Gas prices have risen by 140% since the end of February and diesel prices have doubled, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament ahead of an EU leaders’ summit on 15 – 16 October 2026.
Von der Leyen said the higher prices meant imported fossil fuels had cost Europe an extra €100 billion “without a single molecule of additional energy”, adding that businesses were under pressure and some people were struggling to pay their bills, the Commission informed in a release on Monday night.
She told MEPs the EU had reduced the share of its gas imports coming from Russia from 45% four years ago to 12% today, and said the bloc would cut that to zero by the end of next year.
More than 70% of the EU’s electricity now comes from “homegrown and clean sources” — renewables and nuclear — according to her speech.
Measures on prices and supply
Von der Leyen said the Commission had already proposed a package called AccelerateEU in April “right at the beginning of the closure of Hormuz”, including a temporary state aid framework for industrial sectors “most exposed”, which she said would be extended.
She stated that support for households should be targeted rather than “blanket handouts”, and cited energy voucher schemes in France and Romania as examples.
On fuel supply, she said G7 members had agreed last week to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil, adding that the move would help stabilise global prices.
The Commission will set up a “strategic dialogue” on European refineries, chaired by commissioners Dan Jørgensen and Andrius Kubilius, and launch a taskforce to bundle energy demand across member states.
Von der Leyen also told Parliament the Commission wanted to move from bringing buyers together to aggregating demand and appointing a market operator to carry out joint procurement for EU countries.
She said wind and solar produced more electricity than all fossil fuels combined for the first time last year, and that the EU installed more than 80 gigawatts of renewable capacity in the same period.
However, she noted that six times more renewable capacity was still waiting to be connected to the grid, and urged Parliament to agree the Commission’s proposed “grids package” by the end of the year.
Von der Leyen also said electricity currently accounts for less than a quarter of the EU’s final energy consumption, and that the Commission’s Electrification Action Plan sets targets to double that share by 2040.
She pointed out that cutting fossil fuel imports could save €260 billion a year, if more clean electricity is produced and used within the EU.
