All EU countries must establish a long-term renovation strategy to support the renovation of their national building stock into a highly energy efficient and decarbonised building stock by 2050.
The requirement for EU countries to adopt a long-term renovation strategy is set out in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2010/31/EU), which was revised in 2018 (2018/844/EU). These strategies are part of EU countries’ integrated national energy and climate plans (NECPS).
The long-term renovation strategies must include an overview of the national building stock policies and actions to stimulate a cost-effective deep renovation of buildings and target the worst performing buildings, split-incentive dilemmas, market failures, energy poverty and public buildings. An overview of national initiatives to promote smart technologies and skills and education in the construction and energy efficiency sectors is also a key part of these strategies.
The strategies must also include a roadmap with measures and measurable progress indicators, as well as indicative milestones for 2030, 2040 and 2050. They also need to contain an estimate of the expected energy savings and wider benefits and the contribution of the renovation of buildings to the Union's energy efficiency target.
A solid financial component is key to underpin long-term renovation strategies, particularly through an effective use of public funding, aggregation and de-risking.
Building renovation plans
The Commission proposed in December 2021 to review the current framework within the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and suggested to strengthen the long-term renovation strategies towards 'Building renovation plans'. These national plans should be submitted every 5 years, following the submission of a draft plan, and should have clear and specific chapters, based on a common template. The plans will include national targets (instead of indicative milestones) in a more unified and comparable approach, an outline of the investment needs for their implementation and an overview of policies and measures.
Building renovation plans will be aligned with the Governance Regulation framework but will be better synchronised with the national energy and climate plans.
On 7 December 2023, the co-legislators reached a provisional agreement on the EPBD revision, that will go through the formal adoption process in early 2024.
National long-term renovation strategies 2020
The national long-term renovation strategies provided important input to the Renovation Wave for Europe announced in October 2020 as part of the European Green Deal, aiming to take further action and create the necessary conditions to scale up renovations and reap out the significant saving potential of the building sector.
The 2020 strategies (article 2A of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) are available in national language and English in the list below.
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in German – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy for Brussels – in French – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy for Flanders – in Dutch – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy for Wallonia – in French – translated in English
Annex – in French – in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Bulgarian – translated in English
Annexes in Bulgarian: 1, 2, 3 – translated in English: 1, 2, 3
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Croatian – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Greek – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Czech – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Danish – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Estonian – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Finnish – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in French – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in German – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Greek – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Hungarian – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Italian – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Latvian – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Lithuanian – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Luxembourgish – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Dutch – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Polish – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Portuguese – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Romanian – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Slovak – translated in English
Annex: in Slovak – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Slovenian – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Spanish – translated in English
2020 long-term building renovation strategy – in Swedish – translated in English
With a view to share best practices among EU countries, the Commission developed a Staff Working Document (SWD/2022/375) analysing the national long-term renovation strategies 2020 for all EU countries. The strategies and their assessment were a key input to the National Recovery and Resilience Plans, where energy-efficient buildings renovation has a prominent place.
National long-term renovation strategies 2014 and 2017
In 2014 and 2017, the strategies showed how EU countries planned to foster investment in the renovation of residential and commercial buildings.
The long-term renovation strategies (article 4 of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) 2014 (and the update 2017) are available in the list below.
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in German – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in German – translated in English
See Annex B of each regional NEEAP
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy for Brussels – in French
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy for Flanders – in Dutch – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy for Wallonia – in French
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Bulgarian – translated in English See Annex 2 of the NEEAP
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Bulgarian – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Croatian – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Croatian – in English See section 3.2.2 of the NEEAP
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Greek – translated in English See chapter 3.2 and Annex F of the NEEAP
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Greek – translated in English
See Annex F of the NEEAP in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Czech – translated English See chapter 3.2.1 of the NEEAP
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Czech – translated in English See Annex 4 of the NEEAP
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Danish – translated in English
Annex - in Danish – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – Annex B of the NEEAP translated in English
Annex C of the NEEAP translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Estonian – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Estonian – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Finnish – translated in English See Annex 5 of the NEEAP
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Finnish – translated in English See Annex 4 of the NEEAP
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in French – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in French – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in German – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in German – translated in English See chapter 3.5 of the NEEAP
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Greek – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Greek – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Hungarian – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Hungarian – translated in English | in Hungarian –translated English See section 3.3.1 of the NEEAP
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in English | in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Italian – translated in English See chapter 3.2.2 of the NEEAP
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Italian – translated in English See Annex 1 NEEAP
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Latvian – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Latvian – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Lithuanian – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Lithuanian – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in German – translated in English See chapter 3.2.1 and Annex A of the NEEAP
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in German – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Maltese
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Maltese
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Dutch – translated in English See chapter 3.1.8 of the NEEAP
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Dutch – translated in English | in Dutch See Annex II of the NEEAP
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Polish – translated in English See chapter 3.2.1 of the NEEAP
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Polish version – translated in English See Annex 3 of the NEEAP
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Portuguese
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Portuguese – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Romanian – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Romanian – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Slovakian – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Slovakian – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Slovenian – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Slovenian – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Spanish – translated in English
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Spanish – translated in English
2014 long-term building renovation strategy – in Swedish – translated in English See Annex 3 of the NEEAP
2017 updated long-term building renovation strategy – in Swedish – translated in English See Annex 5 of the NEEAP
2014 – Transposition note for Article 24 of the Energy Efficiency Directive – Building renovation strategy Gibraltar
UK 2017 long-term building renovation strategy (annex A and C ) – in English – 2018 update of the building renovation strategy - in English
Related Links
- Consolidated version of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2010/31/EU)
- Assessment of the first long-term renovation strategies under the Energy Performance of Building Directive (Art. 2a) (December 2022)
- Recommendation on building renovation ((EU) 2019/786)
- Assessment of second long-term renovation strategies under the Energy Efficiency Directive (2019)
- Comprehensive study of building energy renovation activities and the uptake of nearly zero-energy buildings in the EU (2019)
- Synthesis report on the assessment of Member States' building renovation strategies (2016)