Speaking before the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Ursula von der Leyen set a clear target: raising the share of electricity in the European Union’s energy consumption to 46% by 2040, up from current levels. Nuclear energy is explicitly included in the roadmap, on equal footing with renewables and biomethane, in what the Commission President described as a “technology-neutral” approach.
The projected saving amounts to €260 billion per year in reduced fossil fuel imports — a figure von der Leyen used as her primary argument for accelerating electrification. The logic is straightforward: less dependence on external suppliers means less exposure to the geopolitical swings of energy markets. Since tensions erupted around the Strait of Hormuz, Europe has spent an additional €90 billion on fossil fuel imports without adding a single megawatt-hour of domestic production.
The 2026 address marks a visible break from the past. The words “green” and “climate” appeared just five times, compared to eighteen in the previous State of the Union in 2023. In their place: energy security, industrial competitiveness, and strategic autonomy. Nuclear energy, which for years lingered at the margins of official European debate, is now cited alongside renewables without caveats or qualifications. This is no mere semantic detail — it reflects a consolidated political stance, driven by France and a number of Central and Eastern European countries.
On the infrastructure front, von der Leyen acknowledged the most critical bottleneck: last year the EU installed more than 80 gigawatts of new renewable capacity, yet a volume six times larger is still waiting to be connected to the grid. Doubling the electricity share without investing in grids and storage would get Europe nowhere. That is why the speech called for an urgent grids package to be fast-tracked through Parliament.
This plan sits within the broader context of a European Commission that has already adopted a European Strategy for Small Modular Reactors, with the goal of bringing this technology online by the early 2030s. The Commission has earmarked additional guarantees of up to €200 million by 2028 to support the first commercial units of advanced nuclear technologies. The emerging picture is one where modular reactors complement existing large-scale plants within a more distributed and resilient electricity grid. If the roadmap holds, 2040 will not only mark an electrification milestone — it will also be the point at which next-generation nuclear begins contributing in a measurable way to Europe’s energy mix.
