This blogpost is authored by Bruno Liebhaberg, CERRE Executive Chairman.
Last week, I had the pleasure of moderating the policy session “A Letta Report for Energy: Rethinking EU Energy Governance in the Next Decade”, co-hosted by CERRE during the European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW), organised by the European Commission.
With this year’s topic being “A clean, secure and competitive Energy Union”, our discussion could hardly have been more timely. At first sight, governance may appear less visible than questions of technology, infrastructure or market design. Yet, as Europe’s energy transition advances, governance is increasingly becoming one of the determining factors of success of the energy transition.
Europe’s objectives are well known. We aim to strengthen competitiveness, guarantee security of supply, accelerate decarbonisation and deliver affordable energy to citizens and industry. What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that achieving these objectives – and navigating the trade-offs between them – is not only a matter of setting targets, incentives and rules. It is also a matter of ensuring that institutions, responsibilities, planning processes and accountability mechanisms are fit for purpose.
Over the last decade, the European Union has built a sophisticated framework of institutions and laws to coordinate and execute energy and climate policy. The Governance Regulation, adopted in 2018, for example, introduced Integrated National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), long-term strategies, monitoring mechanisms and a common framework for planning and reporting. It was an important innovation, and it has undoubtedly contributed to greater coherence across Member States.
However, the context has changed significantly since then. Wars in Ukraine and Iran have highlighted the need to diversify our energy sources and speed up the energy transition. Concerns about dependencies in a new and greener energy sector need to be addressed. And AI is imposing significant new pressures on energy networks. All that means new infrastructure must be planned and delivered at unprecedented speed – and in a context of unprecedented technological and geopolitical uncertainty.
As a result, governance is no longer merely an administrative question. It has become a strategic one.
This is reflected in the debate currently taking place across Europe. The European Commission has launched the revision of the Governance Regulation with the objective of simplifying, strengthening and modernising the framework for the decade ahead. Among the key questions being discussed are how to mobilise investment at scale, how to improve delivery, how to simplify reporting obligations, and how to develop a more genuinely European approach to energy planning in dialogue with the Commission, Member States and the many other relevant stakeholders.
At the same time, these discussions resonate strongly with the broader reflections initiated by Enrico Letta on the future of the Single Market.
Energy is perhaps the clearest example of an area where European integration has already generated substantial benefits, but where important governance challenges are still holding back even greater gains. Markets have become increasingly integrated. Common rules cover energy trading. Planning is becoming increasingly European (though still within constraints). Yet implementation responsibilities remain dispersed: Member States retain significant control over their energy mix, infrastructure choices, taxation and consumer protection, while market design and the overarching regulatory framework remain set in Brussels.
This raises a fundamental question: is the current institutional architecture sufficient to complete the Internal Energy Market, deliver the Energy Union, and respond to today’s unpredictable technological and geopolitical challenges?
Seeking answers to this challenge is the objective of an ongoing CERRE research project examining the future of EU energy governance. The project will culminate in the presentation of our final report and policy recommendations at the event “A Letta Report for Energy: Towards a New Energy Governance Framework” on 15 October 2026 in Brussels, where we will discuss our proposed way forward.
Watch the recording of CERRE’s EUSEW session organised by the European Commission here.
Subscribe to CERRE’s newsletter here to stay informed about future developments and upcoming events.
