Fire Safe Europe
FSEU
Fire Safe Europe is a European association representing companies and professional organisations aiming to improve fire safety of buildings.
ID: 182695516039-78
Lobbying Activity
Response to European strategy for housing construction
16 Sept 2025
The European Strategy for Housing Construction aims to deliver affordable, sustainable, and high-quality housing. Fire Safe Europe fully supports these goals and stresses that fire safety must be a fundamental pillar of the strategy. Fire safety enables Europes housing ambitions: affordable homes that are safe are truly adequate and provide dignity and security; sustainable buildings resilient to fire preserve their environmental benefits and support decarbonisation by 2050; and competitive ecosystems that integrate safety are more efficient and innovative, creating long-term value for citizens and investors. The need is urgent. Each year almost 5,000 people in the EU die in residential fires, with thousands more injured. Fires impose costs of more than 1% of GDP in high-income countries, erase renovation gains, and undermine the Green Deal. Without adequate safeguards, the expansion of Europes housing stock risks embedding vulnerabilities and creating long-term hazards. The Renovation Wave, targeting 35 million upgrades by 2030, offers a chance to mainstream fire resilience. Thanks to the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, fire safety is now recognised as integral to renovation. Retrofitting older buildings, upgrading electrical systems, and ensuring compartmentation will protect lives and preserve investments. The green and digital transition adds new fire risks. Photovoltaic panels, EV charging points, and battery storage are essential for decarbonisation but introduce new ignition scenarios. If safety is overlooked, public trust in these technologies may falter. By embedding fire safety from the design and regulatory stage, the EU can enable innovation with confidence. Harmonised test methods, dedicated research, and standards for emerging risks will ensure that sustainability and safety advance together. For competitiveness, harmonisation and skills are essential. Fragmented national fire requirements create inefficiencies and raise costs. Clear European standards would reduce barriers and support innovation. Fire safety competencies should be part of the Pact for Skills, Erasmus+, and other training schemes, while fire engineers must be better recognised in projects. Strong EU-level market surveillance is needed to keep faulty products off the market and maintain trust in construction. The EU also has a coordination role. Fire risks cross borders through free movement of products, people, and technologies. The Union can provide added value by consolidating comparable fire statistics, building on EUFireStat, by supporting joint research on new risks, by harmonising test methods for emerging technologies, and by reinforcing the Fire Information Exchange Platform to share best practices. Stronger surveillance of products and systems will further protect citizens. The paper proposes concrete actions: raising awareness on fire prevention, integrating essential measures such as smoke alarms and inspections into renovation tools, embedding fire safety in sustainability indicators, boosting training and education, supporting firefighter capacity and innovation, and ensuring effective compliance mechanisms. By embedding fire safety as a cross-cutting dimension of the European Strategy for Housing Construction, the EU can protect citizens, safeguard investments, and deliver housing that is not only affordable and sustainable but also safe and resilient for the future.
Read full responseMeeting with Philippe Moseley (Cabinet of Commissioner Dan Jørgensen) and European Forum of Securities Associations
22 May 2025 · Housing, fire safety, sustainability
Meeting with Alicia Homs Ginel (Member of the European Parliament)
20 May 2025 · Building safety in the European Affordable Housing Plan
Meeting with Maravillas Abadía Jover (Member of the European Parliament)
20 May 2025 · Housing protection against fire
Meeting with Marko Vešligaj (Member of the European Parliament)
10 Apr 2025 · Fire safety in housing
Meeting with Markus Ferber (Member of the European Parliament)
4 Mar 2025 · Fire safety in housing policies
Meeting with Adam Jarubas (Member of the European Parliament) and European Chemical Industry Council and
15 Nov 2023 · EFSW2023: Taking stock of progress on fire safety – what should the Commission and Parliament do to improve fire safety in Europe?
Response to Review of the Construction Products Regulation
6 Jul 2022
Fire Safe Europe (FSEU) welcomes the revision of the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) as a crucial step forward to boost the internal market for construction products and ensure that the regulatory framework in place is fit for making the built environment deliver on our sustainability and climate objectives.
To discover FSEU's position on the proposed revision of CPR, please find attached the position paper, including concrete suggestions to optimise the functioning of the internal market of construction products and ensure the sustainability of the built environment, specifically regarding fire safety.
Read full responseResponse to Revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU
30 Mar 2022
Fire Safe Europe (FSEU) welcomes the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) proposed by the European Commission as an important steppingstone towards improved energy efficiency of European buildings. Coupled with the recast of the Energy Efficiency Directive, the European Union has now a crucial opportunity to improve fire safety for people and society.
