Despite the progress in the energy transition, the level of electrification of the economy in the European Union has remained virtually unchanged for over a decade, standing at around 23 per cent of final energy consumption (by comparison, according to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2024 the share of electricity in final energy consumption in China stood at 28%). In Poland, this number is even lower – according to IEA data, electricity accounts for around 20 per cent of the country’s final energy consumption.

The package of proposed reforms, including the Electrification Action Plan (EAP), presented by the European Commission in July 2026 sets an indicative target of increasing the share of electricity in the EU’s final energy consumption to 46 per cent by 2040. This target is an EU-wide one – the level of ambition will be subject to further discussions and its translation into national targets and the method for monitoring the progress will be determined as part of the revision of the Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action, a proposal for which the Commission is due to present in the Q4 of 2026. Achieving the target proposed by the Commission would require the pace of electrification in the EU to accelerate by a factor of approximately nine compared with the average rate observed since 1990.

The Commission argues that electrification is essential to reduce the EU’s dependence on imported fossil fuels and to enhance energy security. Recent geopolitical crises have shown that dependence on oil and gas imports leads to higher and more volatile energy costs. Consequently, electrification is intended to improve the competitiveness of the European economy – Commission estimates that it could reduce expenditure on fossil fuel imports by up to €260 billion a year by 2040 and lower the cost of electricity generation by around 20%8. Accelerating electrification is also expected to boost demand for clean technologies, such as heat pumps, electric vehicles and energy storage systems, creating a larger market for European manufacturers and enhancing the profitability of investments in their production.

However, the starting points and barriers to electrification vary between Member States. Therefore, in this paper, we present the European Commission’s proposals that are key from the Polish perspective.