Ms Kadri Simson:

Earlier today, we discussed with our head of representation here that this Commission has been very productive. We have presented lots of proposals, including legislative proposals, that we are currently negotiating with our co-legislators in the European Parliament and the member states. We started our mandate with the outbreak of Covid and, in response, we presented our recovery and resilience plans. We were afraid that Covid would have a major impact and that people would lose their jobs. We had to respond in a way that would create jobs but, of course, we kept in mind that we had committed to becoming climate neutral.

One of the priorities two years ago was to start renovations. Renovating their home helps final consumers to take responsibility for their heating bills. It creates local jobs and uses materials that are locally produced and, of course, helps to cut emissions. Two years on, we see that all the governments are committed to starting renovation activities but there are various bottlenecks, such as finding skilled workers. With the current high prices, it makes sense to insulate one's home. People who are living in apartments or houses that are in the lowest performance category of buildings, at F level, have to consume as much as ten times more energy to get to a comfortable temperature than those who live in newly built apartments. The skills, however, are now the bottleneck. My colleague, Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, is dedicated to this topic 24-7. He will present our proposal in this regard. Although training, including vocational training, is decided at local level, we have to endorse these activities.

On solar strategy, if we want to replace fossil fuel electricity with something else, solar rooftops are an option that do not face strong public opposition. Solar PVs are coming from third countries so we have to help our industry to build back the production facilities here because the technology was created here. The industry has innovative solutions and we are trying to tap into those with the help of member states. State aid may at some stage be required to secure the availability of the necessary raw materials for the production. We see great potential for solar energy. Farmers may consider using their land for the production of solar energy and might install solar panels that do not disrupt the production of agricultural products.