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Thank you, Commissioner Jørgensen. Thank you.

Since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

We've paid in Europe more than €50 billion. More for our energy.

That's more than €50 billion extra without receiving any extra energy, not one single molecule. Extra.

This shows us just how vulnerable we are.

It shows us just how economically unsustainable it is to be dependent. Of outside energy. We need our own homegrown energy.

We need that also to be leaders in the fight against climate change.

We're experiencing one of the hottest summers, if not the hottest summer ever.

People are actually dying from the heat waves. And we need it for competitiveness reasons.

We need to replace the Black,

expensive polluting molecules with cheap, clean, homegrown electrons.

And for that it's not enough to just produce more renewables and more nuclear.

That is certainly necessary, but it's not enough.

We also need those electrons to actually be used in our economies. To heat our homes, our buildings. To drive our cars. To produce in our industry. So this is why we are today.

Proposing to double the electrification rate in Europe. This is not a small thing.

It took us from the Stone Age till now to get to 23%, and now we want to double it in 14 years. But it's necessary.

And we also think it is both plausible and realistic. How to do it.

First of all, we need to drive electricity prices down.

As things stand, electricity and fossil fuels are not on a level playing field,

fossils are heavily subsidized and wouldn't survive in a truly competitive market.

We need to stop funding our dependencies with taxpayers' money.

First, we double down on the deployment of homegrown clean energy.

Because that is the cheapest and most reliable source of energy we have. 2nd.

We foster a better use of the infrastructure that already exists.

Network charges, which make up a significant part of the energy bills, must reward flexibility.

They must encourage a more efficient use of our grid,

and they must enable consumers to use energy when it's cheaper.

This will avoid unnecessary and costly grid expansions and unlock cheaper network costs for energy intensive industries.

In other words, to allow for a faster penetration of cheaper clean energy,

we need to make our electricity consumption smarter and more flexible.

This is why we want at least 50% of final customers to be equipped with smart meters by 2030.

And we've set out to achieve 200 gigawatts of storage capacity by 2030. We also want the electricity.

We also want that electricity is taxed less than gas.

This is a low hanging fruit to reduce electricity bills.

At the same time, later this year, we will propose measures to progressively phase out fossil fuel subsidies.

Public money should be spent on what benefits us, not what harms us.

The 2 big goal of our plan is to roll out more electric technologies.

In our homes, in the place we live and work, and in the way we travel. These technologies are efficient. They are effective.

And many of them are being made in Europe right now. We don't have to wait.

We have to make these technologies more affordable and more accessible.

In our factories, electrification is already technically feasible for 60% of industrial energy demand.

Electric furnaces and e-boilers offer new opportunities for efficiency and savings.

We will help industries to make the switch with sector-specific road maps for electrification as well as improved access to diversified low carbon energy.

The revised emission trading system will be key here.

It will support the decarbonisation of industry by channeling investments into emission reductions, including electrification.

And with the €100 billion industrial decarbonization bank, including the €30 billion ETS investment booster,

we will further spur investments into industrial electrification, grid connection infrastructure, as well as storage.

In our homes, offices, and public buildings,

we aim to significantly increase the rate of heat pump installations by 2030.

The switch from gas boilers to heat pumps can cut the average EU household's heating bill by up to 60%.

While of course also helping to cool homes during the summer.

To make this happen,

we will help de-risk and finance investments and help consumers with transparent and comparable information and.

And we will continue to support the rollout of electric cars and other vehicles.

We've set out how member states can make these and other technologies more accessible through social leasing schemes, for example.

These schemes are already a success in a number of member states.

It is time to spread this success across Europe.

By doing these things,

we can save millions on fossil fuel imports and we can invest in cleaner and more efficient technologies while creating millions of jobs.

Clean electrification value chains already employ over 4 million people across the EU.

By driving demand for EVs, heat pumps, and other technologies, we can multiply these jobs substantially.

So to conclude, The message to Europe today is very clear. Choose electricity over fossil fuels. Choose green electrons over black molecules.

Choose lower bills, cleaner air, homegrown supplies,

choose transformation over stagnation, stability over volatility, security over vulnerability.

To put it simply, choose the future over the past, because the age of fossil fuels is coming to an end,

and for Europe, the future is clean energy and electrification. Thank you.