On September 9, the Electrification Alliance welcomed more than 90 stakeholders, including European Commission officials, MEPs, Member State representatives and industry leaders, to the Renaissance Hotel near the European Parliament for “Beyond the Crisis: Electrifying Europe and Overcoming Fragmentation.” The event, held just ahead of the State of the European Union address, opened with a networking lunch before moving into its main programme: the launch of the Electrification Alliance’s new Electrification Observatory, followed by a moderated panel discussion and Q&A. The room was packed throughout.
The event’s framing set the tone for the discussions that followed. Six years into managing consecutive energy crises, Europe remains structurally vulnerable, and not only because of its dependence on fossil fuel imports. A second, less visible vulnerability runs just as deep: internal fragmentation. Each Member State faces a different energy market, and fractured national landscapes call for different, tailored solutions rather than a single EU-wide fix.
Observatory launch
The event started with the unveiling of the Electrification Alliance’s first data tool: the Electrification Observatory. Presented by its author: Léa Malfrait, Senior Policy Officer at the Electrification Alliance, the observatory allows for easy, country-by-country comparison of electrification progress across all 27 EU Member States, with granular sectoral data spanning transport, buildings, industry and grids.
Rather than relying on scattered national data or assumptions, the Observatory brings this information into one place, making it possible to see at a glance where countries are on track and where they are falling behind. It is designed to serve as a reference point for national implementation, grounding policy discussions in evidence rather than assumptions. By making performance visible across Member States, it aims to build momentum behind the pace of electrification needed to close Europe’s energy security gap.
Specifically, the Observatory holds 27 individual country profiles (and one EU average comparative), each providing:
- Key facts about the country
- An assessment of the current state of electrification across buildings, transport and industry
- A look at the health of the national grid and congestion issues
- Latest figures on storage and smart meter penetration
- A table of active national electrification incentive schemes
- A mapping of nationally set targets for electrification in the buildings, transport and industry sectors
- An overview of the country’s main gaps and challenges
- A final assessment of the strength of its electrification trajectory, on an “at risk / lagging / on track” scale
The Observatory was presented as a working model for a proposed Commission-mandated EU energy security report, one that would identify barriers and good practices within and across Member States and help develop tailored solutions reflecting each country’s specific realities.
Panel discussion and Q&A
The panel, moderated by Electrification Alliance Director Adrian Hiel, brought together:
- Jean Sevestre Giraud, Deputy Director for Energy at France’s Directorate-General for Energy and Climate (DGEC)
- Sandra Vainutė, Energy Attaché at the Permanent Representation of Lithuania to the EU
- Tom Howes, Advisor, Green Transition and Market Regulation, DG Energy, European Commission
- Eamon Ryan, Policy Fellow at Catalyse Europe and former Irish Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications.
Grounded directly in the Observatory’s country-by-country data, the conversation focused on the specific bottlenecks holding individual Member States back from meeting their electrification targets, and on what can be learned from countries that already have national electrification strategies in place.
France offered one such example. Discussion turned to how the country worked through obstacles across grid buildout, industrial decarbonisation, political gridlock and heat pump deployment on its way to the “Électrifions la France” plan, and to the broader question of where EU-level frameworks, such as state aid rules or shared targets, genuinely help national ministries rather than adding red tape.
Lithuania brought a different vantage point, rooted in energy security, synchronisation and resilience against external pressure, prompting discussion of where the gap lies between individual Member State trajectories and what a coherent, secure European energy market requires, including realities that can go unnoticed from Brussels.
Ireland’s experience, drawn from being in the middle of developing its own national electrification action plan amidst its European Council presidency, added a further angle: what it took to build a country-wide pro-electrification stance, how smaller or peripheral energy markets can bridge the distance between ambitious targets and the physical constraints of supply chains and grid lead times, and how Europe can move from short-term crisis management toward predictable, long-term market frameworks. Ireland’s experience managing a sharp rise in electricity demand from data centres and digital infrastructure also featured, offering lessons on balancing that growth with grid capacity and decarbonisation goals.
The Commission’s contribution turned to the divergence across Member State trajectories and to the tension between rigid state aid rules and the pace industrial electrification now demands, alongside how a systematic, EU-mandated energy report could better align industrial policy, state aid and electrification ahead of upcoming strategic milestones.
Looking ahead
Three points stood out from the discussion.
- Affordability remains top of mind, and functions as the practical indicator of what is politically viable going forward.
- Swapping fossil fuel suppliers is not a substitute for energy security: it offers short-term relief, not a long-term fix.
- And as electrification grows, industries across the board will increasingly draw on the same grid, meaning planning needs to become more interconnected too.
These points sharpen the case the Electrification Alliance has been building toward throughout the event: an independent, authoritative report on Europe’s energy security, and on the role electrification plays in delivering it, as previewed during the Observatory’s launch. Such a report would show where each Member State stands today, what is working, and what continued delays in implementation cost. Hundreds across civil society, industry and policy have already joined the call for it. The EU has taken this approach before on competitiveness and on the single market; energy security warrants the same treatment.