Infrastructure & Strategic Resources

European Grid Package

Planned for 25 November 2025.

The European Grid Package will fast-track expansion and modernisation of transmission and distribution networks, deepening market integration and lowering bills. It streamlines TEN-E, accelerates permitting — including environmental assessments — and mandates integrated, cross-border planning with effective cost-sharing, focusing on interconnectors and distribution grids. It prioritises digitalisation, flexibility and efficient use of existing assets, while increasing visibility of manufacturing supply needs. An EIB “grids manufacturing package” (≈€1.5 bn) will underpin EU component capacity, and an “Energy Highways” effort will tackle critical bottlenecks. Together, the measures unlock renewables and storage, strengthen security of supply, and support electrification at least cost.

Quantum Europe Strategy (Infrastructure-Related Policy Initiatives)

Planned between 2025 and 2030.

The strategy’s infrastructure track will strengthen secure networks, prove platforms, and link civil–defence use. EuroQCI expands 2025–2035 with cross-border terrestrial links, satellite ground stations and EU certification, converging with IRIS² for end-to-end QKD services. In 2026, a pilot European Quantum Internet will test quantum-safe components and early use cases alongside the EU’s post-quantum cryptography roadmap. Europe will deploy ground/airborne gravimeters and prepare a space-gravimetry pathfinder after 2030. A centralised network of open-access quantum testbeds will serve developers, startups and SMEs. An EU-wide Quantum Technology Risk Assessment concludes in 2026. Spin-in initiatives from 2026 accelerate defence uptake.

Charter of Access for Industrial Users to Research and Technology Infrastructures

Planned for 2025.

This initiative will standardise and simplify industrial access to Europe’s research and technology infrastructures so innovators can prototype, test and scale faster. It will set common, transparent access and contractual terms (e.g. IP use, pricing, liability, data handling) across borders and introduce a streamlined entry point for companies, including startups and scaleups. Linked to the AI Factories ecosystem, the Charter will be backed by dedicated EU support to make AI computing facilities affordable for SMEs. Complementary guidance will clarify how universities and public research organisations can grant access under State aid rules. Together, these measures cut fragmentation, lower transaction costs and speed time-to-market.

Chips Act Review

Planned for Q2 2026.

The review will sharpen Europe’s semiconductor strategy for the AI era, addressing gaps in leading-edge capacity and ecosystem resilience. It will prioritise energy-efficient, secure AI chips; streamline State-aid pathways; improve monitoring of supply-chain vulnerabilities and technology-leakage risks; and better coordinate EU-national programmes. Leveraging the Chips Joint Undertaking and EuroHPC, it will back new fabs and advanced packaging lines and tie support to strategic projects. The review aligns with the AI Continent agenda (i.e. powering AI Factories and forthcoming Gigafactories and setting requirements for European AI semiconductors) within a renewed, more coherent EU funding framework.

Cloud and AI Development Act

Planned for Q1 2026.

This law will close Europe’s compute gap by tripling data-centre capacity within 5–7 years and meeting economy-wide needs by 2035, underpinning AI development and sovereign cloud services. It will harmonise cloud policy, set minimum criteria (including for a narrow set of highly critical use cases run on highly secure EU-based cloud), and streamline permitting, site designation and access to energy/water, ensuring geographically balanced rollout. The Act will spur R&I in resource-efficient data centres, enable targeted support consistent with State-aid rules, and complement AI Factories/Gigafactories and the Chips Act ecosystem.

Digital Networks Act (DNA)

Planned for Q4 2025.

This law will build a true Single Market for connectivity by harmonising authorisations and spectrum policy, enabling cross-border services and a coordinated path to 6G. It modernises the telecom rulebook to spur investment in fibre, 5G and cloud/edge networks, integrates satellite services, and tackles market fragmentation that keeps Europe split into various national markets. It will streamline permits, clarify open-internet rules for innovative services, support copper switch-off and cloud-based network transformation, and target up to a 50% reduction in reporting burdens. A stronger EU governance model will replace patchwork oversight, boosting resilience, security and scale for operators and users.

Electrification Action Plan

Planned for Q1 2026.

