"Check against delivery"

Thank you! 

Let me start by quoting Marx, not Karl Marx, Groucho Marx. Groucho Marx once said: ‘These are my principles. Unless you don't like them, then I have others'.

That is not the case for the European Union, that is not the case for the energy policy of the European Commission.

Even when our friends change their opinion, even when our enemies act in a way that we would, obviously, have preferred them not to, we stick to our principles.

I want to also share with you, another quote. It goes like this:

“Mighty economic areas have arisen around us…  If Europe fails to keep pace… The danger is not that we shall be relegated to a lesser place... but that we shall be completely eliminated.”

These words were spoken by Professor Walter Hallstein, the first president of the Commission, back in 1958.

A time when we also faced mighty challenges, a time of global tension and division; of superpowers, with whom Europe struggled to compete. And despite the passage of over 60 years, we feel these challenges again today.

We feel it in our homes: as a result of the energy crisis, around 47 million in Europe were not able to adequately heat their homes last year. Imagine that, such a rich part of the world, but 47 million people were freezing. This is of course totally unacceptable.

We also feel it in our businesses and our industries: the energy costs that they pay are double, sometimes even more, than what their competitors pay in China and the US.

This crisis of affordability is pressing hard on our citizens and our communities.

It requires an urgent response, and that is what I intend to deliver.

Before the end of this month, I will present an Action Plan for Affordable Energy, as a key component of our Clean Industrial Deal.

Obviously I cannot today reveal the exact content of the action plan,  you will need a bit more patient!

But let me say this: I will exploit every tool and explore every avenue to lower energy costs in the short term.

But it is also important that we stay on course and that we make long term structural decisions, that will indeed make us ready for the future.

Some of the possibilities for short term measures that we are discussing could include: Incentivising instruments to decouple retail energy bills from high fossil fuel prices; addressing the non-energy parts of energy bills, improving supervision and competition on gas markets, to ensure the best prices for consumers.

On the long-term though, there is no doubt that reinforcing our Energy Union is the most rational and cost-effective approach to deliver affordable energy!

We need to build on our strengths: we do have a resilient energy infrastructure and the most integrated energy market in the world.

The integration of European electricity markets already benefits consumers by around EUR 34 billion every year.

Further integration, could raise such benefits up to EUR 40 billion per year by 2030. So the potential is enormous.

The Action Plan will be our blueprint: a blue print to deliver deeper integration and to bring our Energy Union to the next level.

We will better connect our energy systems, we will upgrade our grids, we will boost the roll out of clean energy sources, and we will accelerate electrification.

No doubts, this will require a substantial increase in investments – a topic that I am also glad to see in the agenda for you this afternoon!

Average annual investment needs for the energy sector are projected to reach EUR 574 billion in this decade, and EUR 694 billion in the next. Just for grids, the average annual investment needs are projected to reach EUR 91 billion.

We require co-ordinated efforts, if we are to meet these targets.

To support these efforts, we will work on a Clean Energy Investment Strategy.  This strategy will focus on investments in clean energy that pay us back – by spending strategically in the short term, we will save expenses in the long term, for our citizens, for our businesses, for our Union.

And let me be absolutely clear, coming back to the principles, there will be no back-tracking on the green transition.

We believe that affordability and competitiveness go hand-in-hand with decarbonization. This not for ideological reasons, this is for logical reasons.

From an affordability stand point, the benefits are clear, let me give you an example: from 2021-2023, EU electricity consumers saved around EUR 100 billion thanks to electricity generation from newly installed solar and wind capacity. So we would have paid EUR 100 billion more for our electricity had it not been for the renewables, just in the timespan.

From a competitiveness point of view, the EU has a demonstrated ability to combine energy decarbonisation with economic growth: in absolute terms, net greenhouse gas emissions are 37% below 1990 levels, while EU GDP increased by 68% over the same period, so our emissions go down, our GDP goes up.

Meanwhile, our internal market for renewable energy is also growing. The share of renewables in the electricity mix increased from 36% in 2021 to 46% in 2024, driven mainly by wind and solar. In the first half of 2024, wind and solar overtook for the first time power generation from fossil fuels.

We are already running strong in many lanes of the clean tech race: such as wind, heat pumps and hydrogen – including electrolysers.

We need to drive on, because the world is moving faster than ever towards clean energy.

Global spending on clean energy hit a record of USD 2 trillion last year. For every dollar invested in fossil fuels, two dollars were invested in renewable energy.

To put it simply: we will deliver decarbonization, because decarbonization delivers!

And let's remember, decarbonization does not only deliver clean energy, good jobs, and growth – it also delivers for our strategic autonomy and security.

During the current energy crisis, the most severe Europe has seen in decades, the ability to generate our own clean energy from renewable sources has proven to be vital.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, gas prices skyrocketed, putting significant stress on households and businesses.

However, since the adoption of the REPowerEU Plan, progress has been evident: Wind and solar new installations capacities reached record levels of 78 GW in 2024 and heat pump sales hit 3 million in 2022.

Between 2021-2024, the EU has completely ended coal imports from Russia, we have reduced our crude oil imports from 26% to 3%, and our gas imports from 45% to 19%.

Since spring 2023, natural gas prices have come down considerably and fluctuated at much narrower ranges, which is reflected in both gas and electricity consumer bills.

Still, we can and we need to do more. We will therefore publish a clear Roadmap: towards ending all Russian energy imports and the full implementation of REPowerEU.

This work, to get the prices down, to decarbonise, to become independent of Russian fuels,  will obviously occupy us, in the months and years, but let also give you some concrete examples of what we have already done, that has brought us to where we are now. One of these examples is the Baltic Synchronisation project.

As a result of this project, the Baltic states will regain, from next Sunday actually, independence from Russia's electricity grid, fully embedding the three countries in the EU energy system.

We have done this together as Europeans, by investing over EUR 1.2 billion in this landmark project.

It will secure stable energy supplies, and a continued access to affordable energy, which is critical for Europe's economic resilience and competitiveness. 

So, to conclude, it is clear that we have done good work, but it is also clear that we have a lot do in front of us.

The challenges that we face - competitiveness, climate, security – are significant, and they will not go away swiftly.

But let me return to 1958, with some more words from President of the Commission Hallstein.

Standing on the threshold of European Unity, at a time of grave challenges, he said the following:  “If the great venture is to succeed, what we need is not only intelligence, imagination and determination but, above all, confidence in ourselves.”

I think these words apply, equally, more today.

Let's have confidence in ourselves. Let's remember how far we have actually come: We began the European Union as a European Coal and Steel Community. We are now a European community of wind turbines and solar panels;  of green hydrogen plants and geothermal generators.

We were once divided by trenches, by the iron curtain; we are now connected by power lines and interconnectors.

The challenges we face are significant, but in many ways, they are not new.  And when faced with these challenges in the past, we did not just survive, we thrived.

We have done it before, so let's do it again, and let's do it together.

Thank you!