{"id":470350,"date":"2026-11-05T18:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T17:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/11\/05\/cese-lue-ha-bisogno-di-energia-elettrica-sostenibile-di-alta-qualita-e-a-prezzi-accessibili\/"},"modified":"2026-11-05T19:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T18:10:15","slug":"eesc-the-eu-needs-sustainable-high-quality-and-affordable-electricity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/11\/05\/eesc-the-eu-needs-sustainable-high-quality-and-affordable-electricity\/","title":{"rendered":"EESC: “The EU needs sustainable, high-quality and affordable electricity”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 To keep electricity bills under control in the long term, it is necessary to increase transparency, adopt a systemic approach to the electricity system, and modernise the rules governing grid connections. This is the approach recommended by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in an opinion<\/a> entitled “Future-proofing electricity bills in the EU”<\/strong>, adopted during the October plenary session. According to the Committee, at present, electricity bills for households and businesses are rising due to soaring wholesale gas prices, geopolitical tensions (including conflicts in the Middle East) and the rapid growth in demand for electricity from data centres, artificial intelligence infrastructure, and electric vehicles. To overcome these dependencies and combat climate change, the EESC states that the EU must first and foremost electrify its economy, using “more decarbonised” solutions, but that such a solution “can only be achieved through sustainable, high-quality, and affordable electricity.” The EESC therefore recommends an approach based on three principles. <\/p>\n

The first is \u201cimproving transparency.<\/strong>\u201d The Committee emphasised that consumers are entitled to greater clarity regarding electricity transmission costs. The rapporteur for the text, Christophe B\u00e9guinet, clarified<\/strong> that \u201cconsumers must know exactly what they are paying for and why. Network charges are not a form of taxation, but a tariff.\u201d <\/p>\n

The second is \u201ca comprehensive approach to the electricity system,<\/strong>\u201d based on reliable and consolidated data, available \u201calmost in real time.\u201d This would ensure the overall efficiency of the system and enable the best possible price to be achieved. In the text, the Committee explained that \u201cthe electricity system is extremely complex, as it involves very specific physical constraints which, combined with liberal regulatory mechanisms, make it a very unusual market.\u201d In order to successfully transition to a systemic approach, \u201ctransmission system operators (TSOs) and distribution system operators (DSOs)
\nneed to work together more.\u201d Specifically, the Committee calls for clear signals to be sent to the markets regarding grid access charges, following rules such as: \u201creflecting the costs incurred by network operators as accurately as possible; introducing hourly, seasonal or dynamic tariffs, based on locally determined pricing; setting prices for grid connection
\non the basis of the costs, while ensuring alternative mechanisms for energy access, especially for isolated and vulnerable households; promoting local pricing of grid connections.\u201d <\/p>\n

The final principle concerns the revision of the rules on grid connection<\/strong>. The EESC considers it necessary to adapt the rules governing the handling of grid connection applications and has suggested introducing new priority rules for grid connections, in line with the objective of electrification. <\/p>\n

The EESC\u2019s opinion follows the European Commission\u2019s presentation in July 2026 of its Action plan for electrification<\/a> and a legislative proposal aimed at making electricity bills in the EU “future-proof”, by reducing system costs and promoting electrification and digitalisation. The aim is to transform Europe into the world\u2019s first “electricity-powered” continent, raising the electrification rate from 23 per cent of energy consumption \u2013 current estimates \u2013 to 46 per cent by 2040.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an opinion adopted at its plenary session in October 2026, the European Economic and Social Committee emphasised that the EU must make progress on electrification in order to reduce its dependencies and tackle climate change<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":470331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"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":[25847,31775,32930,28413],"class_list":["post-470350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eesc-en","tag-elettrificazione-en","tag-energia-elettrica","tag-expensive-energy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470350","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\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":470351,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470350\/revisions\/470351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}