Implementing the EPBD at the EESC: REHVA Brussels Summit 2025

General overview

Brussels Summit 2025 marks a step change for REHVA. For the first time, the Policy Conference will take place in an EU institutional venue: the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), in partnership with its Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society (TEN). The EESC is the EU’s advisory body representing organised civil society and issuing opinions to the Commission, the Council and the Parliament, acting as a bridge between policymakers and stakeholders. Within the EESC, Section TEN focuses on energy, transport, infrastructure and the information society, convening expertise that feeds into EU policy. By hosting the Summit at the EESC, REHVA underlines its role in structured, evidence-based dialogue at a decisive moment for Europe’s buildings.

Session I

Session I focuses on IEQ provisions and policies in the recast EPBD, with a spotlight on the Commission’s implementation support package adopted on 30 June 2025. This package — a Commission Notice with a suite of annexes — translates the directive’s new or substantially modified provisions into practical guidance for Member States. It covers zero-emission buildings, solar in buildings, mobility infrastructure, financial incentives and one-stop shops, and, crucially for this audience, “Technical building systems, indoor environmental quality and inspections” (Annex 10).

Engineers need the operational brief. The Commission’s June 2025 EPBD guidance makes IEQ a deliverable across design, commissioning and operation: set explicit targets for ventilation, air quality, temperature and moisture alongside energy; specify the control and monitoring functions that ensure they’re met; plan acceptance tests at handover; and expect periodic inspections of technical building systems against the same criteria.

The session opens with Robert Nuij, Head of Unit B.3 “Buildings & Products” at DG ENER, presenting the Commission’s perspective on IEQ in the EPBD and on the support package. A second keynote brings the voice of one of the EU co-legislators — from the European Parliament or the Council — on how to achieve higher IEQ and energy efficiency in practice. A third keynote, by REHVA Vice-President Jarek Kurnitski, sets out REHVA’s proposals and suggested solutions for operationalising IEQ under the EPBD, including recommendations on metrics, monitoring and system-level design.

A panel then connects policy with delivery. Moderated by Jarek Kurnitski, REHVA Vice President,  it brings together DG ENER Unit B.3, representatives from the EU legislators, REHVA Vice-President Harm Valk, Gusts Kossovics of eu.bac, and Céline Carré from Saint-Gobain’s European Public Affairs team — a line-up that mirrors REHVA’s ecosystem of technical expertise, building automation and controls, and building-fabric performance. Their links to REHVA are long-standing, through collaborative guidance and standardisation work; the discussion will probe how Annexe 10 lands in national rules and day-to-day engineering: specifying and commissioning ventilation and controls, documenting IEQ in EPC-linked processes, and aligning inspections with design intent.

Session II

Session II turns to building affordability and energy poverty in the current EU legislature. The policy context is evolving quickly: the recast EPBD sets a transposition deadline of 29 May 2026 and embeds affordability and social outcomes across renovation planning, incentives and advisory services; on 30 June 2025 the Commission also issued guidance on financial incentives, skills, market barriers and one-stop shops to support Member States’ delivery; and, in parallel, the Commission’s Housing Task Force is coordinating inputs for the first European Affordable Housing Plan through a dedicated 2025 dialogue. For engineers, this signals that social and cost outcomes are now part of the same framework that defines technical performance and inspections.

Keynotes in Session II include insights from the European Parliament or Council, Stefan Moser from the Commission’s Housing Task Force, and a REHVA intervention by Vice-President Johann Zirngibl together with Jana Bendzalova of the EPB Center. The Housing Task Force, established in February 2025 and led by Matthew Baldwin and Stefan Moser, is tasked with preparing the Affordable Housing Plan and aligning instruments across services, with a focus on affordability, investment and delivery pathways. REHVA’s contribution will connect affordability and energy poverty with concrete HVAC choices, commissioning practices, advisory services and one-stop shops that make high-quality renovation accessible at scale.

The panel, moderated by Johann Zirngibl, then deepens the policy-to-practice link. Alongside the Parliament/Council keynote and Stefan Moser, the discussion features Jana Bendzalova, REHVA Vice-President Pedro Vincente Quiles, and EVIA Chairman Pierre Cruveillé. Together, they cover law-making priorities, EU-level coordination on housing, technical standards, national delivery and the ventilation industry’s role in healthy, efficient and affordable homes. For practitioners, the takeaway is that affordability is not an add-on: it shapes how ventilation, heating and controls are specified, financed, commissioned and inspected across the renovation wave.

Session III

Session III, From Data to Deal: Unlocking Building Renovation Financing, doubles as the final event of the ENERGATE project[1] — a digital marketplace designed to move renovation projects from data to investable deals. Coordinated by the National Technical University of Athens, ENERGATE offers an ICT-enabled platform where building owners, implementers, financiers and public bodies can share structured project data, package and aggregate pipelines, streamline due diligence and matchmaking, and standardise information flows. In engineering terms, this means a clearer route from audit and design specifications to financial close, with templates and data points that reduce friction and perceived risk.

At the Summit, NTUA’s Katerina Papasdopoulou and Ioanna Andreoulaki will present the ENERGATE marketplace and its outputs, followed by a forward-looking segment on the platform’s future by Csaba de Csiky, Chairman & Senior Partner at EnerSave Capital. The panel brings together BELIMO, the European Savings and Retail Banking Group (ESBG), the European Federation of Intelligent Energy Efficiency Services (EFIEES) and COMMUTY to explore how standardised data, aggregation and risk-mitigation tools can translate technical performance into bankable projects. Earlier roll-outs have highlighted ENERGATE’s user profiles for building owners, implementers and financiers, clarifying what each party needs to progress from concept to deal flow.

Conclusion

By convening at the EESC with Section TEN, REHVA anchors technical expertise within an institutional debate at the exact moment when guidance has turned from legislative text to engineering reality. Session I drills into IEQ under the EPBD’s June package and shows how it lands in the spec, the test plan and the O&M file. Session II aligns affordability and energy poverty with the nuts and bolts of HVAC design, commissioning and inspections. Session III shows how platforms like ENERGATE can move standardised project data through to financiers. The result is a coherent programme that speaks to engineers and policymakers alike — and a Summit designed to make the transition to zero-emission, healthy and affordable buildings both practicable and investable.