What to expect from the EU’s Clean Industrial Plan

On 26 February 2025, the European Commission officially presented its Clean Industrial Plan (COM/2025/85), including accompanying measures to reduce energy prices. The Clean Industrial Plan is built around six main elements:

Affordable energy

Alongside the Clean Industrial Plan, the European Commission presented its Affordable Energy Action Plan (COM/2025/79). The Affordable Energy Action Plan follows four objectives:

• Lowering energy costs: The EU aims to make electricity bills more affordable by putting forward a methodology to ensure hat network charges incentivise the most efficient use of the grid, lowering energy system costs and total new grid investment needs (Action 1). Besides that, the EU pledges to bring down the cost of electricity supply, ensure well-functioning gas markets and support energy efficiency (Action 2). With regard to the gas markets, the Commission will look for options to improve the conditions for the import of natural gas (Action 3). Market actors, who provide energy efficiency solutions, will be strengthened (Action 4).

• Completing the Energy Union: As the EU has identified a fully integrated energy market and a cohesive governance framework as key drivers for a functioning Energy Union, it announced the launch of an Energy Union Task Force (Action 5).

• Attracting investments and ensuring delivery: A focus is on promoting power purchase agreements (PPAs), particularly for energy-intensive industries, which should lead to decoupling from the gas price and to less volatile prices. A tripartite contract between the public sector, energy producers and energy-consuming industries is thought to ensure a favourable investment climate (Action 6).

• Being ready for potential energy crises: The resilience of the EU energy system against geopolitical tensions, cyberattacks, deliberate attacks or extreme weather events will be strengthened (Action 7). The EU announced that the Commission will guide EU countries on the application of measures that incentivise consumers to reduce demand at certain times and will work with transmission system operators and national regulatory authorities to temporarily increase electricity flows in cross-border interconnectors, in certain situations (Action 8).

The goal is to increase the economy-wide electrification rate from 21.3% to 32% in 2030 and install 100 GW of renewable electricity capacity every year until 2030.

Boosting demand for clean products

The EU will introduce sustainability, resilience, and 'made in Europe' criteria in public and private procurements through the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act. It will furthermore review the Public Procurement Framework in 2026. The goal is to reach 40% of domestically produced key components of clean tech products on the EU market.

Financing the clean transition

As there are not enough investments to support decarbonisation, electrification and competitiveness of the industry, the Commission will adopt a Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework. In addition, there are plans to strengthen the Innovation Fund and propose an Industrial Decarbonisation Bank, aiming for €100 billion in funding. State aid rules will be simplified to give Member States more flexibility to support decarbonisation.

Circularity and access to materials

The Commission announced a New Circular Economy Act in 2026 to reduce dependencies on primary materials imports and create new jobs. The goal is to have 24% of materials circular by 2030. Besides that, an EU Critical Raw Material Centre will jointly purchase raw materials on behalf of interested companies. The idea is that this will offer more leverage to negotiate better conditions.

Acting on a global scale

The Commission aims to ensure the largest possible share of the global market for clean technologies worth $2 trillion in 2035. To achieve this, the EU will launch Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships and establish a range of trade defence and other instruments. It will further simplify and strengthen the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

Skills and quality jobs

Under the impression of at least 5 Member States that reported a shortage of skilled workers in 27 occupations in 2024, the Commission has announced that it will establish a Union of Skills to ensure that the EU’s workforce has the skills to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. In addition, Erasmus+ will be funded with up to €90 million to “reinforce education and training programs to develop a skilled and adaptable workforce, and address skills shortages in key sectors”.

The Clean Industrial Deal does not make concrete proposals at this stage, but rather sets out future actions. Over the next 18 months, the Commission will come forward with specific measures. However, the package already gives a broad idea of the initiatives to come.

The Clean Industrial Deal can be accessed here and the Affordable Energy Action Plan can be accessed here.