The European Parliament approves the agreement reached last December on the EPBD

The plenary session of the European Parliament has voted in favour of the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, one of the final texts of the ‘Fit for 55’ package. Once formally adopted at ministerial level, implementation can begin.

On 12 March, the European Parliament has adopted the political agreement on the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The text was approved with 370 votes in favour, 199 against and 46 abstentions. The political agreement from 7 December 2023 validated the objective of a zero-emission EU building stock by 2050.

A number of intermediate targets have been agreed in order to achieve this goal. For example, for residential buildings, a primary energy reduction of 16% and 20-22% of the total energy consumption of the building stock by 2030 and 2035 respectively. Member States will be required to develop minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) to achieve these targets. In addition, Member States will be required to set up one-stop-shops to provide citizens with access to quality information on renovation paths and financial schemes, and to develop zero-emission standards.

In parallel, the European Commission will work on guidelines for calculating the energy performance of transparent building elements that form part of the building envelope. Glass for Europe looks forward to closely supporting this work to ensure that the specificities of glazing are properly taken into account.

This vote is the penultimate step before the final adoption of the recast directive by EU ministers. The vote is expected to take place around mid-April.

Read also our joint statement with windows stakeholders here.