To discover FSEU's position on the proposed revision of EPBD, please find attached the position paper including recommendations to improve building fire safety across the European Union.
Read full responseResponse to Standardisation Strategy
8 Aug 2021
Fire Safe Europe agrees to the initiative and its aims, as expressed in the FSEU Position Paper „Improving standardisation under the CPR“, by improving the existing standardisation processes, ensuring the legal clarity of the CPR, further including fire safety, and ensuring standards are up to speed and stimulate innovation.
EU is already on a good track with the topics addressed in the Fire Information Exchange Platform - FIEP. In addition, we are providing the following input on fire safety domain:
Focus on services will inevitably include building design, installation of fire protection systems, commissioning, maintenance, and BIM (digitalisation goal). This will require legal clarity of subsidiarity principle in fire safety and building design. In turn, the outcome of this process will make it possible to ensure equal level of safety in buildings for all EU citizens as they travel across Europe – hotels, hospitals, transport, shopping, and other public buildings.
It means that design principles and safety levels should start to becoming harmonised in chosen areas, in close dialogue with the Member States.
CEN/CENELEC/ETSI should become the forum for sharing best practices in Europe in the form of pre-standardisation activities: technical reports, support to R&D..., in line with the FIEP coordination efforts.
EU could use its current focus on negelcted and/or new fire risks – e.g. facades, smoke, alternative energy production systems, energy storage, sustainability, fire statistics - to expand its influence outside Europe. The quality and technical advancement of EN standards should be utilised to expand to areas like building design, installation, digital services, sustainability. In the global competitive situation (NFPA - USA, IFSS – UN) it will increase chances that European fire safety design principles will be accepted outside Europe. Partnership with UK will be beneficial rather than competition against British Standards.
At the same time, focus on products and kits should not be lost. The CPR should continue to address fire safety. The basic requirement for construction works 2 – Safety in case of fire, should clarify the link towards EN products standards and fire safety.
Read full responseResponse to Revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU
19 Mar 2021
Fire Safe Europe (FSEU) is a unique alliance of fire experts, firefighters, associations, and international companies. FSEU’s mission is to improve fire safety in buildings for people and society.
We believe that the EPBD Revision offers a once in a decade opportunity to capitalise on renovation investments by simultaneously improving energy-efficiency and fire-safety. Hence, we are in favour of an upgrade of the EPBD through Option 3.
Fire safety matters for optimal energy-efficient renovation:
The 2021 EPBD Revision is a chance to improve people's living environment, reduce energy-poverty and fire-safety inequalities. The Renovation Wave provides us not only with a unique opportunity to advance buildings’ sustainability and resilience but also people’s comfort and safety. The amount of public money that will be invested into building energy performance is unprecedented, thus we must take full advantage of this opportunity by simultaneously addressing energy-efficiency and fire safety.
Fire safety should not be weakened when enhancing energy-efficiency. The more fatal, devastating and increased fire accidents we have been witnessing these past years, show that existing fire safety regulation and their implementation do not sufficiently address the fire risk in today’s buildings. That’s why it is crucial to adequately take into account the existing fire risks in connection with building renovations.
Improving buildings’ energy performance comes with a growing share of renewables and innovative energy-efficient solutions which in turn increase the inherent fire risk. De facto, fire risk is permanently changing. That’s why we constantly have to pay attention to new risks and ensure that the green solutions used to increase energy-efficiency do not weaken a building’s fire resilience.
The renovation of public buildings such as schools, hospitals, social housing entities and offices must be exemplary both in term of energy-efficiency and safety. These types of buildings are high-risk buildings, where people, in case of fire, have limited evacuation capabilities (children, sick or elderly) and where firefighting can be more time consuming and complex. We must ensure that increased energy-efficiency does not threaten the building’s fire resilience. It is also essential to consider the danger of toxic smoke and spread of fire. Ideally, these requirements should be extended to the rest of the EU building stock.
Within the emergence of new tools such as the minimum energy performance standards, the deep renovation standards, etc. it is crucial to factor in fire-safety. Energy-efficient renovations must integrate fire-safety to avoid “shallow” and unsafe renovations.
To reach a net 55% emission reduction target by 2030, not only the volume of renovations but also their depth is critical. Buildings' fires can have substantial impacts on the environment, including GHG emissions. Research shows that failing to factor risks, such as fire risks, in buildings’ design and construction can nullify the benefits of energy-efficiency and sustainability measures (1).
