Directive 2018/2001
EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED II); amended by Directive 2024/1711 on electricity market design.
Last refreshed: 29 April 2026
If RED II set the renewable energy framework, why are states still failing to comply in 2026?
Timeline for Directive 2018/2001
Three states 15 months late on price directive
European Energy Markets- What is Directive 2018/2001 also known as?
- Directive 2018/2001 is the EU Renewable Energy Directive, known as RED II. It set a binding 32% renewable energy target by 2030 and established the EU framework for guarantees of origin and biofuels sustainability.
- How is RED II related to the 2026 EU infringement proceedings?
- Directive 2024/1711 amended RED II and Directive 2019/944; Croatia, Poland and Portugal failed to transpose these amendments by January 2025 and received infringement reasoned opinions in April 2026.Source: European Commission
Background
Directive 2018/2001 is the EU's Renewable Energy Directive, commonly referred to as RED II. It establishes binding renewable energy targets for EU member states and sets frameworks for guarantees of origin, biofuels sustainability criteria, and renewable energy community structures. The directive is directly relevant to current European energy markets as one of the two instruments amended by Directive 2024/1711 — the electricity market design reform whose transposition deadline three member states missed, triggering infringement proceedings on 29 April 2026.
RED II was adopted in December 2018 and set a binding EU-wide renewable energy target of 32% of gross final energy consumption by 2030. It has since been superseded in its target provisions by RED III (Directive 2023/2413), which raised the 2030 target to 42.5% and introduced mandatory national contribution trajectories. However, RED II's structural provisions — including the guarantees of origin system, biofuel blending frameworks, and community energy rules — remain in force and are amended by subsequent directives including 2024/1711.
The significance of RED II in the context of the April 2026 infringements package is that the failure to transpose Directive 2024/1711 is framed as an amendment failure: the three non-compliant member states have not updated their national implementations of RED II and Directive 2019/944 to incorporate the 2024 electricity market design reforms.