The Commission on April 9 published the 4th State of the Energy Union report highlighting the key priorities of the Juncker Commission by stocking the progress made towards building the Energy Union . The Commission report is presenting two forward-looking communications; the strategic batteries plan for Europe and a new institutional framework for the energy and climate policy by 2025.

According to this State of the Energy Union   “Hydrogen can also play an important role in both addressing the needs for large-scale/interseasonable energy storage and optimising the overall energy system through sector coupling. Hydrogen can support the decarbonisation of gas infrastructure, transport, and energyintensive industries. Over the past 10 years, over EUR 1 billion was invested in hydrogen technologies through the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking

Under the new Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action , member states are obligated to submit draft energy and climate plans to the Commission, so the EU executive can check that individual policies will add up to, for example, enough emissions cuts. he deadline for those plans was January 2019 and although some member states were late in turning in their homework, all their efforts are now accounted for. The Commission is in the process of analysing their work and will issue recommendations by June.

The report is accompanied by two annexes demonstrating the progress made in renewable energy (32% by 2030) and energy efficiency (32,5%). Between 1990 and 2017, the EU economy grew by 58 %, while emissions decreased by 22%, according to preliminary data submitted by the Member States. However transport emissions have not been reduced since 1990

As concerns electricity, the measurable decrease in wholesale electricity prices by 6.4 % between 2010 and 2017 contributed to a decrease in the costs of energy for households and industry by 6 % and 30 %,
respectively. However, the increase in network charges as well as taxes and levies led to an average increase in final consumer prices of 19.3 % for households and 8.7 % for industrial consumers across the EU over the same period . Energy-related taxes and levies represent up to 40% of the retail energy prices for households.

The European Commission estimates that in order to reach the EU’s 2030 energy and climate targets, about €379 billion of investment will be needed every year between 2020 and 2030, mostly in energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, and infrastructure. The European Commission is on track to invest almost EUR 2 billion in 2020 in clean energy research and innovation, meeting its commitment to double its public research and innovation investment in this area since 2015 as part of its membership of Mission Innovation.

Since the end of 2016, close to EUR 400 million in Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) grants have been made available to over 50 projects to deploy alternative fuels, mobilising total investments exceeding EUR 3 billion. The aim is to make available an additional EUR 350 million through the CEF blending facility in 2019. This will be a key area of attention for the future. Future demand for electrical vehicles will vary across EU regions, and be dependent on a number of factors, including the development of alternative fuels infrastructure. Furthermore, EU cohesion policy remains an important source of EU co-funding for the deployment of clean transport, e.g. with about EUR 12 billion planned for sustainable urban mobility.

The European Commission’s proposed Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-2027, would raise funding for climate change efforts to 25 percent of the total budget, from 20 percent over 2014-2020. Industry is pressing for funding for the regions, companies and workers affected. Whilst industry supports a just energy transition, it does not wish to carry the financial burden on its own