Copyright

Miguel Gil Tertre and Bert Saveyn

Published On

2022-12-07

Page Range

pp. 129–144

Language

  • English

9. The Investment Needs for REPowerEU

  • Miguel Gil Tertre (author)
  • Bert Saveyn (author)
Chapter of: Greening Europe: 2022 European Public Investment Outlook (pp. 129–144)

Chapter 9 by M. G. Tertr and B. Saveyn provides an estimate of the investment needs and additional costs of bringing the EU’s dependence on fossil fuels from Russia to zero by 2027, with a specific focus on natural gas. This analysis was used to prepare the REPowerEU plan presented by the Commission on the 18th of May 2022. Decoupling the EU from Russian fossil fuel imports has already begun and will pass through various stages affecting both demand and supply. From this perspective, the analysis indicates that implementing the full potential to reach zero-dependence could require 300 billion euros cumulative from now to 2030—which is beyond the Fit for 55 proposal. By the end of 2027, this transition could correspond to approximately 210 billion euros in investment. These REPowerEU investments correspond to about 5% of the total Fit for 55 investments up to 2030 and would come in addition to them. The Commission analysis estimates that the Fit for 55 and REPowerEU measures combined could save the EU 80 billion euros annually on gas imports, 12 billion euros on oil imports, and 1.7 billion euros on coal imports.

Contributors

Miguel Gil Tertre

(author)
Chief Economist, Directorate General for Energy at European Commission

Miguel Gil Tertre is the Chief Economist at the Directorate General for Energy of the European Commission. He leads the team responsible for modelling the impact and ensuring the economic coherence of policy proposals in the field of energy. His previous responsibilities include the negotiation of the Recovery and Resilience Plans for Poland, Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia and the coordination of the European Semester. As a member of the Cabinet of Vice President Katainen, he was responsible for the design and coordination of the investment plan for Europe (known as the 'Juncker' Plan). He was assistant to the Director General in charge of Economic and Financial Affairs during the euro crisis (2011–2014). Prior to joining the Commission, he worked for ten years on network industries regulation. Miguel Gil Tertre has an MBA from the Instituto de Empresa Business School and two degrees in economics from the Paris IX-Dauphine and Autonomous University of Madrid (special graduation award).

Bert Saveyn

(author)
Team Leader, Modelling Team, Chief Economist Unit, DG ENER at European Commission

Bert Saveyn is the Team Leader of the Modelling team in the Chief Economist unit of DG ENER. Before joining DG ENER, he worked for the Impact Assessment and Better Regulation unit of the Secretariat General of the European Commission; and was Team Leader in the Economics of Energy, Climate Change and Transport unit of the Joint Research Centre in Sevilla. He holds a PhD in economics and a Master in environmental engineering from the KU Leuven.