Remarks by Executive Vice-President Ribera and Commissioner Jørgensen on new measures on citizens and energy, clean energy investment and small modular reactors

Executive Vice-President Ribera

I think that it is quite important to underline that today we have dedicated the College meeting to come up with a relevant package on energy, a political debate that for a very long while, at least in the last months if not longer, has been mainly focused on industrial competitiveness, but in fact it covers different aspects and it is always shaken by geopolitics.

For many households, energy bills already represent a significant share of their monthly budget, and our exposure to global fossil fuel markets means that we suffer the consequences of volatility. When prices rise and global markets become volatile, the burden falls directly on families.

This is why homegrown clean energy is the only long term lasting solution for our competitiveness, but also for the affordability of our families.

The energy package that we have presented today is part of the long term answer. That is part of what the Commission intended to do since the very beginning. It was not developed against the backdrop of the current energy context, but of course the current context shows to what extent it is important to work to pave the path that we already started some time ago.

This package contributes to ensuring that citizens are supported and protected in these difficult times. It helps to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels by scaling up homegrown energy and providing the right infrastructures to ensure that we can steer and seize the opportunities alongside energy security in an energy efficient electrified system.

Starting with the Citizens Energy Package, we know that energy prices shape the everyday life of millions of people and any disruption like the one we see right now can undo the hard won balance for working families. There are still many people, and I am sure Commissioner Jørgensen will go into further detail, who suffer from energy poverty and have difficulties heating their houses or paying their bills.

This is why the Citizens Energy Package puts people first and comes up with different proposals. Many of them have already been tested in different constituencies, but it is important to come up with a strategy and provide the full set of tools that can help support families.

These measures include leveraging state aid tools to facilitate support for families. For instance, aid for energy efficiency in buildings can be granted without the need to notify the Commission, as it is exempt from notification under the General Block Exemption Regulation.

But that is not the only topic. We also address the need to rely on a clean energy investment strategy that can facilitate not only our climate goals but also greater competitiveness and resilience as a matter of security, mobilising private capital at scale. We must be smart in the way we continue investing and boosting this investment in order to succeed in our goals, working with the European Investment Bank, as Commissioner Jørgensen will explain immediately after.

Finally, for those Member States that choose nuclear, we have identified the need to keep improving our capacities to develop and lead innovative developments to ensure that small modular reactors can be part of the solution and have the potential to play an important role in decoupling from fossil fuels.

We have therefore come forward with a strategy to facilitate common work to develop joint standards, joint licensing and a fleet approach. This strategy creates enabling conditions for research and innovation and builds on work that has already been underway for some time through our IPCEI programmes and through the alliance of industry and Member States willing to devote resources to creating a predictable and reliable framework.

I would end by stressing once again that the shocks we are experiencing show that more than ever we need to accelerate the energy transition as a matter of competitiveness, but also, as I already said, as a matter of energy security and economic stability.

There is no more room for diversification when thinking about natural gas. There is much more room to rely on homegrown clean energy: healthier cities, safer citizens, lower bills, more interesting industrial and business opportunities, and more security for all of us.

Thanks a lot.

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Commissioner Jørgensen

As Executive Vice-President Ribeira said, this package was indeed prepared before the crisis that we are now in.

But it's very clear that, when looking at the consequences of what's going on in the Gulf and the Middle East right now, it is exactly the measures that we are proposing here and that we are now implementing here that are necessary for us to prevent similar situations in the long run.

I will also say that we are much better prepared for this situation than we were in February 2022.

One: we've diversified our energy supply.

Two: we've got much more renewable energy in our energy system.

Three: we're much more energy efficient.

And finally, the coupling of the gas prices and the electricity prices is smaller than it was in 2022.

So this means that, although we certainly do not neglect the seriousness of the current crisis and we are monitoring it very closely (and I have just finalised the meeting with the energy ministers in the G7 where we discussed certain measures), we still do need to conclude that we do not have a security of supply issue as it is.

Therefore, whatever we need to do needs to be temporary and targeted, and our long-term strategy stands.

Now, this package is indeed delivering on our long-term strategy.

We first of all focus on our citizens.

We still have way too many citizens in Europe struggling to pay their energy bills. 42 million people every winter fail to be able to adequately heat their homes. Millions are not able to pay for their air conditioning in the summertime.

The overall cost of living crisis is partly determined by the high prices of energy. So, we need to act. Of course our industries are also struggling too, we pay 2-3 times more for our energy in Europe than they do in the US and China.

But this part of our package focuses on the citizens.

We have a very clear recommendation to the Member States: if you are at all able to lower taxes on energy, especially electricity, there is huge potential. On average, the potential for energy bills in Europe would be a saving of €200 per year, by lowering the taxes.

We also want to make it faster and simpler to switch energy supplier to help consumers, thereby exploiting the competition on the market. This would lead to an average of €152 in savings per year, if it was fully implemented.

And finally, we really need to make flexible electricity contracts and smart energy devices more widespread. This can in some instances lower energy bills by up to 40%.

We also want to protect the most vulnerable citizens, and we want to empower local communities to produce their own energy.

The second part of this package is the Clean Energy Investment Strategy.

We need huge investments in energy infrastructure in the years to come.

Just before Christmas we presented our Grids Package. And it's very clear that although only a fraction of these investments can be public money, from Member States' budget or from the EU budget, the public money and the EU money are still very important to leverage and derisk these investments.

Today we are very happy to be able to announce that, in collaboration with the EIB, we will present a package that can do exactly these things and that will leverage very big investments.

The EIB will be contributing with over €75 billion in financing in the years to come – this is a huge amount, and it will make a real difference.

Finally, our small modular reactors strategy.

It's very clear that the potential for small modular reactors, although they're not up and running anywhere in the world yet is very big.

These types of reactors will be able to, hopefully in the future, be deployed fast.

Right now, one of the challenges with nuclear energy in the countries that want to expand their production is of course that it takes a very long time.

15 years is not unusual to build a new nuclear reactor.

Whereas if this technology becomes widespread, it can happen much faster.

Also, with new fourth-generation reactors, it can become much safer and the waste problem can be minimised.

So, we are very happy that we are today able to present the first ever small modular reactor strategy from the European Union, where we will facilitate their development, with money from different sources that can help the innovation process, but also by streamlining the different processes.

The EU-Invest top up of €200 million (until 2028) is the most important part of this that I will mention here.

So all in all: a package that targets the need for new investments in and new development of small modular reactors, the need for new actions to help citizens bring down their bills, and further increase in our efforts to mobilise more investments in energy infrastructure in Europe.

Thank you.