BRUSSELS — Network charges that are inflating household bills are now squarely on energy ministers’ agenda. On the table is a European Commission proposal for urgent legislative changes to head off a further shock to consumers and industry across the EU.
The Commission has been pressing the European Council and national ministers to move fast since the start of 2026. This summer it put forward a concrete proposal on network charges, which make up roughly a quarter of household electricity bills.
The goal is to make electricity bills more affordable and “future-proof” by targeting the regulatory components of energy costs, chiefly network charges and taxation, while supporting greater electrification and digitalization.
Under the proposed rules on network tariff design, tariffs would have to be transparent and reflect the actual costs incurred by the system, including transmission and distribution costs. Special tariffs for certain users would still be allowed, as long as the cost-reflectivity principle is preserved.
A document circulated by the Council of the EU ahead of the meeting of transport ministers in Luxembourg stresses that the proposal aims to give both system operators and grid users stronger incentives to use existing network infrastructure in a cost-effective, transparent and innovative way, including through non-grid, smart and digital solutions.
The proposal sets minimum smart-meter targets: at least half of electricity end users should be equipped by 2030, rising to three quarters by 2033. To speed things up, the Commission is also pushing a friendlier tax framework for electricity, under which the excise duty on power should be no higher than that on natural gas.
Ursula von der Leyen’s team is under no illusions about the bill. Rolling out smart meters and hitting the EU’s climate goals will require €660 billion in investment a year until 2030, climbing to €695 billion between 2031 and 2040. Grids alone will need €1.2 trillion. Nuclear, hydrogen and carbon capture will require tens of billions more.
3eNews has already looked at the grid problem, the EU’s Achilles’ heel, from several angles, including the views of Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra and Bulgarian MEP Tsvetelina Penkova.
“Our common goal is a better connected and energy-independent Europe, and lower electricity costs for households and industry. The modernization of European energy infrastructure that we are working on will have an impact not only on EU member states, but also on our neighbors and partners,” Penkova said at one of her latest appearances on the issue, before members of the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee. She spoke about progress in negotiations on the Regulation on electricity transmission grids, where she is Parliament’s lead negotiator.
Separately, the Commission president told lawmakers in Strasbourg during her latest visit to the European Parliament in October that the process needs to speed up, which is why a Pact against over-regulation will be adopted. It will establish that once an EU law is adopted, its national implementation cannot be delayed. Penkova, an MEP since 2023, has repeatedly argued that piecemeal solutions are not an option and that a single approach is needed to build a fully integrated market. That, she says, will take billions of euros in the next multiannual financial framework.
Electricity still accounts for only a quarter of final energy consumption. The EU has installed more than 80 gigawatts of renewable capacity, yet six times that amount is still waiting to be connected. According to von der Leyen herself, bottlenecks and aging infrastructure mean 10 terawatt-hours of renewable electricity are lost because of insufficient grid or storage capacity. That is equivalent to the annual consumption of 3 million households. The Commission chief called this unacceptable and said Europe must invest faster in cross-border grid connections and make better use of existing infrastructure.
The EU’s power grids stretch over more than 11 million kilometers, but they need to be rebuilt for far more decentralized generation and mass electrification. The Netherlands is among the countries with a glaring need for modernization.
Beyond the funding framework, investment needs and policy targets, the grid question is directly tied to one of Brussels’ top goals: building European sovereignty. Belgium’s Elia and the Netherlands’ TenneT have just commissioned a new cross-border interconnector. The two neighbors are pioneers in integrating Europe’s electricity market and have long run closely linked power systems. Through additional investment in cross-border infrastructure, they are preparing their energy systems for the future needs of industry and society, while supporting the development of the EU energy market and greater European strategic autonomy.
The new interconnector shows in practice what a shift in European energy could look like. Energy sovereignty no longer means every country producing all the energy it needs on its own. Increasingly, it means Europe having enough of its own generation capacity, grids and connections to redirect energy where it is needed and reduce its dependence on external suppliers.