Measures in the package are intended to deliver on the Affordable Energy Action Plan, which we looked at here: Clean Industrial Deal: Crucial Role of the Energy Sector.

The package includes three strategies, discussed below. While these strategies do not include legislative proposals, their significance lies in their strong policy signalling across a wide sweep of areas, their indication of future legislative intent, and their prioritisations for funding and investment.

Clean Energy Investment Strategy

A Clean Energy Investment Strategy aims to improve the link between available private capital and Europe’s pipeline of energy projects. It identifies the scale of the investment gap: energy investment must reach approximately EUR 660 billion per year in 2026-2030 and EUR 695 billion per year in 2031-2040, contrasted with an average of EUR 240 billion per year in 2011-2021.

Europe has large pools of capital (EUR 33.7 trillion under private management; EUR 12 trillion with insurers/pension funds) but barriers to mobilisation include inappropriate risk allocation, bankability and market structure. Non‑financial barriers that increase risk and deter private investment include lengthy permitting processes, fragmented national markets and regulatory divergence, and under‑valuation of system benefits like flexibility, grid reinforcement, and storage.

As well as seeking to increase access to capital markets, the Commission ties the strategy to InvestEU (over EUR 57 billion already mobilised in energy), CEF‑Energy (budget increased to approximately EUR 30 billion), and the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (“CISAF”). The Commission is clearly encouraging increased State aid when it estimates that CISAF could mobilise “three‑digit billions” if widely used by Member States.

The Strategy sets out the actions summarised below.

1. Strengthening grid operator balance sheets: The Commission proposes to deploy a Strategic Infrastructure Investment Fund with the European Investment Bank (“EIB“) as an equity platform for targeted investment alongside infrastructure funds; an Operator Securitisation Facility to complement existing EIB instruments by evaluating off-balance sheet financing structures with a view to converting future regulated revenue streams into immediate liquidity; and use of hybrid bonds, treated in part as equity, to allow operators to increase debt capacity without breaching credit limits or diluting existing ownership and control.
2. Supporting access to finance for operators via loan securitisation and intermediated lending for small operators: The Commission plans to explore, with the EIB, how to support access to finance for grid operators by freeing up banks’ lending capacity, allowing banks to grant new loans to grid operators without direct reliance on public subsidies or state budgets, while crowding‐in private institutional capital.
3. De-risking innovative clean energy generation technologies and long-duration storage: The International Energy Agency estimates that around 35% of emissions reduction required by 2050 will rely on technologies not yet on the market. The Commission intends with the EIB to support investment in technologies including long-duration energy storage, floating wind, floating solar, ocean energy (wave and tidal), airborne wind energy, agrivoltaics, advanced bio-based renewable solutions, CCS and CCUS. The Commission also intends to strengthen energy efficiency financing through several mechanisms and will this year launch a pilot to accelerate uptake of “energy efficiency as a service” models.
4. Establishing an energy transition investment council: The Commission will establish a Council to include representatives from investment as a platform for strategic feedback.

The EU also intends to scale up financial support for infrastructure, with the Commission proposing a five-fold increase as part of the 2028-2034 Multi-annual Financial Framework. This would increase the CEF Energy budget from €5.84 billion to €29.91 billion.

This Strategy is a strong statement of intent and may be helpful in justifying State aid notifications under CISAF, supporting EIB and InvestEU eligibility arguments, and framing permitting and grid reform proposals.

Citizens Energy Package

The Citizens Energy Package will be of interest to energy supply and energy services companies, among others. Activities within the remit of energy supply companies have increased significantly over the last decades, with many having complex legal underpinnings in the Internal Market in Electricity and Gas legislation. This package makes clear that the Commission expects a number of stakeholders to help deliver on social outcomes and use innovative solutions to increase affordability and reduce energy poverty. Energy communities and energy sharing are also held up as a tool to help to reduce grid costs.

The key actions in this package are set out below.

