The 1st parallel session will address main aspects from national strategic documents with relation to energy efficiency, with an overview of the national priorities, and the national 2030 and 2050 targets. Specifically, the first part will be focused on the energy efficiency as foreseen in the Programme “Regional Development” presented by representatives from the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, followed by presentation regarding the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), and lastly – about the opportunities that the National Decarbonization Fund could open to attract financing for building renovation projects.

After the presentations, there will be an open discussion on the opportunities and challenges for the financial institutions to take an active and successful role in the building renovation process. The discussion will be based on the following questions:

• Are the resources under the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the Programme Development of the Regions 2021-2027 for building renovation sufficient to reach the national and EU targets for decarbonisation of the building stock?
• Are the planned grants going to be combined with other EU funds, and especially with available credit lines?
• Can it be expected that public funds attract private financing in order to increase the scope of the renovation?
• Are we confident that the projects would target the cost-optimal renovation levels and avoid lock-in effects?
• How should the future National Decarbonisation Fund should be structured in order to enable the participation of commercial banks and specialized funds in the renovation programmes and to stimulate private investments?
• How should the proposed “Technical assistance” component of the Fund function and what type of support it should offer to the different actors in the investment projects’ value chain?
• Which stakeholders are the most influential on simulating participation and attracting financing for building renovation projects at national and local level?

This session is focused on the ways and tools at hand for the municipal actors to best utilize the financial resources foreseen in the programs.

The first part of the session is going to be focused on the Programme Development of the Regions 2021-2027, and the reforms in the Recovery and Resilience Plan that are relevant to building renovation with respect to specific financial and temporal aspects. Next off will be an overview of international mechanisms and initiatives for technical support and sound energy management at the local level so that the full benefits from the building renovation programs can be utilized and market financing can be attracted. Lastly, there is a presentation and discussion about practical application of Green Public Procurement and its relevance to the national EE policies.

The presentations will be followed by a discussion about barriers and challenges that local administrations face in the successful implementation and financing of EE projects, and how to overcome them through creating trust in the financial institutions. The discussion will be based on the following questions:

• What are the main obstacles and barriers (technical and legal) to the introduction of training / enhancement skills clauses for energy efficient construction in the public procurement in Bulgaria?
• What are the main barriers to attracting private financing for public building renovation in your experience?
• What measures / tools are needed to overcome these barriers? Which are the main stakeholders/ partners that would commit to such measures?
• Which are the most important public institutions that need to be informed about the benefits of the GPP?

Which stakeholders are not yet sufficiently involved?

Each building renovation project is based on an energy audit in which a technical and financial assessment of the implementation of possible energy efficiency measures is made. Based on this assessment, organizations apply for funding under various programs. As the project approval is based on the recommendations given in the energy audit, the technical design and the implementation of the measures follow these recommendations. Even if better technical solutions are available or there are inaccuracies in the energy audit it is difficult to update the project as it is approved on the basis of the energy audit itself.

Unfortunately, at this stage a large percentage of the developed energy audits are not of the required quality, mistakes are often made, and the level of ambition of the proposed measures is low. This leads to distortion of the final results, respectively to compromised implementation of the building renovation projects.

The working group that includes a representative from Sustainable Energy Development Agency and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Sources Fund, will discuss the common problems and errors within the energy audits and the current state of the energy certification schemes, looking for solutions to improve their quality in order to increase the trust of the financing institutions, and, respectively, the application of audits and energy certificates in the actual structuring of the projects.

The discussion will be based on the following questions.

• What is and what should be the role of energy audits in the building renovation projects?
• What could be the role of the digital services in energy certification process?
• Do energy auditors have the capacity and experience? To what extent does this affect the quality of the audits?
• Do the available certification schemes have any impact on the projects’ design and financing?
• How to increase the end-user demand for professional advice?
• Which specific instruments should we discuss during our next meetings?

The roundtable will be concluded with presentations on the outcomes of the three parallel sessions, which would then be discussed among an expert panel consisting of representatives of executive bodies (Sustainable Energy Development Agency), financing institutions (National Trust Eco Fund) business and professional associations (Bulgarian Industrial Association, Bulgarian Facility Management Association), industry chambers (Bulgarian Construction Chamber), and local authorities (EcoEnergy/Gabrovo Municipality). The session will be chaired by a representative of Habitat Bulgaria, an institution providing micro-crediting for building renovation for low-income households, thus having an excellent understanding of the most widely cited barriers to building renovation. The questions to be discussed are: 1) Impressions from the conclusions presented by the facilitators of the parallel sessions and key topics to be addressed in the following roundtables.

2) Key issues that need to enter from the professional discussions into the political and media discourse to initiate the necessary reforms in energy efficiency policies.

3) Important stakeholders who are not yet actively involved in the debate on energy efficiency policies and programs and further steps in the dissemination of the roundtable’s outcomes.