Changing the boiler, insulating the walls, installing photovoltaics on the apartment building: anyone who has tried it knows that the problem is not only the cost. It is the labyrinth. Understand where to start, who to turn to, what incentives exist, how to convince neighbors. For many families, it is precisely this tangle that blocks everything, even before arriving at a quote.
In March 2026, the European Commission published a Recommendation — number 2026/536 — which addresses precisely this problem. The message is clear: we need a one-stop shop for the energy requalification of buildings. A place, physical or digital, where citizens find technical guidance, financial support and accompaniment along the entire path. Not a generic call center, but a structured, neutral, reliable service.
What the Commission describes as an ideal model has already existed in the province of Parma for some years. It is called Sportello Energia Parma and was born as part of the EASIER project, funded by the European LIFE program between 2022 and 2025.
Trust first
The European Recommendation puts trust at the center. Many homeowners are hesitant to start renovations not for lack of incentives, but because they do not trust the process, or are afraid of relying on the wrong operators. The window, says the Commission, must be perceived as neutral: it orients, not sells.
This is exactly the challenge that EASIER had to face. The project built a public register of companies and professionals — the Condominium Climate Pact — with verifiable requirements and transparent data sheets. Not a simple list, but a tool to help citizens choose with clear criteria. The distinction between those who inform and those who have a commercial interest is subtle, but decisive: communicating it constantly has required continuous work and has guided every choice of service.
Digital is not enough
The Recommendation is explicit on a point that may seem obvious but is often overlooked: an entirely online counter does not work, especially when it comes to important work. Families need to talk to someone.
The Parma Desk was born as a mainly digital service, but has always included telephone and face-to-face appointments. The most requested services — thermal imaging camera analysis and feasibility assessment for a heat pump — both involve a physical inspection. Seeing the building in person, answering questions that arise on site, building together with the user a real understanding of the problem even before proposing solutions: this is what transforms a vague interest into a concrete decision. For condominiums in particular, direct contact has often proved indispensable.
A path, not a counter
The Commission describes the so-called “customer journey”: the stages that an owner goes through from the first idea of renovating to the completion of the work. And it indicates that an effective counter must cover this path without leaving holes, without forcing the citizen to bounce between different and uncoordinated bodies.
EASIER has designed its services exactly in this way. The Helpdesk answers the first questions and orients. The e-learning platform trains. Technical analyses — thermography, plant pre-feasibility — help to understand the state of the building. Financial support helps you navigate between incentives and funding. Condominium facilitation accompanies collective decision-making processes. Each service covers a specific phase, and all are designed to work together.
The condominium knot, still unresolved
Both the European Recommendation and the Parma experience agree on one point: condominiums are the most difficult context. Decisions are collective, the times are long, the risk of blocking is high. It is not enough for a single condominium owner to want to do the work: it is necessary to build a consensus between people with different interests, resources and priorities.
EASIER has activated a dedicated service, but has also verified how difficult it is to intercept this demand: many condominiums remain stuck in a phase of widespread interest, without going so far as to ask for concrete support. It is a problem of accompaniment, not just of information.
What this experience tells us
The EASIER project is not an isolated case or a laboratory experiment. It is the demonstration that a one-stop shop for energy efficiency can work, in the Italian reality, with limited resources and a specific territory. Its characteristics — neutrality, digital-physical mix, complementary services designed as a path — correspond point by point to what the European Commission now indicates as a model to follow.
The challenge that remains open is sustainability over time: who finances this type of service once the European project is over? Which functions must remain guaranteed as a public service and which can find other forms of support? These are questions that have not yet been definitively answered, but that any territory that wants to replicate this model will have to face from the beginning.