21. 05. 2026
AUTHOR: Marin Gillot
On April 22, 2026, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the upcoming Electrification Action Plan will include an “ambitious electrification target”. Following the AccelerateEU communication, this marks an important shift in the European Union (EU)’s approach to electrification. It is now a central instrument for delivering European energy security, technology leadership, and industrial resilience.
This shift reflects the scale of Europe’s structural vulnerability to the succession of energy crises. Over the past decade, electrification in the EU has stagnated at around 23% of final energy consumption, leaving large parts of the economy exposed to fossil fuel volatility and related price spikes. More than half of the EU’s energy needs are still covered through imported fossil fuels, and between 2021 and 2024, the EU spent approximately €1.8 trillion on oil, gas and coal imports. Since the escalation of the war in the Middle East, the Union has further spent €35 billion on energy imports, without receiving a single additional unit of energy.
The EU cannot control global fossil fuel markets, but can reduce its exposure to them. Electrification is the only domestic, scalable and structural lever to permanently reduce fossil fuel dependence while strengthening competitiveness, resilience and energy security. To send a solid investment signal and make it irreversible, the EU can:
- Establish a binding electrification target of at least 50% by 2040, with indicative milestones of 32% in 2030 and 40% in 2035. This target could be translated into binding national trajectories, while allowing Member States flexibility on sectoral priorities.
- Anchor this target within the Energy Security Framework as a core energy security instrument. This requires coordinating its publication with the Electrification Action Plan in June, in order to enshrine the target in legislation before the 2027 electoral cycle.
- Use the Electrification Action Plan to unlock short-term enabling measures, notably an “electrification first” principle for EU funding and the ETS, as well as a gradual rebalancing of gas and electricity taxation.
