The President of Ukraine signed the Law ‘On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding the Creation of Conditions for the Introduction of Complex Thermal Modernization of Buildings’ (draft of the law No. 6485). The President announced this during his address to Ukrainians.

In particular, this Law envisages amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Energy Efficiency Fund’, creates new and improves the existing mechanisms of ensuring energy efficiency of buildings, significantly simplifies the process of energy modernization of buildings under the ‘ENERGODIM’ Program. And, what is very important now, creates conditions for the Fund to introduce an energy efficiency program for the renovation of residential buildings damaged as a result of military actions.

‘ We are thankful for supporting this Law, which contains all the proposals of the Fund, prepared in the established order, taking into account the challenges of the military situation. The adoption of this Law is an extremely important step toward energy independence of Ukraine and an important component of the implementation of the National Plan for the Restoration of Ukraine,’ said Ehor Fareniuk, CEO of the Energy Efficiency Fund.

To remind, taking into account the challenges of the military situation, the Fund’s specialists have formulated and submitted relevant proposals to the draft law in accordance with the established procedure. In the present circumstances, there is a need to support co-owners of multi-apartment buildings that were damaged as a result of military actions. This Law was passed by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in the second reading and on July 09, 2022.

Among the key innovations of this Law are:

• - the possibility of paying grants within the framework of the ‘ENERGODIM’ Program in advance, and not just compensation after the fact;
• - the possibility of verification of projects after their completion or after the completion of their individual stages;
• - avoiding duplication of functions of other bodies or participants of the construction process, defined by the normative-legal and technical regulation in construction by the Fund;
• - possibility of providing grants for other activities (services) related to energy efficiency activities;
• - simplification of the decision-making process by the HOAs in the context of the military situation;
• - first of all, expansion of the Fund’s activities - to enable the Fund to participate in the process of restoring the destroyed and damaged housing stock as a result of military actions, etc.

At the same time, as we have already reported, having extensive experience of cooperation with international donor organizations, the Fund has started active work on development of a new grant program, which will provide opportunities for the associations of co-owners of multi-apartment buildings in the form of financial support for the first-rate repairs in damaged buildings. In particular, the Fund intends to provide the participants of this program a grant on a free and non-refundable basis in the amount of 100% of the cost of materials and works.

The draft of such a program is currently being developed and coordinated with international partners, but several important steps need to be taken to launch it: a) to update a number of international agreements (EE4U and EE4UII) and, b) to make appropriate decisions at the level of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine – the European Union.

We hope for understanding and support and believe that we will be able to launch the recovery program in a timely manner, which will become a significant support for co-owners of multi-apartment buildings.