Brussels, 11 April 2024 – Ahead of Council discussions on the Strategic Agenda 2024-2029, the Electrification Alliance – a network of 10 European organisations representing all segments of the electricity value chain –  reiterates why accelerating clean electrification is paramount to solving the priorities defined by Member States at the Granada meeting in October 2023, namely: competitiveness, security, and resilience, while improving citizens’ quality of life.

Direct electrification via homegrown clean energy sources drives Europe’s response to a number of recent challenges which have tested the foundations of our energy system – COVID, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the bumpy economic recovery, and the climate crisis. But Europe’s rate of electrification is stagnating at less than a quarter of all energy use, as large parts of the economy are still running on fossil fuels. We therefore call for clean electrification to become a transversal enabler of the next Strategic Agenda and for the release of an Electrification Action Plan in the first 100 days of the Commission’s upcoming mandate.

“Europe finds itself at a crossroads of rethinking our energy sources and consumption. How can we ensure a safe, clean, reliable, and sustainable flow of power that will cover our needs, but also support our decarbonisation goals? Electrification is an obvious choice, as it provides a homegrown solution while also creating an economic opportunity. At the Electrification Alliance, we strongly urge the European Commission to recognise this opportunity as well, and cement it in an Electrification Action Plan”, says Maciej Mazur, President of AVERE (electro-mobility), co-chair of the Electrification Alliance.

Julie Beaufils, Secretary General of EuropeOn (electrical contractors) and co-chair of the Electrification Alliance adds: “With no time to lose, EU leaders must assert the central role electrification stands to play in Europe’s future, safeguarding its competitiveness, reaching its climate targets, and fostering resilience and energy security. An Electrification Action Plan will endow market actors with the needed predictability to make investments that will bring about tremendous socio-economic benefits and local, stable and prosperous jobs for all Europeans”.

Read the letter here.

Link to the EA’s manifesto