#repowereu

...Brussels launched the Grids Package. Can this plan cut Europe’s reliance on foreign energy? Energy dependence became Europe’s urgent problem in 2022. And yet, the EU continues to lean on imported fossil fuels. To reduce Russian influence, Europe has shifted to liquid natural gas (LNG), with 10-15% of its supply now passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Recent attacks in the Gulf have slowed shipping through the strait, intensifying the impact on Europe. Scarcity is increasing demand for oil and gas, driving up electricity and fuel prices. Europe’s efforts to reduce energy dependence have not matched its capabilities. According to MEP and Volt co-founder Damian Boeselager, a decade-long “reactive stance” is responsible.-2026 is expected to be a turning point. The Grids Package and the Citizens Energy Package aim to establish a single European energy market with cross-border infrastructure to ensure more secure and accessible energy. How ready is Europe today? Under REPowerEU, the EU decisively expanded member states’ gas storage capacity to at least 90% every year, boosting energy security from 2022 onward. Renewables hit 25.2% of the EU’s overall energy consumption in 2025, increasing the bloc’s domestic energy production while reducing Russian gas imports from 45% in 2022 to 13% by 2025. EU diversification of fossil fuel supply was decisive. In 2021, Russian gas accounted for 45% of imports, oil for 27%, and coal for 50%. Latest data show that in Q3-2025, 60% of EU LNG came from the US, 70% of coal came from Australia and the US, and Norway, the US, and Kazakhstan supplied 42% of the bloc's petroleum needs.

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L'UE dichiara indipendenza dalla Cina. La Commissione Europea corre ai ripari dopo le nuove restrizioni di Pechino. Un piano ambizioso basato su riciclo, nuove alleanze e produzione interna per assicurare all'Europa litio, cobalto e terre rare, vitali per l'industria verde e digitale.

L'Unione Europea si prepara a una mossa strategica per blindare la propria economia. La presidente della Commissione, Ursula von der Leyen, ha annunciato il lancio di RESourceEU, un piano nato per tagliare la critica dipendenza dell'Europa dalla Cina per la fornitura di terre rare e materiali strategici.

La scintilla che ha reso il piano non più rimandabile è arrivata da Pechino, che ha imposto nuove restrizioni sull'esportazione di questi elementi, fondamentali per produrre qualsiasi cosa, dai chip per smartphone alle batterie per auto elettriche.

Intervenendo al Berlin Global Dialogue, von der Leyen ha parlato di una "chiara accelerazione" nell'uso delle interdipendenze economiche come armi di pressione geopolitica. L'obiettivo di RESourceEU è quindi netto: "mettere in sicurezza le catene di approvvigionamento europee" e garantire l'autonomia industriale del continente.

Il modello: da REPowerEU a RESourceEU

Il progetto ricalca l'esperienza di REPowerEU, il massiccio piano da 225 miliardi di euro lanciato nel 2022 per liberare l'Europa dalla dipendenza del gas russo dopo l'invasione dell'Ucraina.

Se allora la crisi era energetica, oggi è industriale. L'attenzione si sposta sui materiali indispensabili per la doppia transizione, verde e digitale: litio, nichel, cobalto e terre rare.

La strategia europea in tre pilastri

Secondo quanto spiegato da von der Leyen, il nuovo piano si muoverà su tre direttrici principali per costruire un ecosistema resiliente:

- Economia Circolare (Riciclo) Potenziamento massimo del recupero e del riciclo delle risorse già contenute nei prodotti in disuso presenti sul territorio europeo. - Accordi Strategici (Diversificazione) Costruzione di nuove partnership per diversificare le fonti di approvvigionamento. L'UE sta già dialogando con Paesi come Ucraina, Australia, Canada, Kazakistan, Uzbekistan, Cile e Groenlandia. - Capacità Interna (Raffinazione) Rafforzare la capacità industriale interna di raffinazione dei materiali grezzi, un'attività che oggi è quasi totalmente concentrata in Asia. Dialogo e difesa

Bruxelles non esclude di utilizzare gli strumenti di difesa commerciale, come l'Anti-Coercion Instrument (strumento anti-coercizione), per rispondere a pratiche ritenute ostili. Tuttavia, la presidente ha sottolineato la volontà di mantenere aperto il dialogo con la Cina per affrontare il tema delle restrizioni nei prossimi incontri bilaterali.

