The European Parliament's Energy Committee has voted in favour of a deal on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).

A strong majority of Parliament's political groups approved the deal, including EPP, Renew Europe, S&D, the Greens/EFA, and The Left.

The agreement approved on 09 February was reached on 30 January, in talks chaired by lead negotiator and Greens/EFA MEP Ciarán Cuffe. All 705 MEPs will have the opportunity to vote on this deal during the March plenary session in Strasbourg.

Welcoming the approval, MEP Cuffe said: "The presence of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Parliament today reminds us that we must keep reducing our dependence on Russian energy imports, and tackling high gas consumption by Europe's buildings will have a big impact. Soaring energy prices have put the focus on energy efficiency and saving measures, and improving the performance of Europe's buildings will continuously reduce energy bills and energy import dependency. We want the EPBD to reduce energy poverty, bring down emissions, and provide better indoor environments for people's health. This is also a growth strategy for Europe that will deliver hundreds of thousands of good quality, local jobs while improving the well-being of millions of people living in Europe.

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"The Parliament deal is good for people and the planet. For the first time, we have introduced mandatory Minimum Energy Performance Standards that must be reached by the buildings that waste the most energy. This is a fair approach because it is often the poorest people who live in these buildings, who are most impacted by high energy bills. When we target these buildings, we want to make sure that these people are protected from evictions or high costs - so that is why we have proposed social protections against this in our position. We are determined to protect these achievements as we look towards the March vote in Strasbourg."