EU, heating market 

The European Commission will present a heating and cooling strategy in the first quarter of 2026. The strategy aims for a cost-effective transition to clean heating and cooling by improving energy efficiency and system integration, while ensuring affordability to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The strategy is part of the REPowerEU plan announced by the European Commission in May 2025. The public consultation on the heating and cooling strategy concluded in November 2025.

According to the ‘Fit for 55’ package published by the European Commission in July 2021, Member States should open their district heating and cooling networks to third parties, with certain exceptions. In addition, cooperation between district heating and cooling companies and potential producers of waste heat as well as the transmission and distribution system operators should be strengthened.

For these reasons, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment is examining alternatives and practices so that renewable non-combustion-based heat production and waste heat, utilisation of demand response systems and integration of different energy systems could be more flexibly considered in the district heating market. Another premise of the analysis is to assess whether Finland continues to meet the requirements of EU legislation to provide customers with carbon neutral district heat by 2030.

The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) (EU) 2023/1791 states that high-efficiency cogeneration and efficient district heating and cooling have significant potential for saving primary energy in the Union. As part of the directive's implementation, a comprehensive assessment of the potential for high efficiency cogeneration and efficient district heating and cooling has been carried out in Finland. The survey has been attached as a part of the Finland’s Integrated Energy and Climate Plan which was submitted to the European Commission in June 2024. 

More information: paivi.laitila(at)gov.fi and pia.kotro(at)gov.fi