"L'Europa non può ripetere gli errori commessi con l'energia," ha concluso von der Leyen. "Abbiamo imparato la lezione". RESourceEU è la risposta di Bruxelles per garantire all'industria europea, dalla mobilità elettrica all'aerospazio, una base solida per il futuro.

يدخل العالم عصرًا جديدًا من المنافسة العالمية، تتصدره تكنولوجيا التصنيع النظيف. وقد أعادت هذه التحولات السياسات الصناعية إلى الواجهة، إذ تستثمر الصين عبر برنامج “صنع في الصين 2025″، والولايات المتحدة من خلال قانون خفض التضخم (IRA)، مليارات الدولارات من الأموال العامة للحصول على حصة من سوق يُتوقع أن تبلغ 650 مليار دولار بحلول عام 2030. حقق الاتحاد الأوروبي تقدمًا مهمًا، حيث وضعت خطته الصناعية…

The European Union has made one step forward towards breaking free of its dependence on Russian fossil fuel imports and diversifying its energy supplies.

Representatives from the European Parliament and the EU council struck an early morning provisional deal on Wednesday to allow EU countries to add a REPowerEU chapter to their post-COVID national recovery and resilience plans.

REPowerEU is a plan unveiled in May by the Commission in response to Moscow's war on Ukraine to utilise €225 billion of unspent money initially earmarked to help the bloc's economies rebound from their COVID slump to speed up the energy transition and diversify energy supplies away from Russia.

The deal will enable capitals across the bloc to receive crucial funding for key investments and reforms supporting the energy transition and the increased resilience of the EU energy system.

"We delivered on what we promised: REPowerEU will enter into force at the beginning of next year. We successfully concluded negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council last night,” Siegfried Mureşan, EPP Group Vice-Chair for Budgets and Structural Policies and one of the main negotiators, said.

"With 20 billion euros in new funds, REPowerEU will support Member States in reducing their dependency on Russian fossil fuels. It will also speed up the transition to renewable energy.”

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Lawmakers in the European Parliament are considering adding a biomethane mandate to the Renewable Energy Directive, a move aimed at weaning Europe off of imported fossil fuels. But in doing so, they risk repeating past mistakes, argues Chelsea Baldino.

Chelsea Baldino is a researcher with the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), a non-profit organisation.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine provoked an energy crisis in Europe, and food prices are escalating. Against this backdrop, EU policymakers are negotiating the Fit for 55 package to reduce Europe’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 55% relative to 1990 levels by 2030.

Policymakers are rushing to support Europe’s clean and independent energy future, but there is a lesson for them to remember from the past. 

Over a decade ago, policymakers seeking a green alternative to fossil fuels supported the first-generation biofuel industry, which uses food and feeds like maise and soy to produce fuel.

We see today that this was a mistake.

The demand created by the first-generation biofuel industry exacerbates food price increases.

And food and feed-based biofuels don’t only hurt our pockets at the supermarket. Increases in food prices encourage farmers to convert forests and grasslands into new crop fields, releasing enough GHG emissions to negate the climate benefits of avoiding fossil fuels. 

We are now hearing the same kind of arguments again. This spring, the European Commission released a RePowerEU Plan to wean the EU off Russian fossil fuels. It calls for 35 billion cubic meters (bcm) of biomethane production by 2030.

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Most countries in Central Europe use the atom. Poland still does not

The Czech Republic, which will take over the EU presidency in July, is one of the leading advocates for increasing the role of the atom in the European energy mix. Moreover, for the first time, the atom as an alternative to Russian raw materials was mentioned by the European Commission. Meanwhile, Poland, as ESPON programme experts remind, is one of the few countries in Central Europe that does…

Viktor Orban: Sanctions would cause serious supply disruptions in Hungary

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has proposed to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, that the European Commission’s proposal for a sixth package of sanctions against Russia should not be put on the agenda of the Council’s next meeting at the end of May. In a letter sent to MTI by his press chief, Bertalan Havasi, the prime minister said that the proposed sanctions, if adopted, would…