To:
Ms Ursula von der Leyen,
President of the European Commission
Ms Teresa Ribera
Executive Vice-President of the European Commission,
Mr Dan Jørgensen
Commissioner for Energy and Housing
Energy ministers of national EU Member States via the COREPER
27 October 2026
Subject: Set an ambitious renewables target and maintain stability of the Renewable Energy Directive in the post 2030 Energy framework
Dear President, Executive Vice-President, Commissioner, Ministers, deputy Permanent Representatives,
Ahead of the Energy Council of 29 October, we call on the European Commission and Member States to commit to the stability of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) by setting a binding EU renewables target and refraining from reopening this legislative framework during the negotiation of the post-2030 energy architecture.
The RED is a European success story. It has remarkably driven the deployment of renewables in the last decades. Setting a new renewables target and not reopening the RED is the most rigorous and timely pathway to ensure regulatory stability; not amending the rules is the best simplification exercise.
The Renewable Energy Directive has been revised four times in as many years. While each revision addressed legitimate policy developments, the cumulative eƯect is that the new provisions included since 2023 are still yet to be implemented in most EU Member States.1
This regulatory instability undermines the investment certainty essential to meeting Europe’s climate and energy security objectives. Investment in renewable energy and associated infrastructure depends on predictable regulatory frameworks. Financial institutions require clarity on targets, permitting procedures, grid and network access rules, auction mechanisms to underwrite long-term deployment and eƯective power purchase and heat purchase agreement frameworks.
Further RED revision now risks:
– Delaying final investment decisions in renewable projects
– Raising financing costs as investors price in regulatory uncertainty
– Diverting regulatory attention from implementation and enforcement, which is where real-world delivery takes place
What Europe needs is rigorous implementation of these rules across all Member States, not legislative revision. To accelerate this, the Commission should:
– Enforce existing RED provisions through conditionality of EU funds
– Provide technical assistance to accelerate Member State capacity for permitting and grid planning
The post-2030 energy framework will require investor confidence and deployment velocity at unprecedented scale. This is only possible if the foundational rules governing renewable deployment remain stable. Discussion on the post 2030 energy architecture and objectives – including EU-wide binding renewable energy targets, electrification objectives, and phasing out fossil fuels—should take place in the Governance Regulation.
We urge you to choose stability, implementation, and investment confidence as the path forward.
Yours sincerely,
- The Commission launched 26 infringement procedures against Member States for not transposing permitting provisions and the whole Renewable Energy Directive. ↩︎