ABSTRACTIn Europe, the revision of part 3 of Eurocode 8 (EC8‐3), which is the part of the Eurocodes that specifically addresses the seismic assessment and strengthening of existing structures, has been set as a first priority in the preparation of the new generation of Eurocodes that are expected to be released in 2020. However, and although EC8‐3 has been the focus of extensive research in the case of existing reinforced concrete buildings, very few works focused on the seismic assessment of existing steel buildings. The aim of this paper is hence to provide a discussion on the applicability of EC8‐3 to steel moment‐resisting frame (SMRF) buildings, to highlight the code main limitations and inconsistencies and present new steps taken forward in order to overcome them. Various issues regarding the definition of the performance requirements, the feasibility of using the most common linear methods of analysis, the adequacy of the code deformation capacity limits for steel members, the treatment of uncertainty and the influence of modelling approaches, are herein discussed. In brief, this work intends to present to the scientific and structural engineering community the current limitations of EC8‐3, to identify topics in need of future research and to disseminate new findings achieved by the authors.