The committee adopted the report by Alejo VIDAL-QUADRAS ROCA (EPP-ED, E) amending the Council's common position at second reading under the codecision procedure.
Although it welcomed the fact that several amendments adopted by Parliament at first reading had been taken up in the Council's common position, the committee nevertheless reinstated a number of other first-reading amendments including definitions of thermal insulation and useful efficiency and introducing the principle of billing based on actual consumption. The main amendment, however, concerned the deadline for enacting the directive, which the committee wanted to be shortened. Whereas the Council was proposing a three-year deadline, which could be extended by a further four years if a Member State does not have qualified experts to inspect heating and air-conditioning systems, MEPs felt that a three-year extension to the deadline would be sufficient and pointed out that a four-year extension would go beyond 2008, which was the beginning of the verification period for compliance with the commitments entered into under the Kyoto Protocol. �