The European Commission’s European Grids Package and the Energy Highways initiative, both proposed on 10 December, are intended to enable energy to flow efficiently across all member states, integrating cheaper clean energy and accelerating electrification. The backbone of European energy system, the grids infrastructure, will be modernised and expanded to unleash its full potential.
This is expected to help lower energy prices, and ensure a secure and reliable supply as Europe moves away from Russian energy imports to achieve energy independence.
The Grids Package marks a new approach to energy infrastructure by bringing a European perspective on infrastructure planning, while accelerating permitting procedures and ensuring a fairer division of costs regarding cross-border projects The new approach will allow the best use of Europe’s existing energy infrastructure and, in parallel, accelerate the development of grids and other physical energy infrastructure across the EU.
To future-proof the grid infrastructure, the Commission is proposing additional ways of financing. Cost-sharing and bundling are examples: increasingly integrated cross-border energy infrastructure deliver benefits beyond the territories where they are built. This makes fair and transparent cost-sharing essential to avoid disproportionate burdens on local consumers. To tackle this, the European Grids Package aims to provide more transparency and fairness in the way costs and benefits are assessed. Bundling infrastructure projects can also make financing easier, for example through the establishment of special purpose vehicles, thereby attracting additional investment.
Announced by president Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union 2025 address, the establishment of eight Energy Highways addresses the most urgent infrastructure needs that require additional short-term support and commitment for implementation. They were selected based on their strategic importance to complete the Energy Union and on the level of political support from the EU needed for their successful implementation.
The Commission is committed to immediately fast-tracking the Energy Highways through enhanced political co-ordination, drawing on the Regional High-Level Groups, mobilising support of European co-ordinators and working closely with the Energy Union Task Force, extending outreach beyond EU Member States where necessary. Each project will be prioritised at EU level, and the Commission will support Member States in giving them the same priority nationally.
Next steps
The legislative proposals will now pass to the European Parliament and the Council under the ordinary legislative procedure. In parallel, the Commission will continue collaborating closely with member states and all relevant stakeholders to implement key cross-border energy infrastructure projects – as recently published under the second Union list on Projects of Common Interest and Projects of Mutual Interest.
