The purpose of the Directive is to establish a common framework of measures to promote energy efficiency within the European Union in order to ensure that the EU’s 2030 headline targets on energy efficiency of at least 32,5 % are met and paves the way for further energy efficiency improvements beyond those dates. 

The Directive consists of the number of important measures, covered by different Articles. Besides Article 7, describing the obligation schemes for energy companies to achieve yearly energy savings in annual sales to final consumers or to achieve energy savings equivalent annual reduction in national energy sales, the measures include:

Energy audits are an essential tool to achieve energy savings. They are necessary to assess the existing energy consumption and identify the whole range of opportunities to save energy. This should then result in proposals of concrete saving measures for the management, public authorities or home owners.

Learn more on Article 8 implementation by following the projects:

The EU-funded DEESME project will develop a new approach to enable SMEs to manage their energy transition in line with EU policies. It will provide national authorities with guideline proposals and recommendations on how to strengthen the national schemes. To assist SMEs to develop and test the technical DEESME solutions, the project will organise information and training events. It will conduct energy audits and implement energy management systems.

LEAP4SME aims to support Member States in establishing or improving effective policies for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to undergo energy audits and implement cost-effective, recommended energy-saving measures through identifying the barriers for unlocking energy efficiency measures, mobilising private stakeholders, and proposing effective solutions to realise both energy and non-energy benefits.

Energy efficiency measures have positive impact on not only the energy savings and emission reduction, but also on air pollution, health, and ecosystems, resource consumption, the economy and energy security.

If you'd like to know more on what are the multiple benefits of energy efficiency, read:

The objective of the MICAT project is the development of a comprehensive approach to estimate Multiple Impacts of Energy Efficiency. MICAT will enable analyses at three different governance levels (local, national and EU) to address a broad target group and interested actors.

The COMBI project aimed at quantifying the multiple non-energy benefits of energy efficiency. It gathered existing approaches and evidence from the EU area, developed modelling approaches and came up with consolidated data on different benefits such as emissions (effects on health, ecosystems, crops, built environment), resources (biotic/abiotic, metals and non-metals), social welfare (disposable income, comfort, health), macroeconomy (labor market, public finance, GDP), and the energy system (grid, supply-side, energy security)

Articles 4&5 deal with:

• EU countries making energy efficient renovations to at least 3% per year of buildings owned and occupied by central governments
• national long-term renovation strategies for the building stock in each EU country
• mandatory energy efficiency certificates accompanying the sale and rental of buildings

Learn more on Articles 4&5 implementation by following the projects:

The Horizon2020 funded project QualDeEPC aims to enhance (1) the quality and cross-EU convergence of Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) schemes, and (2) the link between EPCs and deep renovation.

Each Member State has to indicate national energy efficiency target, based on either primary or final energy consumption, primary or final energy savings, or energy intensity.

Learn more on how Member states define and calculate achieved savings by  following: