REPowerEU - Affordable, secure and sustainable EU energy
REPowerEU at a glance
Launched in May 2022, REPowerEU is helping the EU
- save energy
- produce clean energy
- diversify its energy supplies
Thanks to REPowerEU, we've safeguarded EU citizens and businesses from energy shortages, supported Ukraine by weakening Russia's war chest, and accelerated the transition to clean energy. Our joint efforts continue and Europe is now better prepared and more united than ever.
Putin's attempt to blackmail Europe using energy has failed.
Key achievements
By acting together, the EU has
- reduced its dependency on Russian fossil fuels
- saved almost 20% of its energy consumption
- introduced the gas price cap and the global oil price cap
- doubled the additional deployment of renewables
Diversifying our energy supply
When Russia invaded Ukraine, it became even more clear that the EU needed alternative ways to ensure its energy supply. While it is true that some Member States historically imported more Russian gas than others, the consequences of possible disruptions would be jointly suffered by all. This is why it is imperative that all Member States are in this together, ready to share gas with their neighbours in case of need.
Since September 2022, Russian gas accounts for only 8% of all pipeline gas imported into the EU, compared to 41% of EU imports from Russia in August 2021.
With the REPowerEU plan, we are succeeding in diversifying our energy supply mainly by:
- establishing agreements with other third countries for pipeline imports
- investing in common purchase of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
- securing strategic partnerships with Namibia, Egypt and Kazakhstan to ensure a secure and sustainable supply of renewable hydrogen
- signing agreements with Egypt and Israel for the export of natural gas to Europe
The EU needs to secure its energy supplies not only for the coming winter, but also for the years ahead. This is why our partnerships focus on building a greener future, towards climate neutrality.
The infrastructure that we use for gas today can be used for clean hydrogen in the future. Our investment today is also an investment in decarbonising our economy in the future.
Securing affordable energy supplies
Launched in April 2022, the EU Energy Platform played a crucial role in helping diversify our energy supply throughout 2022. The platform helps coordinate EU action and negotiations with external gas suppliers to prevent EU countries from outbidding each other. The Platform is also leveraging the weight of the EU single market to achieve better conditions for all EU consumers.
Following the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU proposed common gas procurement to make sure that Europeans have access to affordable energy and to avoid any energy supply disruptions. This system allowed us to start buying a share of our gas needs together, as Europeans, and not competing among ourselves for scarce supplies.
In May 2023, the EU managed to attract bids from a total number of 25 supplying companies equivalent to more than 13.4 billion cubic metres of gas (bcm). This comfortably surpasses the 11.6 bcm of joint demand that EU companies submitted through the first tender (under the AggregateEU mechanism). EU companies will now be able to negotiate the terms of the supply contracts directly with the supplying companies. Four more tenders will follow by the end of 2023.
New gas storage rules
To avoid blackouts and power shortages, EU countries agreed to fill up gas storage ahead of the winter.
- The EU target agreed last year was to fill underground gas storage to 80% of capacity by 1 November 2022.
By working together, EU countries surpassed this, reaching 95% of gas storage instead. - The target for the coming winters will be to fill storage to 90% of capacity by 1 November each year
Saving energy
Saving energy is the cheapest, safest and cleanest way to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel imports from Russia. European citizens, businesses and industry have all contributed to this.
At EU level, Member States agreed to the Commission’s proposals to voluntarily reduce gas use across the EU by 15% last winter.
While it is true that some Member States are more directly exposed to Russian gas than others, the consequences of possible disruptions would be jointly suffered by all. This is why it is imperative that all Member States are in this together, ready to share gas with their neighbours in case of need.
Intervening in gas prices
Gas prices in Europe are lower today than before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, thanks in part to the coordinated European response under REPowerEU. And Europe is now investing in clean energies and energy independence as never before.
Nevertheless, EU countries agreed to put a limit on gas price spikes to help protect citizens and the economy. A price ceiling for gas transactions will be applied when and if gas prices reach exceptional levels.
This market correction mechanism is temporary and is in force until February 2024.
Investing in renewables
- good for the climate
- good for EU's energy independence
- good for the security of supply, and
- it creates jobs in the EU
The REPowerEU plan is speeding up the green transition and promoting massive investment in renewable energy.
Over the last year, we have managed to increase our production and capacity:
- generating, for the first time, more electricity from wind and solar sources than from gas
- reaching a record of 41 GW of new solar energy capacity installed
- increasing wind capacity by 16 GW
- ensuring 39% of our electricity now comes from renewables
We plan to continue the rollout of renewable energy and we expect our capacity to rise further in 2023, replacing an additional 12 bcm of gas with renewables.
In March 2023, the EU agreed on stronger legislation to increase its renewables capacity, raising the EU’s binding target for 2030 to 42.5%, with the ambition to reach 45% - this would almost double the existing share of renewable energy in the EU.
To support this clean transition, we must get better at nurturing our own industry – from hydrogen to chemicals, from biotech to nanotech. To achieve this plan, we proposed a Green Deal Industrial Plan for Europe in February 2023.
How REPowerEU is funded
The REPowerEU plan has required massive investments and reforms. We are mobilising close to €300 billion - approximately €72 billion will be in grants and approximately €225 billion in loans. The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is at the heart of this funding.
This will include about €10 billion in missing links for gas and LNG so that no Member State is left in the cold, and up to €2 billion for oil infrastructure to put an end to the shipment of Russian oil. The rest of the financing (95% of it) will go into speeding up and scaling up the clean energy transition.
Next steps
The progress we have made over the last year helped end this winter (2022/2023) in a good position, without any gas shortages, and we can start the next refilling season with confidence and a half-full storage.
But we should be under no illusion that there are still challenging months ahead, as long as Russia pursues its brutal invasion of Ukraine and weaponises its energy supplies.
That is why we will be focusing on the continued delivery of the REPowerEU Plan, namely
- New national REPowerEU chapters under the updated Recovery and Resilience Facility
- Boosting industrial decarbonisation
- Sign-off and implementation of new legislation for faster renewables roll-out
- Investments in energy infrastructure and interconnections
- Regulatory measures to increase energy efficiency
- A modern regulatory framework for hydrogen, and a hydrogen accelerator