1. Lowering taxes and levies on electricity for households to EU minimum: Member States are to carry out tax reviews and make full use of flexibilities in EU legislation. They are to consider targeted reductions of excise duty rates on electricity.
2. Lowering network costs for local customers: Regulatory authorities could consider targeted incentives in grid tariffs for flexible local consumption to reduce overall grid costs. Energy communities and citizens sharing energy are held up as mechanisms to achieve this. The Commission plans to cooperate with ACER and regulatory authorities on the swift implementation of its guidance on network charge design (PDF, 212KB).
3. Boosting the use of clean and energy-efficient technologies: Within the European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition, the Commission plans to devise energy service models and financing solutions, increase uptake of home and buildings energy management systems and smart appliances, and improve households’ access to electrified, flexible, and efficient energy services and technologies (Q4 2026).
4. Empowering consumers to have the cheapest offer and to switch supplier quickly: The Commission will adopt technical rules on supplier switching (Q1 2026); adopt a recommendation on key terms and conditions of energy contracts (Q1 2026); and consider a recommendation on standardised templates for energy bills (2027).
5. Boosting energy self-production and energy sharing among citizens: The Commission will provide guidance to drive potential energy communities and energy self-consumption (Q1 2026); adopt an implementing regulation on data interoperability to ensure that energy sharing is easy to use and fully automated for consumers (2027); and issue step-by-step guides on how to set up and manage community energy projects (2026-2027).
6. Promoting flexibility through retail contracts: The Commission will provide guidance to promote the remuneration of flexibility in retail contracts (Q1 2026); improve access to the data required for flexibility with an implementing regulation on interoperability requirements and procedures (2027); and promote the potential of flexibility and efficiency in projects under new Partnerships for Better Homes (2026).
7. Strengthening consumer trust: The Commission will propose a code of service on consumer rights to energy suppliers, who can commit voluntarily to high consumer protection standards based on transparency, fairness, mutual trust and accountability (Q4 2026); publish guidance to support regulatory authorities in preventing supplier failures by improving risk management (Q1 2026); and assess the need to adopt a new post-2029 consumer energy rights legal proposal (to safeguard consumer rights in new innovative contracts and address aggressive or misleading (tele-)marketing practices) (2028).
8. Joining forces to reduce energy poverty: Several actions are planned which include updating the Recommendation on Energy Poverty (Q4 2026); providing technical assistance and guidance to protect vulnerable citizens (2026-2028); and funding new projects under the LIFE programme, which addresses energy poverty (2026-2027).
9. Protecting vulnerable citizens from disconnections: The Commission will produce guidelines and organise training around disconnection safeguards (Q2-Q3 2026); and will communicate available supports (throughout 2026).

Strategy for Small Modular Reactors (“SMRs”)

The European Commission considers that SMRs have significant potential to contribute to climate neutrality while ensuring energy security, affordability, and industrial competitiveness. The Strategy for Small Modular Reactors indicates that the EU needs to take urgent action to stay at the forefront of deploying this technology, and that deployment of the first SMRs in Europe by the 2030s is realistic. Factors identified as relevant to success include access to capital, pooling of knowledge, infrastructure and resources, alignment of regulatory frameworks across Member States, shortening of licensing timelines, standardisation of designs, adoption of a fleet approach, and development of strong supply chains.

Nine key actions are elaborated in this strategy, with a focus on strengthening EU industry in this sector. Actions include, for example, developing de-risking schemes for scaling up innovative nuclear technologies and designing Important Projects of Common European Interest on innovative nuclear technologies.

Position in Ireland

Ireland has a long-standing policy position against the domestic generation of electricity from nuclear fission, which has legislative footing in planning and energy regulatory law. The prohibition relating to nuclear fission does not extend to consumption of electricity generated from nuclear sources abroad, and nuclear power is consumed to the extent that it forms part of the energy mix imported to Ireland over interconnectors. 

Ireland’s 2025 Programme for Government (PDF, 881KB) and National Energy and Climate Plan 2021-2030 focus on achieving 80% renewable electricity by 2030 and net zero by 2050, with no role for nuclear power. There is some limited debate around keeping the position under review, and an Irish Academy of Engineering report has suggested that Ireland needs to keep an open mind about SMRs as part of a contingency plan for achieving net zero by 2050.

Regulatory pathways to support delivery

Overall, this package contains measures which will likely be useful to industry in articulating the strong policy and legal context supportive of solutions they wish to bring to market and the regulatory pathways at national level required to enable them.