Transition and energy sovereignty: where is the EU going?

Despite the efforts undertaken over the past 15 years in the field of the energy transition, the EU remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels for the satisfaction of its final energy needs.This physical dependence has strong, strategic, industrial and budgetary implications, as seen in 2022 at the peak of the energy crisis.The energy transition primarily relies on the phase out from fossil fuels and their replacement as much as possible by low-carbon energies (low-carbon electricity, hydrogen, and biomethane). As such the energy transition can be a key source of strengthened energy sovereignty for the EU.With the RepowerEU (May 2022) and the Clean Industrial Deal (Feb. 2025) policy packages devised by the European Commission, the acceleration of the energy transition now sits within a broader political framework seeking to reconcile the imperatives of increased strategic autonomy and strengthening industrial competitiveness.The scope of energy sovereignty is evolving. It now includes digital sovereignty, given the low-carbon electricity needs induced by the development of data centers and artificial intelligence.Finally, for the EU, there are multiple and complementary sources of strengthened energy sovereignty, at local level (case of the biomethane sector), national level (case of the nuclear sector) and European level (through EU-wide sectoral policies supporting fossil fuels phase-out).