction of consumption needs, achieved through thermal insulation and sealing. This is followed by measures dedicated to comfort, by introducing technical systems for heating/cooling, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, lighting, then technical systems that produce and store energy. Finally, the building’s energy management system is added, which ensures the long-term optimized operation of all these systems. “This means that not only do we consume less and at least partially cover that consumption from what we produce locally, but we keep the energy bill as low as possible in the long term,” concludes Andrei Ceclan.
However, the benefits of energy renovation go beyond comfort and savings on bills. Laura Nazare, coordinator of Bankwatch Romania’s energy transition campaign, drew attention to the important role that energy efficiency can play in combating energy poverty and protecting vulnerable households: “we cannot only provide financial support to those in need, we must also come up with structural measures that reduce their vulnerability in the long term, I’m talking here about energy efficiency in buildings, about the installation of clean technologies, heat pumps, photovoltaic systems with storage, and I think these things need to be done integrated.”
Energy efficiency and the deployment of renewable energy sources are necessary, but not sufficient conditions in the context of measuring the global warming potential of buildings over the entire life cycle and the ZEB (zero-emission buildings) standard. The decarbonisation of the building sector also involves the gradual elimination of emissions embodied in materials, the construction process and even the demolition of the building, including the management of materials resulting from demolition.
Raul Pop, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests, highlights the need to accelerate circular economy measures in the construction sector, by reusing materials, reducing waste and improving construction practices.
The implementation of the EPBD represents, for Romania, an opportunity to modernize the built fund, to reduce costs and to improve the quality of life of users, as well as to increase energy independence. But for this opportunity to be capitalized, the guests of the Efficient Romania Forum 2026 show, coherent policies, sustained investments, adequate skills and, above all, the collaboration of all the actors involved are needed.
The registration of the Effective Romania Forum 2026 can be watched in full by accessing the link: https://www.romania-eficienta.ro/romania-eficienta-forum-2026/