Russia’s unjustified military aggression against Ukraine and its weaponisation of gas supplies have provoked an unprecedented energy crisis for the EU. This has led to sharp rise in energy prices and brought hardship for Europeans.
In response, the EU implemented emergency measures in 2022, to stabilise the energy prices and ensure access to gas supply during the winter. Looking ahead the Commission is now focusing on addressing persistently thigh energy costs that impact EU citizens and businesses. To this end, in February 2025 the Commission presented a new action plan aimed at reducing energy costs, completing the energy union, attracting investments and enhancing preparedness for potential energy crises.
REPowerEU
In May 2022 the Commission presented the REPowerEU plan to rapidly reduce the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels, by fast-forwarding the clean transition and joining forces to achieve a more resilient energy system with a true Energy Union.
Thanks to REPowerEU, we've safeguarded EU citizens and businesses from energy shortages, supported Ukraine by weakening Russia's war chest, accelerated the transition to clean energy and stabilised prices.
In the first two years since its launch, we have
- Reduced gas consumption by 18%
- Overcome our dependency on Russian fossil duels
- Ensured access to secure and affordable energy
- Produced more electricity from wind and solar than from gas for the first time ever
- Rapidly increased renewable energy installation
Winterproofing our gas supply
In June and July 2022, the Commission proposed new rules to ensure Europe had sufficient gas supplies to withstand any sudden disruptions from Russia during the winter months.
With the new gas storage rules EU countries have to fill storage facilities to 90% by 1 November of each year. At the beginning of the 2024-2025 winter season the gas storages were 95% full, with the 90% threshold being reached already in August 2024.
Furthermore, in August 2022 the EU countries agreed on a regulation to voluntary reduce natural gas demand by 15% for the 2022/2023 winter season, later extending it to cover the winter of 2023/2024. In March 2024, the Council adopted a recommendation to continue taking voluntary measures until March 2025 to maintain a collective 15% gas demand reduction, compared to the average demand between April 2017 and March 2022.
In April 2022, the Commission also launched the EU Energy Platform, to help EU countries work together on global markets. The goal is to avoid competition between EU countries, use the EU’s influence to secure diverse energy sources, encourage competition among major suppliers and achieve better conditions for consumers.
Diversifying gas sources and investing in infrastructure
A key part of ensuring secure and affordable supplies of energy involves diversifying supply routes. In the past years the EU has been working with international partners to diversify supplies. Since 2022, the Commission has established agreements with Egypt, Israel and Azerbaijan to export natural gas to Europe.
The EU has also increased Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports from North America, Australia, Qatar and East Africa and through pipelines from Norway, the United Kingdom, Azerbaijan and North Africa.
Investments in LNG terminals and gas interconnectors have ensured that every EU country can now receive gas from at least two sources, and reverse flows are possible between neighbours. For example, in May 2022, the Poland-Lithuania gas interconnector began operations, reinforcing the optionality and resilience of the Baltic gas market. Similarly, in October 2022, the Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector was launched, playing a key role in diversifying gas supplies in South-East Europe.
Deploying renewable energy
Besides securing sources abroad, we have to use as much as possible homegrown energy. The EU is already a global leader in technology development for renewable energies. In 2023 the share of renewables in the EU's energy consumption was 24.5%. With the revised Renewable Energy Directive in November 2023, EU countries agreed on an overall renewable energy target of at least 42.5% at EU level by 2030, with the aim to reach at least 45%.
To speed up the deployment of renewable energy, the EU countries agreed in December 2022 on temporary rules, which allow for streamlined permit delivery processes.
Reducing bills for European households and businesses
In response to Russia’s use of energy as a weapon, the EU countries agreed in October 2022 on an emergency intervention to reduce energy bills for European households and businesses. It included exceptional measures:
- reducing electricity demand (10% overall, with an obligatory 5% reduction during peak hours)
- capping revenues (€180 per MWh) from low-cost energy producers (nuclear, lignite, renewables) and redistributing the surplus to costumers
- introducing a temporary solidarity contribution on excess profits in the oil, gas, coal and refinery sectors, redirecting funds to energy consumers.
The emergency measures expired in 2023.
In February 2023 EU countries also agreed on a Market Correction Mechanism to avoid disruptions to the energy and financial market. In case of need, it would have been automatically activated:
- if the month-ahead Title Transfer Facility (TTF) price exceeded €180/MWh for 3 working days and,
- if the TTF price was €35 higher than a reference price for liquefied natural gas (LNG) on global markets for the same 3 working days.
The mechanism was in force until January 2025 and never needed to be triggered, thanks to factors such as structural demand decline, reliable LNG and pipeline imports from trusted partners, and enhanced import infrastructure.
Affordable energy action plan
Nevertheless, energy prices in the EU remain structurally high, which hurt EU citizens and the competitiveness of the EU industry. The Commission therefore proposed in February 2025 the affordable energy action plan, which sets out concrete short-term measures to lower energy costs for citizens, businesses, industry and communities across the EU, complete the energy union, attract investments, and be better prepared for potential energy crises.
This will allow for overall estimated savings of €45 billion in 2025, with a progressive increase of up to €130 billion annually by 2030, and €260 billion annually by 2040.