This plan will accelerate cost-effective, system-friendly electrification to lower energy costs, boost competitiveness and cut emissions. It tackles supply and demand across industry, transport and buildings, and will run in parallel with a Heating & Cooling Strategy. Delivery focuses on reliability and flexibility, expanding and digitalising grids, scaling storage and demand response, deepening cross-border integration, and encouraging new demand near clean generation. Policy levers will improve the electricity-to-fossil price ratio (i.e. energy taxation, network tariffs, removing non-energy charges) while mobilising financing, manufacturing capacity and skills along the value chain. Progress will be tracked using KPIs, including raising electricity’s share of final energy toward 32–33% by 2030.

Energy Union

Planned for Q3 2026.

The EU will deepen its Energy Union to deliver affordable, clean energy through stronger governance and integration. Therefore, the Commission will launch an Energy Union Task Force, publish a White Paper on electricity-market integration, revise the Governance Regulation, and present a Clean Energy Investment Strategy, a Nuclear Illustrative Programme (PINC), and a Fusion Strategy. It will table an Electrification Action Plan, a Roadmap for Digitalisation and AI in the Energy Sector, and a Heating & Cooling Strategy to accelerate electrification, flexibility and efficiency. A revised energy-security framework will enhance stability and resilience, informed by lessons from the energy crisis.

EU Critical Communication System (EUCCS)

Planned for Q3 2026.

The Commission will propose legislation to interconnect Member States’ next-generation critical communications used by police, civil protection, emergency medical, border and security authorities. EUCCS will set harmonised requirements for operational mobility, strong resilience and strategic autonomy, enabling secure cross-border voice/data, priority services and roaming, including satellite back-up via IRIS². It will modernise national systems, ensure interoperability and encrypted communications, and support crisis coordination from terrorism to large-scale disasters. Governance will link with the Preparedness Union’s all-hazards approach and ERCC, with EU-funded pilots building capabilities using European providers.

Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act

Planned for 25 November 2025.

This Act will accelerate industrial decarbonisation by clearing permitting bottlenecks, strengthening clean-product demand and de-risking investment. It streamlines access to energy and infrastructure (i.e. building on NZIA, TEN-E and the emergency permitting toolbox) through acceleration areas, one-stop shops and, where allowed, tacit approvals, while maintaining environmental safeguards. It introduces resilience and sustainability criteria (clean, circular, cybersecure) across EU/national programmes and procurement, and pilots a simple carbon-intensity label—starting with steel in 2025, followed by cement—to unlock targeted incentives and enable international alignment. Coupled with the Clean Industrial Deal and related affordability measures, it aims to lower costs, shorten lead times and scale EU clean manufacturing, with a legislative proposal.

Platform for the Joint Purchase of Critical Raw Materials

Planned for Q4 2026.

The EU will establish the Platform to aggregate industrial demand, coordinate tenders, and secure diversified supplies for strategic value chains. Building on AggregateEU and complementing the Critical Raw Materials Act, the platform will align procurement across sectors, lower transaction costs for SMEs, and leverage EU and national de-risking tools. A dedicated EU Critical Raw Materials Centre will provide the purchasing backbone, organising joint buying for interested firms with Member States, coordinating strategic stockpiles, monitoring supply chains, and designing financial products for upstream projects in the EU and partner countries.

Quantum Amendments to existing JU Regulations

The EU will extend the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking’s mandate across all quantum domains and align investments with Horizon Europe, Digital Europe, Space and Defence programmes. This includes creating a dedicated Quantum Technologies Pillar, defining national quantum competence centres, and establishing a Quantum Strategy Advisory Group to steer R&I, industrialisation, skills and standards—while enabling hybrid HPC–quantum deployments and security use cases. In parallel, the Chips Joint Undertaking will launch a quantum design facility, providing shared design libraries and tools linked to quantum pilot lines and industry cloud platforms, accelerating a European quantum-chip ecosystem and shortening time-to-fabrication.

Trans-Regional Circularity Hubs

Planned for Q4 2026.

The hubs will scale EU recycling into an integrated network. Built around smart specialisation, hubs will pool cross-border waste and by-product streams, aggregate demand for secondary raw materials, and coordinate permitting, logistics and standards. They will identify strategic projects with Member States and industry, drawing on CRMA Strategic Projects, IPCEI-like instruments and blended finance (InvestEU/EIB) to reach bankable scale. Harmonised end-of-waste and by-product criteria, benchmarks for recyclates, and Digital Product Passports will improve traceability and uptake. The Hubs will support industrial symbiosis, infrastructure corridors, and streamline shipments, accelerating the shift from linear chains to a Single Market for circular feedstocks.