On Tuesday 14 March, the European Parliament voted for an ambitious and progressive set of amendments to the European Commission’s proposal on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive recast, which will require EU Member States to implement minimum bicycle parking requirements.

The full set of amendments can be seen here and the Committee text here.

For years, ECF has been working hard in our lobbying efforts on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, helping to ensure minimum requirements for bicycle parking in all residential and non-residential buildings are included in the recast – and our work is finally coming to fruition!

On 15 December 2021, the Commission published a decent revision proposal that called for two bike parking spaces for every new residential unit, and one bike parking space for every car parking space in non-residential buildings with over 20 car parking spaces (or five car parking spaces for all new/renovated non-residential buildings).

Also included, however, was an “opt-out” clause which allows Member States to adjust non-residential requirements “where bicycles are typically less used as a means of transport”, and to just “ensure as many bicycle parking spaces as appropriate” in renovated residential buildings where “two bicycle parking spaces for every dwelling is not feasible”.

We thought that this opt-out was too easy on Member States work around minimum bike parking spaces and we lobbied the European Parliament and Council members to rectify this.

The Council of the EU published their General Approach in October 2022, calling for “bicycle parking spaces represent(ing) at least 15% of the average user capacity of the building”, for every new/renovated non-residential building with over five car parking spaces and the same for all other non-residential building over 20 parking spaces by January 2027. The Council kept the same specifications as the Commission for residential buildings. However, they also kept the “opt-out” clause similar to the Commission for both residential and non-residential.

The European Parliament, led by the Rapporteur representing the Green Party of Ireland MEP Ciaran Cuffe, has steered an impressive list of amendments that was voted on by the Parliament plenary on 14 March. This time the amendments call for 15% of total user capacity rather than the Council's average user capacity for non-residential buildings. There is also space for larger bikes and cargo bikes included and also charging infrastructure for power-assisted bikes. However, the opt-out clauses also give local authorities a say in whether the opt-out can be triggered.

The three institutions will now go into “trilogue” negotiations to come to a negotiated consensus on the final text. We will be following, providing feedback and recommendations as much as we can, and lobbying for better requirements right to the end.

Want to learn more about cycling and the EPBD revision? You can see more information on the Energy Performance of Buildings and ECF’s work on the subject here: ecf.com/what-we-do/making-buildings-fit-cycling

Join our session on bringing bike parking to the next level at Velo-city Leipzig 2023! Register here.