Buildings are the single largest energy consumer in Europe. Energy is needed to keep them warm in winter and cool in summer, ensuring livability and comfort.
Key facts on energy and EU buildings
85% of EU buildings were built before 2000 and 75% have poor energy performance. Improving the energy performance of existing buildings is therefore key to saving energy, reducing bills for citizens and enterprises, and achieving a zero-emission and fully decarbonised building stock by 2050. Yet the annual energy renovation rate remains very low at 1%.
These facts, and those below, come from Eurostat energy balances and EEA Greenhouse Gas Inventory, 2023.
Revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive
The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU/2024/1275, EPBD) will need to be transposed into national laws by 29 May 2026.
The implementation of the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, published in May 2024, will strengthen energy independence and energy security, lead to lower energy bills and healthier living conditions, and reduce grid investment needs. It will help the EU to achieve the energy efficiency goal of reducing energy consumption by 11.7% by 2030 and stimulate the roll-out of renewables in buildings. It will also enhance the competitiveness of the EU’s construction industry and clean tech companies and contribute to making housing more sustainable and affordable.
It focuses on increasing the rate of renovation in the EU, particularly for the worst-performing buildings in each country and covers 4 focus areas
Each EU country will develop its own national building renovation plan, setting out the national strategy to decarbonise the building stock, including areas such as financing and training skilled workers. Those plans will be tailored to the national building stock and circumstances, and build upon the current long-term renovation strategies.
For the non-residential building stock, the EPBD gradually introduces minimum energy performance standards, based on nationally determined thresholds. This will trigger the renovation of the 16% worst-performing buildings by 2030 and of the 26% worst-performing buildings by 2033.
For the residential building stock, each EU country will adopt its own national trajectory to reduce the average primary energy use of residential buildings by 16% by 2030 and 20-22% by 2035, allowing for sufficient flexibility to take into account national circumstances. EU countries are free to choose which buildings to target and which measures to take, as long as at least 55% of the decrease of the average primary energy use is achieved through the renovation of the worst-performing buildings.
Recognising the differences across EU countries, as regards the existing building stock, geography and climate, the directive allows governments to decide on the renovation measures best-suited to their specific national context. Countries can also exempt various categories of buildings from renovation requirements, including historical buildings and holiday homes.
Information tools will support building owners in their renovation journey. Strengthened energy performance certificates (EPCs), based on a common template and common criteria for energy performance classes, will ensure citizens’ awareness about the energy performance of the building they inhabit, and help mobilise financing by banks. The newly introduced building renovation passports will guide building owners who wish to carry out an energy renovation in several steps.
The revised directive makes zero-emission buildings the new standard for new buildings. EU countries will also have to ensure that new buildings are solar-ready, meaning fit to host photovoltaic or solar thermal installations.
Installing solar energy installations will become the norm for new buildings and their installation will gradually be rolled out for certain existing non-residential buildings where this makes sense.
Boilers powered by fossil fuels will gradually be phased out, starting with the end of financial incentives for stand-alone boilers powered by fossil fuels from 1 January 2025.
Through the calculation of whole life-cycle carbon emissions for new buildings, embodied emissions will also be considered.
The take-up of sustainable mobility is boosted through provisions on recharging points for electric vehicles and bicycle parking spaces. Recharging points will have to enable smart charging and, where appropriate, bi-directional charging.
The directive also introduces requirements for building automation and control in non-residential buildings and provisions to ensure good indoor environmental quality in new and existing buildings.
Energy performance certificates will be become digital, and data on the national building stock will become available via national energy performance databases
The revised directive ensures more targeted financing for investments in buildings, fighting energy poverty through a focus on supporting vulnerable households. EU countries must also provide for safeguards for tenants, such as through rent support or caps on rent increases.
One-stop shops will provide technical assistance to building owners who need advice on building renovation.
Energy performance of buildings
The energy performance of a building reflects its typical energy use and takes into account
- the building envelope, notably insulation and windows
- the efficiency of the building’s systems, in particular heating, cooling and domestic hot water
- the use of renewable energy, for example via solar panels
Investments in buildings’ energy performance help stimulate the economy, support EU industrial sectors and create more green jobs.
The EU’s construction industry contributes around 9.6% of the EU’s value added and employs almost 25 million people in approximately 5.3 million firms. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular benefit from a boosted renovation market, as they make up 99% of EU construction companies and 90% of the employment in the sector.
Source: European Commission reports 2020 -2021.
Secondary legislation and Commission guidance
On 30 June 2025, the Commission adopted a support package to help EU countries implementing and transposing the directive into national law.
Based on the changes made in the directive as part of the European Green Deal, the package offers practical guidance as EU countries look to transpose the directive into national law by May 2026.
The 20 documents of the package are listed below
- Communication - EPBD guidance (C/2025/4132)
- Article 7(2) and (5): Life-cycle global warming potential of new buildings
- Articles 7 and 11: Zero-emission buildings
- Article 9: Minimum energy performance standards for non-residential buildings and trajectories for the progressive renovation of residential buildings
- Article 10: Solar energy in buildings
- Annex 12: Common general framework for the calculation of the energy performance of buildings
- Article 12, Annex VIII: Renovation passport
- Article 14: Infrastructure for sustainable mobility
- Article 13, Annex II: Fossil fuel boilers
- Articles 13, 23 and 24: Technical building systems, indoor environmental quality and inspections
- Article 16: Data exchange
- Article 17 and 18: One-stop shops, financial incentives, skills and market barriers
- Articles 19-21, Annex V and Article 27, Annex VI: Energy performance certificates and independent control systems
- Article 22: Databases for the energy performance of buildings
Previously, the Commission already issued a first guidance document (October 2024) clarifying the requirement pursuant to Article 17(15) to discontinue, at the latest from 1 January 2025, any financial incentives for the installation of new stand-alone boilers powered by fossil fuels.
The guidance on the revised EPBD published in 2024 and 2025 replaces the 2 recommendations published in 2019, which included guidance for EU countries related to the amending Directive (2018/844/EC).
Timeline
- 31 December 2026EU countries submit their final national building renovation plans
- 29 May 2026General transposition deadline
- 31 December 2025EU countries submit their draft national building renovation plans
- 1 January 2025Transposition deadline for Article 17(15) on phasing out financial incentives for the installation of boilers powered by fossil fuels
- 28 May 2024
The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) entered into force
- 8 May 2024
The revised Directive was published in the Official Journal of the EU
- December 2023
Provisional agreement between the co-legislators on the EPBD revision
- October 2022
- May 2022
REPowerEU Plan, including the EU ‘Save Energy’ Communication
- December 2021
- October 2020
- May 2018
The first version of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) was published in 2002 (Directive 2002/91/EC). It was recast in 2010 as Directive 2010/31/EU and amended in 2018 as part of the Clean energy for all Europeans package.
In October 2020, the Commission presented its Renovation Wave strategy, as part of the European Green Deal. It contains an action plan with concrete regulatory, financing and enabling measures to boost building renovations. The strategy aims to at least double the annual energy renovation rate of buildings by 2030 and foster deep renovation; revising and strengthening of the EPBD is one of its key building blocks.
The Delivering the European Green Deal (or ‘Fit for 55’) package, presented in July 2021, further emphasised the importance of building renovation. It contains instruments which work hand in hand with the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, such as the emissions trading system for fuels used in buildings, the revised Energy Efficiency Directive, the revised Renewable Energy Directive and the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation. The implementation of the Social Climate Fund , also part of the package, will support vulnerable citizens and small businesses in the green transition, including through the renovation of buildings, clean heating and cooling and the integration of more renewable energy.
The Commission published its proposal for a revision of the directive in December 2021. It sought to upgrade the existing regulatory framework to reflect a higher ambition and a more pressing need for climate and social action.
The REPowerEU plan, adopted in May 2022, further highlighted the need to improve the energy performance of the EU's building stock to reduce Europe’s dependence on fossil fuel imports.
On 7 December 2023, the co-legislators reached a provisional agreement on the revision. The directive was published in the EU Official Journal on 8 May 2024 and entered into force 20 days later.
Energy performance of buildings standards
The Commission has established a set of standards and accompanying technical reports to support the directive called the energy performance of buildings standards (EPB standards). These are managed by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN).
- News: Commission sets the EU’s building sector on a pathway towards greater energy efficiency and decarbonisation (30/06/2025)
- News: Commission moves to facilitate preparation of National Building Renovation Plans (02/06/2025)
- Commission issues guidance on phasing out financing for stand-alone fossil fuel boilers from 2025 (17/10/2024)
- Article: In focus: Energy efficient buildings - delivering energy and cost savings for EU citizens (16/04/2024)
- Energy Performance of Buildings Directive adopted to bring down energy bills and reduce emissions (12/04/2024)
- New rules to boost energy performance of buildings (7/12/2023)
- Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU/2024/1275)
- Implementing regulation on optional scheme for rating smart readiness of buildings C(2020) 6929 | Annex
- Delegated regulation on optional scheme for rating smart readiness of buildings C(2020) 6930 | Annex
- Amending Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2018/844/EU)
- Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2010/31/EU)
- Consolidated version of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2010/31/EU)
- Renovation wave communication COM 2020 662 final | Staff working document SWD(2020) 550 final
- Build up - The European portal for energy efficiency in buildings
- Concerted Action EPBD forum