In her annual State of the Union address EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen highlighted the new geopolitical reality based on hard power. To keep its place in this new world order, Europe needs to take control of the energies and technologies which fuel its economy. Von der Leyen termed it “Europe’s independence moment”.
Amid this increasing geopolitical uncertainty, she doubled down on the urgent need to implement Europe’s Clean Industrial Deal. “This transformation is central to our push for independence”, von der Leyen said. She said international “dependencies are ruthlessly weaponised” and pledged to “get rid of dirty Russian fossil fuels completely”.
Von der Leyen’s steer was clear: to become less dependent on international developments, Europe’s economy must become more European. She pledged to “massively invest in digital and clean tech”. She repeated her determination to ramp up clean tech manufacturing in Europe and stressed that urgent action was needed to maintain Europe’s global clean tech leadership. And she committed to work on the completion of the EU Single Market via a new Roadmap to 2028.
“The EU Commission is clear: we need more home-grown wind energy. It boosts energy security. It means lower energy bills for consumers. It strengthens our industrial competitiveness. Europe’s wind industry and its 400,000 workers are ready to step up to the task”, says WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson.
Direct electrification and grids
The EU Commission President also reaffirmed her determination to strengthen the direct electrification of Europe’s economy, among other things with a new electric vehicle initiative and a Battery Booster Package.
But most crucially, Europe needs to invest in its grid infrastructure and interconnections. Electricity grids are the foundation for any electrification effort. The Commission President reminded a European Grids Package is on the way before the end of this year. And announced a new European Energy Highways initiative which will identify eight critical cross-border grid bottlenecks and bring together politicians and industry to resolve them.
Bringing electricity prices down for citizens and companies
Europe is facing a cost-of-living crisis – fuelled by spiralling costs for electricity and housing. “We know what brings electricity prices down”, von der Leyen insisted: “domestically produced clean tech.” She also stressed the critical role an accelerated deployment of renewables plays for Europe’s wider economic competitiveness. Competitive electricity prices are key to ensuring energy-intensive industries keep producing in Europe.
More demand for clean tech
To create more demand for domestically produced clean tech von der Leyen announced the introduction of a new “made in Europe” criterion in public procurement procedures as well as an Industrial Accelerator Act for key clean technologies.
How to build more wind energy, faster
WindEurope welcomes the European Commission’s push to accelerate the build-out of home-grown, competitive wind energy. But in the first half of 2025 the EU only built 5.3 GW of new wind, less than expected and not nearly enough to deliver the EU’s 2030 energy security and climate targets.
To resolve that, National Governments need to remove the four main obstacles to new wind energy projects. They must:
- speed up permitting by ruthlessly implementing the excellent Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII);
- optimise and expand Europe’s electricity grid and interconnections;
- remove all barriers to direct electrification; and
- de-risk wind energy auctions with a stable pipeline of two-sided Contracts for Difference (CfD) auctions.
“It’s time to seriously ramp up wind energy in the EU – we only built 5 GW in the first half of this year. Governments have got to pull their finger out – apply the EU permitting rules, build out the grids more quickly, push electrification. And make sure there’s a business case for clean energy.”, says Giles Dickson.
