With Estonia's approval, the European Union updated its Energy Efficiency Directive just two and a half years ago, with one of its aims being to help promote the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

For example, a requirement is due to take effect at the start of next year under which larger non-residential buildings would have to provide an electric vehicle charging point for every 10 parking spaces. Alternatively, every second parking space would have to be equipped with cable conduits through which the necessary cables for EV charging could be installed in the future.

Nele Peil, head of the Estonian Traders Association, said a year and a half ago that if Estonia were to meet the minimum requirements set out in the directive, installing such charging infrastructure would cost businesses between €500 million and €2 billion.

Prime Minister Kristen Michal also said at the time that if a change, such as installing cable conduits in parking lots, was not reasonable, the requirements should be renegotiated with the European Commission.

The Ministry of Climate has now decided that this provision of EU law should not be transposed, which is why it is absent from a draft law the ministry sent to stakeholders for feedback on Monday.

Ivo Jaanisoo, deputy secretary general at the Ministry of Climate, said Estonia's proposal to the European Commission is to ease the requirement to install charging points in large parking lots.

"After consulting with business organizations and looking at how technology has developed since the directive was agreed, we do not see it as possible to implement the new regulation in Estonia in this form. What is more important for promoting electric vehicles and sustainable transport in general is ensuring that the grid capacity is there in the first place, in order to support existing market practices," Jaanisoo said.

Jaanisoo said all member states are currently behind schedule in transposing the EU directive and Estonia hopes there are other countries that will also decline to transpose the requirements concerning charging infrastructure. For now, however, that remains only a hope, as it is not yet known to what extent other countries will transpose the requirements.

"Based on our discussions with other countries, we see that this may not be as high a priority or as pressing an issue elsewhere. Many countries have placed a strong priority on electric vehicle charging infrastructure and also have large numbers of electric vehicles," Jaanisoo said.

Peil said the Estonian Traders Association welcomes the Ministry of Climate's plan, although some companies have probably already begun actively complying with the directive's requirements, for example by installing cables for EV charging in their parking lots. She said those companies would also benefit if the requirement is ultimately dropped.

"Overall, this is good for them too. If the choice is between having to make this investment across 100 percent of your parking lots and bearing that cost, versus having already completed 20 percent but now avoiding the additional costs for the remaining 80 percent, then overall, it is still better than the alternative of having to do 100 percent," Peil said.

According to the Estonian Transport Administration, there are nearly 12,300 electric cars in Estonia, accounting for less than 2 percent of all passenger cars.

The Ministry of Climate is accepting stakeholder feedback on its proposed amendments to the Building Code through September 28.

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