Building bridges between grassroots and governance

How can we ensure that the work carried out by the Support Service for Citizen-Led Renovation (CLR) III is aligned with EU and national priorities, reaches decision-makers, and has a concrete impact?

Last 11 June, we hosted the first Policy Board in Brussels, Belgium. Policy officers, experts and policymakers at all levels joined this advocacy body, which aims to turn analytical insights from the initiative into concrete contributions to EU and national legislative processes. Throughout the project's life, the Policy Board will support the embedding and operationalisation of citizen-led renovation within the Fit for 55 legislative framework, particularly throughout the transposition and implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), and Renewable Energy Directive (RED III). 

In this phase, the focus is on national implementation, governance and institutional alignment, financing mechanisms, and the integration of CLR models into National Building Renovation Plans, NECPs, and related strategies.

Takeaways from the ground

The meeting was preceded by preliminary interviews with the 11 enablers taking part in the CLR III project, which highlighted the current state of the art of bottom-up renovation across the project's countries. While funding problems are easy to foresee, the need for professional, long-lasting support is the thing CLR initiatives need the most. More specifically, the interviews revealed that:

• Financial incentives are key, and funds need to be adapted to each specific case. Without structured subsidies, households might not engage in a renovation project.
• Collectives need facilitation capacities and professional support to relieve them of administrative burdens and guide them, especially in the choice and monitoring of contractors.
• Active involvement of local authorities provides legitimacy, anticipates administrative or urban-planning blockages, and supports communication and financing.
• CLR recreates links between neighbours, but group procurement is limited by differing household needs and timelines.
• What makes an initiative "collective" is primarily the existence of joint support, shared expertise, and mutualised engineering.
• Standardisation of work can be difficult even among similar building typologies. Additionally, especially in countries rich in cultural heritage, conflicting objectives may arise between energy performance and heritage protection.

From private investment to citizen empowerment

The renovation of inefficient buildings is clearly linked to other urgent issues, such as housing affordability, energy independence, and public health. The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) is therefore a wake-up call for public authorities to accelerate renovation and put the necessary means in place. The National Building Renovation Plans that every Member State must develop by December 2026 under the EPBD could provide visibility and a roadmap for CLR, including possible dedicated sections on collective initiatives, which Member States should be encouraged to complete, even though this is not mandatory at this stage.

Additionally, the discussion stressed that collectives cannot rely on public finance alone. They should be able to attract private investment and test pioneering models.

Finally, another key point was trust-building: scaling up CLR requires citizen engagement and empowerment.

A second round of interviews will be conducted by the end of the year as part of the analytical work. A policy report will be published in early 2027, followed by the second meeting of the Policy Board, aimed at discussing all results in order to capitalise on local-level analytical work and elevate it to an EU-level perspective - to influence policies, assess benefits, and support the replicability of CLR initiatives. 

Stay tuned!