The 2018 EPBD encouraged Member States to account for fire safety in major renovations and long-term renovation strategies (LTRS). On the LTRS available, only one third mention fire safety. Yet, this would have been the opportunity for Member States to demonstrate their views on the permanent evolution of fire risk and integrate this risk in their LTRS policy planning.
The 2021 Revision must build on and improve the 2018 fire safety provisions. Taking a holistic approach to energy-efficiency that accounts for other factors, such as fire safety, is key to harness the power of energy-efficient renovations in a safe manner. Thus, fire safety must be addressed as an integral part of energy efficiency.
(1) Wieczorek, C. J. ”Fire Safety: An Integral Part of Sustainability Taking fire and safety risks into account when designing green buildings”, Fire Protection Engineer
Read full responseResponse to Review of the Construction Products Regulation
19 Aug 2020
Fire Safe Europe welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the inception impact assessment for the review of the Construction Products Regulation (CPR). On a general note, we would like to emphasise that the (CPR) is a key legislation for fire safety in buildings, which should be maintained and built upon.
The attached position paper provides input around some of the problems to tackle highlighted in the inception impact, namely:
• Harmonised standards
• Safety of construction products
• Adaptation to innovation
• Legal clarity
Read full responseResponse to Commission Communication – "Renovation wave" initiative for the building sector
3 Jun 2020
Fire Safe Europe (FSEU) is a unique alliance of fire experts, firefighters, associations, and international companies. FSEU’s mission is to improve fire safety in buildings for people and society.
Fire Safe Europe welcomes the opportunity to give input into the Renovation Wave initiative. We applaud this initiative to boost renovation while increasing the EU building stock’s energy efficiency and decarbonisation efforts. We would like to emphasise that in the EU endeavour to support a green recovery, the Renovation Wave is a once in a decade opportunity to build fire safety in and make our buildings fit for the future by integrating fire resilience.
This Roadmap portrays buildings’ renovation as an efficient way to generate valuable cross-dimensional returns both for individuals and society. Renovation will indeed help to tackle energy efficiency, climate resilience, circularity, pollution and better health. We can go even further and maximise these returns by ensuring we also provide for fire resilience. Fire resilience creates valuable synergies when it comes to the non-monetary benefits of renovation, such as people’s safety and well-being or buildings’ decarbonisation and sustainability. Hence, we believe the European Commission has an opportunity to strengthen the Renovation Wave initiative by integrating fire resilience.
Given that: “The initiative will also look at how to foster deeper renovation in terms of other complementary dimensions to energy efficiency such as […] climate resilience, circularity“; we believe that the integration of fire resilience can help achieve three of the aspects outlined in the Roadmap:
1. Stimulate the volume and depth of renovation through regulatory and non-regulatory instruments:
-The Renovation Wave Roadmap intends to build upon the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. We believe this example should be followed, especially in terms of fire safety. Indeed, the EPBD took momentous steps to integrate fire safety by encouraging Member States to address the issue in their long-term renovation strategies and in buildings undergoing major renovations. The Renovation Wave is an excellent opportunity to implement these provisions and emulate them.
-When a building is fire resilient, it is able to resist to, adapt to and recover from a fire and resume to its essential functions – timely and efficiently. Considering the adverse environmental, social and economic impacts a building fire can have, factoring fire resilience in the Renovation Wave is vital to minimise those and enable truly deep renovations that increase energy efficiency, but also climate resilience, material circularity and overall sustainability.
2. Public sector and public buildings leading by example:
-We commend the priority given to public buildings’ renovation, like schools and hospitals, whose quality and performance is of public utility. Safety is also of the essence in this type of buildings. Hence, we urge the European Commission to make the most of these renovations by investing in safety and in fire resilience. In particular, we encourage the European Commission to give financial incentives under the “Next Generation EU” instrument for renovations improving fire safety and fire resilience.
3. Driving smart technologies in buildings, digital and data aspects:
-Assessing the fire risk of new technologies and materials is key to safeguard buildings’ durability and adaptability. When we renovate with new methods or products, a building’s fire safety may substantially change. To ensure that innovation, new technologies and digitalisation offer strong fire safety, we believe fire resilience should be included in the Renovation Wave initiative.
We believe the Renovation Wave is a rare opportunity the European Commission should seize to make our buildings fire resilient. This will trigger deeper renovation and give Europe the buildings it needs to cater for EU citizens and foster a sustainable future.
Read full responseMeeting with Rolf Carsten Bermig (Cabinet of Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska)
16 Nov 2015 · DSM Circular Economy