Good morning and welcome to our press conference on Accelerate EU, a communication that was adopted at today's College meeting,

and we have the pleasure of having Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera and Commissioner Dan Jørgensen here with us to present it. Executive Vice President, the floor is yours.

Thank you, thank you so much, Paula and thanks to you all.

Allow me to start with a smart and short reminder. Today it is Earth Day.

It is a day where we remind ourselves of the importance of counting on a healthy planet to ensure life. We know that.

Healthy conditions, environment policies,

climate policies have also been part of our discussions dealing with energy policies.

But today,

We have very important reasons why to address energy policy beyond these very key aspects.

Today, we deal with energy, energy policies to speak about security.

Including economic security, support to our people and to our business.

Because as you know well, we Europeans want peace and prosperity.

We need energy and we know that it can no longer be used as an instrument of domination or war.

But you also know that this is something we have been working on for a long while,

and this is why we decided that it was important to underscore underline that accelerating Our energy plants is important also in terms of security,

energy security, economic security.

We want to deploy a different system built on clean, homegrown solutions, electrification and efficiency,

thinking that these are the main drivers to gain freedom, autonomy, to reduce vulnerabilities.

And we have reasons to be optimistic in this field.

Renewable energy generation in Europe reached a new record high in the 1st quarter of this year.

15% higher than in the first quarter of 2025.

When speaking about energy, we also speak about social fairness, not as a distant objective,

but as something that people can feel in their day to day life lower bills,

secure supply, greater confidence for business.

This means electrification of our mobility, thinking about heat pumps, batteries,

rooftop solar, empowering citizens to benefit from clean energy.

Clean solutions can't be something only for a few.

They must become an accessible choice for everyone, so to ensure that everybody can experience the benefits. To count on a different energy solution.

Because it is fair, because it also needs to be an easy and affordable choice.

This is why we need to shield the most vulnerable. This crisis will have significant social consequences.

But we think that we need to address the challenges, acting together, working together.

This marks the moment to accelerate,

to deploy at the scale to invest massively in solutions that can be deployed at home.

Because they will bring us the energy sovereignty we are looking for.

Today's crisis shows to what extent speeding up our energy transition is key for competitiveness,

resilience and prosperity, and we are in a better situation than in the previous energy crisis.

We have done a lot, but we still need to do more to accelerate,

as is said in this communication, but also to shield to develop a shield.

For those that could be suffering the most in the current crisis. It triggers to double down our action.

This is why we call it Accelerate EU.

So to ensure that this communication is part of our ongoing response,

we stand ready to take further action if the situation. Could worsen.

We don't know how long it could last.

We know that we want to respond since the very first moment.

5 sets of actions to be undertaken both at the European level and at the Member State level. Thinking on coordination to deploy emergency measures.

Thinking on the set of actions that intend to protect consumers and industry from price shocks.

In this regard, we are concluding our works on a state aid temporary framework,

while keeping the possibility to deploy targeted and temporary measures to support those most affected by this crisis.

President von der Leyen, Commissioner Jørgensen have been sharing with their colleagues,

and we will be discussing the framework that we think.

The most adequate in the coming weeks, in the coming days, building on our experience to better address the challenges faced by consumers by encouraging energy savings,

accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels,

and including proposals to protect consumers from disconnections, to develop social leasing schemes.

To ensure that social fairness of costs through taxation is also taken into consideration.

There is a 3rd set of actions aiming to accelerate the shift to homegrown clean energy.

We have been working, leaded by Commissioner Jørgensen, on electrification.

To facilitate the lower of the electricity to fossil fuel price ratio.

To develop some of the solutions that are already within reach.

The 4th set of actions is stepping up our energy system by accelerating the efforts on grids and favoring electricity through taxation,

and finally, we are convinced that it is important to keep on attracting investments. To accelerate our investments.

To invest in the energy transition as the best decision that we Europeans can make,

not only for climate, environmental or social reasons, also thinking on our security.

On our competitiveness and the need to count on long lasting prosperity for all.

I'm sure that you will be Pleased by the introductory comments that Commissioner Jørgensen will be making immediately after. Thanks a lot.

Thank you EVP and yes, Commissioner, thank you.