{"id":453961,"date":"2026-05-19T12:27:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/05\/19\/von-der-leyen-per-una-vera-indipendenza-accelerare-lelettrificazione\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:58:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T12:58:00","slug":"von-der-leyen-if-we-want-true-independence-we-must-accelerate-electrification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/19\/von-der-leyen-if-we-want-true-independence-we-must-accelerate-electrification\/","title":{"rendered":"Von der Leyen: “If we want true independence, we must accelerate electrification”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 “As long as we rely on oil and gas, we remain vulnerable. If we want true independence, we must accelerate electrification<\/span>,<\/strong>” said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, in her opening speech at the <\/span>Clean Tech Conference 2026<\/a><\/span>, which began today (19 May). \u201cConsumers are already moving – electric vehicle purchases, for example, have risen by 51 per cent since the start of the war,\u201d she continued, praising the clean technology sector, which creates 100,000 new jobs in the European Union each year, while “incredible innovation is happening across our continent.\u201d According to von der Leyen, however, we need to \u201cdo more at a European level\u201d and for this reason, the Commission<\/strong> \u201cwill present an Electrification Action Plan \u2013 with clear targets to end our exposure to fossil fuel price shocks for good.<\/strong>\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The situation in the Middle East “is sending shockwaves across the world.” The European Union is “less exposed than before, but we are not immune,” the President pointed out. The path to independence, therefore, centres on \u201celectrification and homegrown clean energy\u201d. This means, however, ensuring \u201cthat these technologies are developed and manufactured in Europe.\u201d For von der Leyen, the foundations are solid: \u201cfrom offshore wind to electrolysers. And two-thirds of Europe’s heat pumps are made here.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The President of the European Commission warned of global competition, which is \u201cincreasingly tough and often unfair.\u201d “<\/span>That is why we introduced the <\/strong><\/span>Industrial Accelerator Act<\/strong><\/a><\/span> \u2013 to simplify rules, speed up permitting, and ensure that foreign investments deliver real value to Europe,<\/strong>” she noted. Also to ensure real benefits, the EU introduced \u2018Made in EU\u2019 and low-carbon criteria in public procurement. This way, von der Leyen explained, “we are making sure that taxpayers’ money flows to our own European industry.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But the EU must not just use the clean technologies of the future; we must build them,<\/strong>” the President concluded. And, to do so, investment in the transition must be unlocked. “The emissions trading system is key. And we know it works – since 2005, emissions have fallen by 39 per cent in covered sectors, while the economy has grown by 71 per cent. It has generated over EUR 260 billion.” At the  European level, von der Leyen pointed out, “100 per cent of these revenues are reinvested into clean innovation.” This is not the case, however, at a national level, because the billions generated by the emissions trading system are not always reinvested in the green economy. This is precisely the core issue of the ETS (<\/span>Emission trading System<\/a><\/span><\/i>)<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/i> r<\/span><\/span>eform, expected this summer.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the President, \u201cmore needs to be done at a European level\u201d and, to this end, the Commission \u201cwill present an action plan with clear objectives to end exposure to fossil fuel price shocks\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7911,"featured_media":453923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30800],"tags":[31262,34162,31775,33392,26884,25886,26306],"class_list":["post-453961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-cleantech-conference","tag-elettrificazione-en","tag-energia","tag-commissione-ue-en","tag-sustainability-en","tag-transition-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453962,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453961\/revisions\/453962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}