Abstract | So far, the majority of the work carried out on the reliability of steel Moment Resisting Frames (MRFs) has focused on buildings typical of US design and construction practice, which are, in principle, different from their European counterparts. Thus, this study presents the results of a full probabilistic assessment performed on an EC8-designed, 5-storey steel MRF. In order to obtain fragility curves, the random structural responses were evaluated through a large number of non-linear time history analyses using an ensemble of European ground records. The limit state functions necessary to define fragility were expressed in terms of the previously mentioned structural responses as well as the probabilistically-defined FEMA 356 performance levels. Using these fragilities, annual failure probabilities were obtained for the city of Reggio Calabria in Italy. The aforementioned fragilities where then compared against those obtained from an equivalent SDOF oscillator coupled with a closed-form lognormal approximation.