European Building Regulations in 2026 - The CPR Revision and the EPBD Recast

Editorial note: reviewed and corrected on 3 July 2026 against the published instruments. Figures that could not be verified against the legislation have been removed or corrected.

Two pieces of European legislation are reshaping practice for building professionals in 2026. The revised Construction Products Regulation changes how products are declared, marked and documented. The recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive changes what buildings must achieve and when. Both carry direct consequences for fire safety engineers, facilities managers, healthcare engineers and industrial engineers in Ireland.

The revised Construction Products Regulation

Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 was published in the Official Journal on 18 December 2024. It entered into force on 7 January 2025. Most provisions apply from 8 January 2026. It repeals Regulation (EU) No 305/2011, with transitional arrangements running for some years. This is the most significant revision of the construction products regime since 2011.

The headline changes are threefold. First, mandatory environmental declarations: from 8 January 2026, manufacturers within the first tranche must declare Global Warming Potential for products under Annex II categories (a) to (d). Categories (e) to (m) follow from 9 January 2030. Full life-cycle environmental reporting applies from 9 January 2032. Second, Digital Product Passports: a digital record of each product's performance, safety and environmental data. Third, expanded CE marking and updated Declarations of Performance. Concrete, steel and insulation are priority families because of their embodied carbon.

One nuance matters in practice. Each product family comes under the new regime only when its harmonised technical specification is adopted. Obligations therefore arrive family by family, not all at once. The European Commission published the first CPR Working Plan for 2026 to 2029 in December 2025, setting the order of priorities. In Ireland, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is the designated Single Liaison Point for construction products.

The recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

Directive (EU) 2024/1275 entered into force on 28 May 2024. Member States, including Ireland, must transpose it by 29 May 2026. The European Commission published supporting guidance in 2024 and 2025 to assist implementation.

The key obligations are as follows. All new public buildings must be zero-emission from 2028, and all other new buildings from 2030. For non-residential buildings, national minimum energy performance standards must be in place by 1 January 2027. These must drive renovation of the worst-performing 16% of the stock by 2030, and 26% by 2033. For housing, the approach is a national trajectory rather than per-building standards: average primary energy use must fall by at least 16% by 2030 and by 20 to 22% by 2035, with at least 55% of the reduction coming from the worst-performing 43% of the stock. Each Member State must prepare a National Building Renovation Plan with targets for 2030, 2040 and 2050, including a roadmap to phase out fossil fuel boilers by 2040. Solar installation obligations are staged, beginning with new non-residential buildings from the end of 2026.

The directive also brings whole-life carbon into law. Life-cycle Global Warming Potential must be calculated and disclosed for new buildings over 1,000 square metres from 2028, and for all new buildings from 2030. Member States must publish roadmaps introducing GWP limits by 1 January 2027. Ireland has started: the SEAI consulted between April and May 2025 on the national life-cycle GWP calculation methodology and an embodied carbon database of building materials.

What this means for IIESMS members

Facilities management: renovation targets and zero-emission requirements will drive sustained demand for energy management and building performance competence. Fire safety: retrofit work — external insulation, window replacement, heating change-outs — carries fire safety implications that must be assessed alongside the energy case, and product specifications must reference the correct classifications as the CPR transition proceeds. Healthcare engineering: clinical environments must hold ventilation, temperature and medical gas standards while meeting energy obligations. Industrial engineering: manufacturing facilities face the same renovation and performance pressures with production constraints on top. The relevant IIESMS sector groups provide CPD and peer discussion on each of these fronts.

References

Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 — Construction Products Regulation, EUR-Lex · First CPR Working Plan 2026–2029, European Commission, December 2025 · Directive (EU) 2024/1275 — Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (recast), EUR-Lex · Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage — Construction Products Regulation 2024, gov.ie · Climate Change Advisory Council — EPBD factsheet · European Commission — Energy Performance of Buildings Directive pages.