EU countries are transposing the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), with a different approach to Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) and renovation trajectories. This living news provides an overview of how these measures are being implemented across Europe.
As the 2024 recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) is being transposed, Member States across the EU are beginning to define and roll out their strategies for implementing Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) and progressive renovation trajectories. While the Directive sets the legal framework, each country is taking its own path, with varying timelines, enforcement mechanisms, and levels of ambition.
This news item provides a regularly updated review of how Member States have already introduced analogous measures to Article 9 of the EPBD into concrete regulations and support schemes (local, regional or national levels). These practical good practices furnish an early indication of how Article 9 might be operationalised, as well as the attendant challenges and successes that are beginning to emerge.
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In Belgium’s Flanders region, minimum energy performance standards have been in force since 2023 for both residential and non-residential buildings. Flanders’ approach is built around the existing Energy Performance Certificate label system:
The Flemish Energy and Climate Agency (VEKA) monitors compliance via the EPC database. If an owner has not met the required EPC level within five years of purchase, VEKA can impose fines ranging from €500 up to €200,000 (the upper end for large non-compliant commercial buildings). Importantly, paying a fine does not cancel the obligation; the owner is given a new deadline and further fines if they still fail to renovate. These strict measures underscore that MEPS are meant to be binding, not just symbolic. Early indications suggest a spike in renovation activity: the threat of penalties and loss of rental income is pushing owners to act. Flanders’ pioneering scheme offers valuable lessons on setting up databases, phasing requirements, and combining carrots and sticks to encourage compliance.
Further information (in Dutch):
France has introduced strong MEPS, particularly focusing on the housing sector. Through the 2021 Climate and Resilience Law, France is phasing out the least efficient homes from the rental market. The timeline is straightforward and ambitious:
This stepwise MEPS for rentals ensures that by the mid-2030s, no tenant in France should be living in a property worse than DPE class D. Already, the 2025 ban on G-rated rentals is looming, affecting an estimated 90,000+ Paris apartments alone. The policy has begun to shake up the market, and many landlords are selling off low-rated units rather than renovating, causing concerns about rental supply. To address social impacts, the government has coupled the MEPS with measures like rent caps (landlords cannot raise rent on F or G properties at lease renewal) and renovation grants, especially for low-income owners. There is an ongoing debate in France about pacing; some lawmakers propose delaying the 2025 deadline to give owners more time, but the overall direction enjoys broad support as a necessary step to eradicate energy poverty and meet climate goals.
On the non-residential side, France has taken a slightly different approach via its ‘Décret Tertiaire’ (Tertiary Decree). Rather than an EPC-based threshold, this 2019 regulation sets relative energy reduction targets for large service-sector buildings (those >1,000 m²). Owners or occupants of commercial and public buildings must reduce the building’s final energy consumption by 40% by 2030, 50% by 2040, and 60% by 2050 (compared to a baseline year between 2010 and 2019). This trajectory aligns with France’s overall climate targets and effectively functions as a MEPS spread over time; if a building’s energy use in 2030 is not 40% lower, the owner is in breach.
Compliance is tracked through an online platform where annual energy data must be reported. While this scheme is separate from the EPBD’s Article 9, it shares the goal of systematically driving deep renovations. In the coming years, France will need to dovetail its national measures (rental bans, tertiary targets) with the new EPBD requirements, updating its strategy in the National Building Renovation Plan accordingly. Together, France’s policies demonstrate a mix of hard bans (for worst homes) and percentage-based targets (for large buildings), offering a rich case study for other countries.
Further information (in French):
The Netherlands is another frontrunner, especially for commercial buildings. As of 1 January 2023, a Dutch regulation stipulates that all office buildings larger than 100 m² must hold at least an EPC label C (energy index ≤1.3) to be used as an office. In practical terms, any large office with a D, E, F or G label is no longer legally occupiable as office space, unless renovated. Local authorities can even revoke occupancy permits for offices that don’t comply, though in practice, many owners choose to upgrade before facing enforcement. This MEPS policy was announced in advance (initially in 2018), allowing a ramp-up period. The result has been dramatic: the share of Dutch office floor area rated A, B, or C leapt from just 31% in 2018 to 78% by mid-2024, as owners responded to the looming deadline. Such a rapid improvement in a short time showcases the effectiveness of a clear mandate. The government attributed this success to extensive stakeholder engagement and communication well before 2023, which prepared the market.
Building on this, the Netherlands is considering stricter steps; there is discussion that by 2030, offices might need to be EPC label A (or even zero-emission) as the next MEPS tier. The residential sector in the Netherlands so far has not seen binding MEPS (aside from the EPBD mandates now coming). Instead, the Dutch approach for homes has been heavy on incentives, generous subsidies for insulation, heat pumps, and a national revolving fund offering low-interest ‘Energiebespaarlening’ (energy-saving loans). These tools have laid the groundwork, but to meet the EPBD’s 2030 trajectory, the Netherlands may soon augment them with mandatory measures. The country’s well-developed EPC database and monitoring systems (including a central registry that was used to enforce the office MEPS) will be an asset in tracking progress. The Dutch experience underscores the importance of data and compliance infrastructure, and how leading by example (the government’s own buildings complied early, and a subsidy program ’DUMAVA’ supports public building retrofits) can push the market. As other Member States design MEPS, many are watching the Netherlands as proof that clear standards + lead time = results.
Further information (in Dutch):
This news item highlights a few good practices of how measures analogous to MEPS and renovation trajectories have already been introduced across Europe. Additional examples will be progressively integrated into this text, especially as more countries advance with their official transposition of Article 9 EPBD.
For readers interested in further case studies, the EU-funded LIFE CET EPBD.wise project has identified other good practices, including Brussels, England and Wales, and Scotland. The EPBD.wise examples will also be progressively integrated into this living news item in future updates.
Do you have examples of national, regional or local legislation, enforcement mechanisms, compliance data, or financial support schemes that are already being used in your country ahead of the official implementation of Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) and progressive renovation pathways?
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The BUILD UP community thrives on knowledge-sharing and collective expertise, so we invite you to provide case studies, reports, or insights that can enrich the understanding of how analogous measures to MEPS and progressive renovation trajectories are being designed, enforced, and supported at national, regional, and local levels.
