| REPowerEU
EU energy independence plan is faltering
“REPowerEU, the EU’s plan for energy independence from Russia, is faltering just as Europe’s energy security is facing renewed threats from the turmoil in the Middle East.” So concludes a new report* from the European Court of Auditors (ECA)
Designed to phase out Russian fossil fuel imports and accelerate the shift towards clean energy, REPowerEU is struggling to deliver overall, says the ECA, which describes itself as “guardian of the EU’s finances.”
The REPowerEU plan has had little resonance so far across national policies, as the 27 EU member states have committed not even a fifth of the €300 billion in additional investments needed to meet its objectives, the ECA notes. Consequently, the auditors warn that, without a major boost, the REPowerEU plan will be unable to reach its ambitious goals. The flagship REPowerEU plan was presented in May 2022. Its main goal is to phase out Russian fossil fuel imports through a set of actions and objectives, such as diversifying fossil fuel supplies, increasing the production capacity of renewables, and strengthening cross-border energy interconnectivity. The European Commission estimated that some €300 billion in additional investments would be required by 2030, and made this amount available from the COVID recovery cash pot (aka the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)). Member states could add dedicated REPowerEU chapters to their recovery plans for delivering REPowerEU’s objectives. However, the governance framework lacks effective tools to steer the implementation of the plan and reliably track results, say the auditors.
“Four years after its launch, REPowerEU has stalled, even though several hundred billion euros have been made available”, said Mihails Kozlovs, the ECA member in charge of the report. “We must learn the right lessons now,
Key facts and ECA findings. Source: ECA
as the new geopolitical tensions and their impact on energy markets underscore the need to accelerate diversification and prevent future over-reliance on a single supplier. That is why we are calling for co-ordinated efforts to re-energise the plan.”
The auditors note that REPowerEU was barely taken up by EU countries. Their national energy and climate plans were meant to steer REPowerEU on the ground. In reality, most did not include any specific actions or targets to bolster the plan’s objectives. In addition, EU countries committed only €54.3 billion out of the €300 billion made available under the RRF for REPowerEU. For the auditors, such a huge gap indicates either that investment needs were wrongly estimated and largely overblown, or that
there is an inability to translate objectives into concrete action. The fact is that the REPowerEU plan is falling short of some its main targets, the auditors warn. As a result of EU sanctions applied to imports of Russian fossil fuels, EU imports of oil from Russia have fallen drastically (although it is unclear how much Russian oil has been imported via third countries or through ‘shadow fleet’ tankers). Gas imports have also fallen (even though some EU countries actually imported more Russian gas in 2024 than before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine). However, the EU auditors highlight the point that the drop in Russian energy imports can also be attributed to other factors, such as a series of mild winters and lower consumption due to high energy prices. This means that the plan’s direct impact might be more modest than it first appears.
The auditors also found that although REPowerEU certainly helped to speed up some important projects in member states, it has done little to accelerate the clean energy transition by increasing renewable generating capacity. Based on the targets included in the dedicated RRF chapters, the auditors found that the additional renewables generating capacity that was created is negligible, and very far from the 103 GW objective. The same observation applies to improved grid interconnectivity. The EU auditors identified only three REPowerEU measures across two member states addressing this target, and one was eventually dropped. The auditors view this as further evidence that REPowerEU has yet to deliver the scale of change that was originally promised.
The European Commission presented the REPowerEU plan in May 2022 at the European Council’s request, with its estimated additional investment needs of around €300 billion by 2030 aimed at phasing out Russian fossil fuel imports by diversifying energy sources, accelerating the clean energy transition, saving energy, addressing European energy interconnection and infrastructure needs, and boosting preparedness. The European Commission stated that the Recovery and Resilience Facility was “highly suitable” for implementing urgent priorities.
Monthly prices for natural gas in the United States and Europe from January 2017 to July 2025. Source: ECA, based on Statista data
*Special report 21/2026, Implementation of the REPowerEU plan needs a boost, is available on the European Court of Auditors website (https://
www.eca.europa.eu/en).
www.modernpowersystems.com | October 2026 | 13
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