Towards building a clean, secure, and affordable European power system to achieve the clean energy transition and a competitive advantage in Europe’s industrial decarbonisation.

The Roundtable for Europe’s Energy Future (REEF) gathered on May 15th 2024 in the margins of the Belgian EU Presidency high level meeting on offshore energy. Offshore renewable energy is a key driver on the path towards climate neutrality by 2050 and a flagship cleantech sector for the European Union. REEF is committed to reinforcing the sector in Europe and the Union’s competitiveness as a result. REEF CEOs participated in the Presidency event and had dedicated meetings with the European Commisison and with the Belgian energy minister Tinne Van der Straeten, Danish energy minister Lars Aagaard and German State Secretary Philipp Nimmermann.

To that end, REEF puts forward the following key needs:

• Joint infrastructure planning and identification of high-value projects for the society should be improved to ensure transparency and predictability for project developers and the supply chain.
• New and innovative funding and financing frameworks are required to unlock projects of pan-European value. This includes new mechanisms at sea basin level, counter-guarantee schemes, and public procurement procedures.
• Manufacturing incentives and demand predictability should be improved to strengthen domestic production in Europe and access to critical components and materials from trading partners.
• Energy security, the security of supply as well as physical and cyber security, should be recognised as an integral part of a comprehensive approach to security. Strategic energy autonomy and resilient grid infrastructure are critical in this regard.
• Standardisation and simplification of technical requirements is needed at the European level to achieve the necessary economies of scale to reduce project cost and lead times. European standardisation organisations should foster collaboration to reduce complexity.
• Growing the European talent base is needed to accelerate the clean energy transition by upskilling and reskilling the workforce, while ensuring diversity in gender, nationality, and age across technologies and management of the transition.

Click here for the executive report of the meeting and here for the joint messages that were presented to the external guests.