Europe’s energy-intensive industries have outlined key demands to ensure the EU’s upcoming Electrification Action Plan, expected in May 2026, delivers affordable electricity for industry. In a joint position paper, the Alliance of Energy Intensive Industries, which brings together European industry associations representing sectors with high energy use, including the European Steel Association (EUROFER) and European Metals, warned that persistently high and volatile electricity prices are undermining industrial competitiveness and delaying decarbonization investments.
The sectors represented by the Alliance employ around 2.6 million people across the EU and underpin critical value chains. However, electricity costs in Europe remain structurally high compared to third countries, contributing to plant closures, reduced output and stalled electrification projects.
Recent data showing minimal growth in EU electricity demand in 2024 highlight what industries describe as a widening gap between climate ambitions and economic realities.
Key demands ahead of May plan
To make electrification viable in practice, the Alliance is calling on the European Commission to:
- set a competitive benchmark of €50/MWh for total industrial electricity costs;
- guarantee energy-intensive sectors access to cost-based electricity;
- maintain EU ETS indirect cost compensation beyond 2030;
- invest in grid infrastructure while keeping network tariffs low for industry;
- assess short-term electricity market design by June 2026;
- accelerate the EU Single Market for Energy;
- provide OPEX support mechanisms instead of imposing electrification targets;
- incentivize system flexibility and promote all renewable and low-carbon sources.
Industry representatives stress that the main barrier to electrification is not technological availability but the lack of affordable and predictable electricity supply.
The coalition argues that, without structural electricity price reform, Europe risks further deindustrialization and a widening competitiveness gap, even as it seeks to accelerate its green transition.
