Brussels, 12 December 2025 — Two days ago, the European Commission has published the awaited EU Grids Package. E.DSO welcomes the Package’s intent to place grid infrastructure at the centre of the EU agenda and contribute to advancing the sector in order to “unleash its full potential”. However, in terms of what could be a turning point for Europe’s electricity distribution infrastructure – defining the incentives and investment frameworks to implement all the necessary projects – this package did not fully take advantage of the opportunity to include more ambition and to address relevant topics such as financing, supply chains, or workforce. For instance, while the Commission acknowledges the massive investments needs in distribution networks and the concomitant digitalisation, the Package does not address or offer new dedicated EU funding mechanisms for local distribution.
Acceleration of permit-granting procedures: As emphasized before by E.DSO, administrative bottlenecks are one of the main reasons for slowing down the energy transition. In this sense, E.DSO strongly supports the Commission’s objective to accelerate permitting. The proposal to tackle key issues preventing efficient permit granting processes, such as lengthy environmental assessments, lack of public acceptance, insufficient digitalisation, or lack of resources in the national authorities, is a positive step.
We also commend as an important step in the right direction, the proposed amendment to the Directive (EU) 2019/944, which allows the temporary presumption of overriding public interest for electricity grids, as well as the exemption from environmental impact assessments for refurbishment, modernisation, and repowering of existing distribution grids. The implementation of such a provision must also cover digitalisation (sensors, smart meters) and low voltage reinforcement, which are crucial for the energy transition but often overlooked.
Nevertheless, we must approach ‘Tacit Approval’ for grid connections with caution, in particularly, it must be assured that operational safety is fully taken into account so that operators can reasonably guarantee physical safety of their employees and the public. Furthermore, whilst digitalisation of permit grating platforms in national authorities is widely welcome, it is equally important to make sure that the portals are aligned with operators’ systems, avoiding double reporting obligations.
TEN-E Regulation revision: The Commission’s proposal to revise TEN-E Regulation usefully acknowledges that Europe’s grids must evolve to meet a system that is increasingly electrified, decentralised and exposed to new security and resilience challenges. The introduction of new electricity infrastructure categories explicitly covering resilience and digitalisation is a step in the right direction. However, despite this clear diagnosis, the TEN-E framework remains predominantly oriented towards transmission and high-voltage infrastructure, while the central role of distribution networks in delivering a decentralised, flexible and consumer driven energy system is still insufficiently reflected in the project categories.
Importantly, while Smart Electricity Grids (SEG) are recognised as a priority thematic area and assessed against detailed cross-border relevance criteria, they remain excluded from eligibility as Projects of Mutual Interest (PMI). The continuation of this exclusion does not align with the stated objective of supporting the most efficient solutions for the energy transition and prevents essential cooperation projects with our neighbours from seeing the light of day. E.DSO considers that this issue will need to be addressed during the legislative process to ensure a level playing field between categories.
Guidance on Efficient and Timely Grid Connections: E.DSO also welcomes the European Commission’s new Guidance on Efficient and Timely Grid Connections as a step toward tackling grid connection queues and accelerating Europe’s clean-energy transition. We subscribe as positive the participation of DSOs in the planning dialogues and Working Groups; the urgent demand for NRAs to implement anticipatory investments – anticipatory investments cannot be further postponed; and the need to move away from the “first come, first served” principle, with the introduction of a milestone-based approach – to end speculative blockages.
However, we do see room for improvement on the practicalities of some concepts, such as the proposed locational tariffs; the introduction of some low-voltage/future capacity maps; penalties for DSOs; and DSOs needing to apply the “use it or lose it principle” retroactively in the effort to clean up connection queues/remove purely speculative projects.
In conclusion, E.DSO remains fully committed to working with the European Commission, Member States, the European Parliament, and all relevant stakeholders in the months ahead to improve the proposal and ensure that the final proposal will not fall short in designing an efficient and future-proof regulatory framework for distribution grids.
*Please note that E.DSO will produce a more detailed reaction in the coming days.
