On July 15, the European Commission is expected to publish its much awaited Electrification Action Plan (EAP). This is the moment AccelerateEU’s commitments will take shape.
Here’s what we are looking for in the EAP, and why it matters.
Electrification as the answer, not an option
The starting point has to be recognition. In 2024, nearly 60% of the EU’s energy needs came from net imports. The 2026 war in the Middle East, has, so far, cost the EU an additional €29 billion. Europe has faced this kind of shock before, and it will face it again unless the structural response is locked in.
Clean direct electrification combined with system flexibility, could deliver hundreds of billions in savings by 2040 and cut import dependency in half. Every euro invested in electricity grids could return more than two euros in system cost savings.
The Commission must recognise clean direct electrification as a long term substitute for fossil fuels. Concretely, for the EAP this means having an EU-wide electrification target, tracked through NECPs, with clear KPIs aligned to at least 32% electrification by 2030 and 50% by 2040. These figures come from the Commission’s own Clean Industrial Deal and 2040 Climate Target Impact Assessment. The EAP should formalise them.
This is not a technocratic agenda searching for a constituency. Our recent YouGov polling with E3G and T&E across five major European countries found that over 6 in 10 Europeans believe reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels makes Europe safer, and crucially, these views cut across traditional left-right political divides. Support for heat pumps among Fratelli d’Italia voters in Italy stands at 76%. Among CDU/CSU voters in Germany, 70% back EU funding for electric vehicles.
The business community is saying the same thing as We Mean Business Coalition shows. Over 100 companies representing more than $1.5 trillion in combined annual revenue have signed a joint statement calling on governments to establish clean electrification as a central pillar of economic and industrial strategy. The Commission does not need to convince anyone. It needs to act.
Fix how electricity is taxed
Second, the EAP needs to resolve the basic contradiction underlying Europe’s electrification agenda: electricity is still taxed as though it were harmful. The tax structures across the EU were designed for a system where electricity was predominantly fossil based, and where higher consumption genuinely carried environmental costs. That system no longer exists in the same form, but the fiscal framework does.
The EAP should push electricity taxes down to minimum levels, remove non-electricity-related levies from bills (Portugal and Greece levy their broadcasting fee through electricity bills), and apply 0% VAT to heat pumps, electric vehicles, batteries, and smart chargers.
Beyond households, the EAP must also ensure that financial support frameworks are reoriented toward electrification: scaling up the EIB Frontloading Facility, institutionalising the Industrial Decarbonisation Bank, and creating EU-wide market mechanisms that support non-fossil flexibility.
Scale up the supply side and accelerate grid development
Of course, none of this works without clean power and grids to convey it. That is why the EAP needs to expand EU-level tools for de-risking power purchase agreements, including credit guarantees, so that renewable energy developers can invest with confidence. Additionally, grid modernisation and expansion must be fast-tracked through increased funding, facilitated anticipatory investments, and cross-border interconnection. Long-term investment frameworks, including the next Multiannual Financial Framework, must lock in commitments to clean power, grid infrastructure, and energy efficiency.
Industrial electrification projects should be prioritised under the ETS investment booster, with state aid frameworks actively used to support sectors that can electrify fastest.
Scaling clean power supply also depends on being able to build it. Permitting is one of the most persistent barriers to electrification in Europe. RED III rules exist; they are not being fully implemented. Administrative barriers remain across the board, for solar, wind, heat pumps, EV charging infrastructure, battery storage, and grid connections alike.
The EAP must change this in concrete terms: digitalised procedures, priority to projects that are ready to go live in connection queues, streamlined entry criteria aligned with the Commission’s 2025 guidance on efficient grid connections, and the removal of the administrative obstacles that slow everything else down. Fair to say that projects that take a decade to get a permit cannot deliver on a 2030 target.
Hold the regulatory line
One of the most important signals the EAP can send has nothing to do with new measures. It has to do with maintaining the ones already agreed. MEP Jutta Paulus made this point at our recent event at the European Parliament while talking about CO2 standards for cars : “The EU has always had one single unique selling point: regulatory certainty. That has now changed. The Omnibus package makes us go backwards. That’s not what is needed. What we need is certainty.”
Manufacturers building EV production lines, developers financing charging networks, grid operators planning decade-long infrastructure buildouts, none of them can work from a shifting baseline. When the Commission published their Automotive omnibus weakening the 2035 zero-emission car target in December last year, the signal it sent went far beyond that single regulation. It raised questions about the stability of the entire framework. The EAP must counter that by committing to the swift and effective implementation of what is already on the books: RED III, ETS2, EPBD, AFIR, the EU Action Plan for Grids. Agreed targets must be maintained.
Where this has to land
The final question is where does electrification concretely happen? and that is in our transport, our industries, and our buildings. The legislative framework, through the EAP, must enable this directly. The 2035 zero-emission car target must be upheld, the Clean Corporate Vehicles regulation adopted without further delay, and CO2 standards for trucks upheld to a 90% reduction target by 2040. In industry, low- and medium-temperature heat electrification is cost-effective and ready to scale now – it should be an explicit priority. In buildings, the phase-out of fossil fuel heating needs to accelerate, particularly for new homes. Workforce shortages must be addressed through national electrification alliances, and the Primary Energy Factor for electricity should be set as low as possible to make the economics work for consumers.
The legislative framework is mostly there at EU level, the EAP now has to make commitments credible, because the cost of another energy crisis is one Europe cannot keep absorbing. Find out more.
News from the Electrification Alliance
- On June 23, together with more than 40 organisations and alliances, the Electrification Alliance we launched the #ElectrifyNow Campaign. A global campaign to accelerate renewable-powered electrification. The campaign aims to build global momentum towards increasing electricity’s share of final energy consumption to 35% by 2035 and putting electrification at the centre of energy policy. Read more.
- Our video series Can Adrian Electrify His Home for Free? has received an honorable mention from the BestinBrussels.eu award. We are grateful to see the grassroot and candid video series being recognised for its openness and broad audience engagement.
- Talking about Can Adrian Electrify his Home for Free, every video that you have seen on LinkedIn or Youtube now also exists as an article on our website! Check them out here.
News from members
E-Mobility Europe‘s latest EV Sales Bulletin shows battery electric vehicles are approaching one in four new car registrations in Europe. BEVs reached a 23.6% market share across 17 key markets in May, with 212,387 units registered, a 34.4% year-on-year increase, bringing year-to-date volumes to 962,010 (+31.8%). Growth is broadening across the continent: France reached a 29.5% BEV share, Germany 25%, and Italy remains the fastest-growing major market with over 100% year-to-date growth, while Southern and Eastern Europe are catching up to the Northern and Western markets that continue to lead. Policy remains a key driver, with the strongest-performing markets combining incentives, tax benefits and industrial support to accelerate uptake. Read the full bulletin here.
New analysis from the European Heat Pump Association shows Europe’s heat pumps now provide as much heat as the LNG carried by over 200 tankers, double the volume that arrived in the EU from the Middle East in 2025, and around 7% of the EU’s total annual imported LNG. This avoided €9.7 billion in import costs last year alone. EHPA’s new 2026 market report also shows heat pump sales rose 13% in 2025, reaching 2.9 million units sold across 21 European countries and bringing the total installed stock to 29.3 million. Those 2.9 million new units alone displace 2.5 bcm of LNG, roughly 24% of the EU’s Middle East imports. Read the full press release here.
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