“Von der Leyen set out a pragmatic, yet ambitious agenda for the next five years to address the new challenge landscape the EU is facing with geopolitical tensions, sharpened industrial competition, on top of the impacts from increasingly extreme weather.”
Competitiveness and prosperity are the new buzzwords for this Commission, along with a renewed emphasis on defence and energy security. While missing from her speech this morning, her political guidelines recognise grid infrastructure as a key technology in need of higher investments. This is a key aspect for the power sector who has been very vocal on the need to speed up investments in grid infrastructure to the tune of €67 billion of annual investments in distribution grid from 2025 to 2050, as shown in the Grids for Speed study.
Infrastructure is one of the 4 ‘I’s Eurelectric has advocated for prioritisation in the new legislative mandate. With the other I’s – implementation, investment and industrial competitiveness – prominently featuring in VDL’s plan, it is safe to say our voice has been heard.
“In particular, Eurelectric welcomes VDL’s announcement of a new Clean Industrial Deal to keep industry competitive while decarbonising. We support the call for implementing the Green Deal and positively note the reference to scaling-up investments in low-carbon green infrastructure as well as the creation of a Savings and Investment Union to back this vision with the necessary financial means.” – added Ruby.
While announcing the 90% 2040 target will be enshrined in European Climate Law in her speech, VDL signalled some backtracking on the de facto 2035 internal combustion engine ban. Her guidelines confirm e-fuels should play a role in the transport sector beyond 2035.
This move was commented by Eurelectric’s Policy Director, Cillian O’Donoghue:
“We agree industry needs predictability. Any backtracking [on the 2035 ICE ban] would undermine investment certainty. As an industry we’ll need to put in place the charging stations and build the necessary grid infrastructure to enable the rollout of EVs. We need predictability for that.”
The power sector stands ready to play its part in decarbonising industry and increasing our Union’s energy security with a more resilient infrastructure and homegrown clean generation.
We look forward to working with VDL’s new Commission.