Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcasts.

After the short-term measures adopted to mitigate the impact of the energy crisis,

the European Commission has unveiled its much-awaited plan to reform the electricity market

with a triple objective to shelter consumers from excessive bills, boost renewables and enhance competitiveness.

Stay with us.

The post-COVID rising global energy demand, coupled with reduced supplies of Russian gas

and war-related disruptions combined to create the perfect storm,

bringing about record high gas prices that dragged electricity markets into the same upward spiral.

As a result, energy bills of many consumers tripled or quadrupled, prompting concerns over energy affordability and security, and sparking debate on the need to

redesign the EU's electricity market to make it more resilient, sustainable and independent.

But how are we going to achieve that? Well, to respond to the immediate crisis and next to the

actions taken at national level, such as tax reductions or

business support, the EU adopted a number of short-term measures to stabilize prices and ensure

we wouldn't run out of energy. One of them was the repower EU plan adopted in May 22

to cut dependence from Russian fossil fuels as quickly as possible, boost energy

savings and accelerate the rollout of renewables.

But more structural changes were needed, so European leaders tasked the Commission to come

up with a more radical overhaul of the power market with the twin objectives of securing

our own energy and of a

greener kind. So what is the plan? Here's Anyesha Viduto from the European Parliamentary

Research Service. Well, it's actually five different pieces of EU legislation that will be revised.

The electricity regulation, the electricity directive, the remit regulation on the

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