diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index 5356e5b2..50789746 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ jobs:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - uses: actions/setup-java@v4
         with:
-          java-version: '11'
-          distribution: 'adopt'
+          java-version: '21'
+          distribution: 'temurin'
       - name: Build package
         run: mvn --batch-mode clean install
diff --git a/.github/workflows/javadoc.yml b/.github/workflows/javadoc.yml
index 5c308ac5..2fc5843e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/javadoc.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/javadoc.yml
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ jobs:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - uses: actions/setup-java@v4
         with:
-          java-version: '11'
-          distribution: 'adopt'
+          java-version: '21'
+          distribution: 'temurin'
       - name: Check javadoc
         run: mvn --batch-mode clean test-compile javadoc:javadoc javadoc:test-javadoc
diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish.yml b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
index bc153f51..f7fabb32 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish.yml
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ jobs:
       - name: Set up Java for publishing to Maven Central Repository
         uses: actions/setup-java@v4
         with:
-          java-version: '11'
-          distribution: 'adopt'
+          java-version: '21'
+          distribution: 'temurin'
           server-id: central
           server-username: MAVEN_USERNAME
           server-password: MAVEN_PASSWORD
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4d142fa6..64acc8e5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ This is an incremental update over 2.0.0-alpha.8.
 
 ### Changes since 2.0.0-alpha.8
 
+- **Java 21 required**: the toolkit now targets Java 21. Applications using it must build and run on Java 21 or later.
 - **Symbol resolution**: applications can now use their own metadata-loading mechanism while reusing the toolkit’s XPath symbol-resolution logic. This logic has been extracted into the abstract `XPathSymbolResolver` class. The existing `SdkSymbolResolver` extends it and continues to load metadata from SDK files using the eForms Core Library.
 
 The following sections describe the features of the 2.0.0 line. For the changes introduced in the preceding release, see the [2.0.0-alpha.8 release notes](https://github.com/OP-TED/efx-toolkit-java/releases/tag/2.0.0-alpha.8).
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 623e8539..9361b2d9 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ The documentation is available at: https://docs.ted.europa.eu/eforms/latest/efx-
 
 ## Using the EFX toolkit[^1]
 
-The EFX toolkit requires Java 11 or later.
+The EFX toolkit requires Java 21 or later.
 
 It is available as a Maven package on Maven Central and can be used by adding the following to the project's `pom.xml`.
 
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index c9e1de88..f2ee47c3 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -40,15 +40,14 @@
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
     <project.build.outputTimestamp>2026-09-17T10:29:14Z</project.build.outputTimestamp>
 
-    <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
-    <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
+    <maven.compiler.release>21</maven.compiler.release>
 
     <sdk.antlr4.dir>${project.build.directory}/eforms-sdk/antlr4</sdk.antlr4.dir>
 
     <!-- Versions - eForms -->
     <version.eforms-sdk-1>1.16.0-SNAPSHOT</version.eforms-sdk-1>
     <version.eforms-sdk-2>2.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version.eforms-sdk-2>
-    <version.eforms-core>1.10.0-SNAPSHOT</version.eforms-core>
+    <version.eforms-core>2.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version.eforms-core>
 
     <!-- Versions - Third-party libraries -->
     <version.antlr4>4.13.1</version.antlr4>
@@ -63,6 +62,7 @@
 
     <!-- Versions - Plugins -->
     <version.build-helper.plugin>3.3.0</version.build-helper.plugin>
+    <version.compiler.plugin>3.13.0</version.compiler.plugin>
     <version.dependency.plugin>3.3.0</version.dependency.plugin>
     <version.install.plugin>2.5.2</version.install.plugin>
     <version.jacoco.plugin>0.8.12</version.jacoco.plugin>
@@ -207,6 +207,10 @@
   <build>
     <pluginManagement>
       <plugins>
+        <plugin>
+          <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
+          <version>${version.compiler.plugin}</version>
+        </plugin>
         <plugin>
           <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
           <version>${version.surefire.plugin}</version>