Last April, the legislative work of recasting the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) finally came to a conclusion, with the official adoption and publication of the new directive in the EU Official Journal as Directive (EU) 2024/1275. EBC has welcomed the successful ending of the process and called for a quality implementation to the benefit of all actors active in the built environment, in particular construction SMEs and crafts.
With the new EPBD entering into force in the coming days, national governments are preparing for the transposition work, which is set to last for up to two years. At the same time, work is not stopping at the European level, be it on secondary acts stemming from the new EPBD, standardisation work in the European Committee for Standardisation CEN, or ongoing initiatives stemming from EU-funded projects. EBC is actively participating and contributing to the various relevant fora, bringing forward the perspective of its small construction companies active in the renovation market.
 | On 14 May, EBC participated in the final event “Looking to the future with BuiltHub” of the homonymous Horizon 2020 project. BuiltHub aims at supporting policy and market decision-making through a continuously community-enhanced evidence base focusing on how to achieve a sustained data flow to decide on building-related policy and business. The question of the continuous improvement of the existing EU Building Stock Observatory was explored. |
| On 22 May, EBC joined the meeting organised by the European Commission’s DG ENER on the Guidance on phasing-out financial incentives for stand-alone boilers powered by fossil fuels. According to the recast EPBD, national governments are set to phase-out the said incentives by January 2025, with the Commission aiming to assist them in this task with the said guidance providing necessary but non-legally binding clarifications at EU level. |  |
 | Today, EBC participated in the Conference “Next Generation Energy Performance Certificates”, co-hosted by four sister H2020 projects, namely EPC RECAST, crossCert, EUB SuperHub and iBRoad2EPC. EBC Senior Policy Officer Spyros Mathioudakis contributed the points of view of Construction SMEs and crafts on the role of Energy Performance Certificates, Building Renovation Passports, and Digital Building Logbooks to achieve a zero-emission building stock by 2050. |
| Last but not least, EBC will be participating in the upcoming Plenary meeting of CEN/TC 371 ‘Energy performance of buildings’, to be held in Paris on 30 May. The work of aptly updating, where necessary, the European standardisation framework pursuant to the energy performance of buildings will be key in ensuring the necessary support for all actors, especially SMEs, to deliver the new EPBD ambition. |  |
EBC will continue to monitor developments stemming from the recast EPBD considering the need of support the transposition phase to national legislation.