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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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Read more on the correction mechanism

Renewable energy is

• 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.

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.

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