Have the article read by OpenAI (Beta). Please note that AI translations may take some time to process.An affordable energy action plan for the European Union will save 45 billion Euro by 2026, European Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen told the European Newsroom (enr) in an interview published on Wednesday.
The Commission has also calculated that the savings created by the plan will continue to increase and that by 2030, 130 billion Euro in annual savings is possible, rising to 260 billion Euro by 2040, Jørgensen said.
“So these are huge amounts, it’s not small things,” he stressed. Per household, this averages at 200 Euro a year, he added.
The plan is part of the Clean Industrial Deal, an EU strategy to revive Europe’s industry without giving up on its climate goals and encourage investments in decarbonisation and clean technologies in the European Union.
One of the immediate steps is for EU member states to lower the taxes paid by energy intensive industries on electricity and eliminate levies that finance non-energy policies.
To ensure price stability for businesses, the Commission will also relax state aid rules to allow EU countries to subsidise industrial firms.
The Commission also wants to tackle bottlenecks and delays in the permitting process and help the industry sector to switch to cleaner energy sources.
In the long term, the Commission will work with EU countries to dramatically increase investments in energy grids, renewable energy and energy storage capacity.
In another move for the future, Brussels is shifting the bloc’s focus towards more long-term electricity contracts to counteract price fluctuations.
A lot of the responsibility for lower energy bills lies with the EU countries as taxation for example is a competency of individual states and a good way to make money for them. Thus, a great deal of the plan’s success relies on the bloc’s members and their willingness to cooperate with the Commission’s recommendations.
Jørgensen said he was willing to take action himself and consider new legislation to bring down energy prices if EU member states “do not implement the recommendations”, highlighting taxes on electricity as an example.
Industry feedback positive
Industry lobby groups have pressed the Commission for a long time to tackle high energy prices and reduce business costs. Business Europe, said the action plan was a step in the right direction but that the Commission must now “walk the talk” to reduce energy prices.
Jørgensen however was satisfied that private industry backed the measures, describing the feedback from business leaders as “very, very positive”.
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