The Council of the European Union has amended its 13 July 2021 decision approving France's recovery and resilience plan, updating the buildings renovation and ecology/biodiversity components with binding milestones and targets. The amendment, published on 13 July 2026, requires France to invest an additional EUR 15-25 billion annually until 2030 in building renovation to meet its 20% energy consumption reduction target compared to 2012 levels.
The revised plan sets specific targets across private, social, and public building sectors. Under the MaPrimeRenov' grant scheme for private housing, France aims to award 400,000 grants by the fourth quarter of 2021 and 700,000 by the fourth quarter of 2022, with grants up to EUR 20,000 over five years. For social housing, the target is 20,000 dwellings renovated by Q4 2021 and 40,000 by Q4 2022, with all operations completed by end of 2026. Public building renovation targets include 2,900 State projects notified by Q4 2021, 1,954 local and regional authority buildings subsidised by Q2 2022, 28.75 million square metres of State floors completed by Q4 2024, and 681 schools, colleges, and high schools completed by Q4 2024.
Reforms include the quarterly recalculation of APL housing aid based on current income from 1 January 2021, and the phasing out of the Pinel tax credit scheme by end of 2024, with gradual rate reduction in 2023-2024 except for priority urban areas or high energy and environmental quality dwellings. The new RE2020 thermal regulation enters force in the first quarter of 2022 for residential, office, and education buildings, and in the first quarter of 2025 for hotels, restaurants, shops, libraries, university buildings, nurseries, healthcare, industrial, and sports facilities. A tax credit at 30% of eligible expenses (capped at EUR 25,000 per undertaking) for very small and small enterprise renovation is open for expenses from 1 October 2020 to 31 December 2021, targeting 5,000 companies benefitting by Q4 2023.
Component 2 covers investments in biodiversity, water quality, and circular economy, supported by the Climate and Resilience Law and 2020 circular economy Law decrees entering force in 2022. The amendment formalises milestones and targets that France must meet to access EU recovery funds, with energy savings of at least 30% on average expected from the renovation measures.
French homeowners and tenants will benefit from increased grant availability and energy savings, but may face higher upfront costs for compliance with new thermal regulations. Social housing providers must meet ambitious renovation deadlines, potentially straining budgets. Small and medium enterprises gain a temporary tax credit but face regulatory pressure to renovate. The French government bears the administrative burden of monitoring and reporting on hundreds of thousands of renovation projects to the European Commission.
The European Commission will monitor France's progress against the milestones and targets, with disbursements of recovery funds contingent on satisfactory achievement. The Council's amendment is a formal step in the EU's recovery and resilience facility process, with no further Council action required unless France requests additional modifications.