How to deliver a Citizens’ Energy Package that’s fair & accessible to all

The Citizens’ Energy Package is a key opportunity to ensure that citizens and their local communities are the owners and direct beneficiaries of the energy transition. This package, coming amidst the Clean Industrial Deal, the Competitiveness Compass and the Action Plan for Affordable Energy, must address persistent barriers that hinder the emergence and development of community energy projects – from incomplete transposition of existing laws, including a lack of supportive frameworks for energy communities at the national level, to protecting them from corporate capture and abuse – and set a vision for scaling up and across citizen-led initiatives. Moreover, it must tackle energy poverty and prioritize energy savings as central components, leveraging the unique strengths of energy communities to achieve these goals.

This document builds on our previously published paper: POWERING COMMUNITIES: Principles for a fair, sustainable Citizens’ Energy Package and provides policy proposals to guide the European Commission in shaping the Citizen’s Energy Package. It reflects our coalition’s vision for an energy transition that prioritizes people and local communities, and builds a fairer, greener, and resilient energy system.