“We must make Europe the world’s first electric continent”, European Commissioner Michael McGrath said in the European Parliament on Wednesday 17 June. Although his portfolio is Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, he presented the European Commission’s intentions with its ‘Electrification Action Plan’, which will be presented on 15 July.
No concrete proposal has been presented at this stage, although this plan had initially been scheduled for February 2025 (see EUROPE 13538/12), then for the first quarter of 2026.
Three priority sectors for electrification. The Commissioner began by recalling that electricity today accounts for only 23% of European energy consumption, a figure which “has been stagnating for years”.
In order to increase that rate, the Commission is considering adopting “an ambitious” electrification target and “supporting the sectors facing the greatest difficulties”. The sectors in which the Commission hopes to advance electrification are industry, transport and buildings.
Right-wing calls for inclusion of nuclear energy. The European People’s Party (EPP), through the Spanish MEP Raúl de la Hoz Quintano, stressed that electrification was not “an end in itself”, but “one tool among others”. The EPP is calling for this plan to be based on affordable energy, faster and simplified procedures for the construction of energy infrastructure and a stable supply, including both renewable energy and nuclear power.
French MEP Christophe Grudler (Renew Europe) also listed three priorities which, according to his group, could address the problem of electricity demand. These are, in addition to defining electrification targets, developing storage solutions and stopping subsidies for production when prices become negative (in cases of surplus). He also called for lower taxation on electricity than on fossil fuels.
Far right points to “a lack of realism”. For the Italian MEP Paolo Borchia (PfE), “electrification does not seem to be a sufficiently convincing solution, at least from an economic point of view”. His group argues that there is a gap between the costs highlighted by the Commission and those borne by families.
Italian MEP Elena Donazzan (ECR), for her part, says that the climate targets are “disconnected from reality”. She asked Commissioner McGrath who would pay to finance the electricity grid and who would benefit from it, arguing that China would be “the big winner”. This argument was echoed by German MEP Markus Buchheit from the Europe of Sovereign Nations group (ESN).
The ESN also pointed to European energy storage capacities, “insufficient to meet demand”.
Left-wing bloc focuses on energy independence. “If we want to reduce our dependence on foreign autocrats and if we want to keep industry in Europe, the only serious path to follow is electrification”, said Mohammed Chahim (S&D, Dutch). This was similar to the line taken by Michael Bloss (Greens/EFA, German), who stressed the cost of that dependence.
Mohammed Chahim insisted on the multiple benefits of electrification, both in climate terms and from the point of view of energy security, industrial development and lower energy costs. He also proposed social leasing schemes for heat pumps and electric cars so that “electrification benefits everyone”.
As for Dario Tamburrano (The Left, Italian), he chose to focus on the lack of implementation of existing legislation. (Original version in French by Nadège Delépine)