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The European Union promised to break up with Russian fossil fuels. Three years later, the relationship status is best described as “it’s complicated.”
A scathing report from the European Court of Auditors, released on September 9, found that the EU’s flagship REPowerEU plan is dramatically underperforming on nearly every metric that matters. Of the €300 billion allocated from EU recovery funds for the energy transition, only about €54.3 billion had been committed by member states as of April 2026. That’s less than one-fifth of the pot, with time running out.
The numbers tell a grim story
REPowerEU set a target of adding 103 GW of new renewable energy capacity by 2026. The expected result? Roughly 20 GW. That’s not a rounding error. It’s an 80% miss on one of the plan’s central goals.
The initiative was launched in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, designed to wean Europe off the energy supplies that were effectively funding Moscow’s war machine. Russian gas accounted for 45% of EU imports in 2021, about 152 billion cubic meters. By 2025, that figure had dropped to 12%, or 36 bcm.
Oil imports from Russia fell even more sharply, declining from approximately 27% to just 2% over the same period. Coal imports from Russia were eliminated entirely through sanctions.
The auditors, led by Mihails Kozlovs, attributed much of the reduction to factors that had little to do with the REPowerEU plan itself: mild winter weather that suppressed demand, high energy prices that forced conservation, and existing sanctions that physically restricted supply. The plan was supposed to build new infrastructure and capacity to permanently replace Russian energy.
Storage levels flash a warning
EU gas storage facilities currently sit at 67% capacity, down from 80% at the same point the previous year.
That 13-percentage-point drop matters because the EU faces a complete ban on Russian LNG imports taking effect on January 1, 2027. Less than four months from now, Europe will voluntarily shut off another significant energy supply line, and the infrastructure to replace it simply isn’t being built fast enough.
The ECA’s report calls for a “coordinated boost in implementation” from member states. The message is clear: current measures are failing to advance the renewable energy infrastructure needed to fill the gap left by Russian fossil fuels.
Why the money isn’t moving
The spending gap is arguably the most revealing metric in the entire report. €300 billion was earmarked. €54.3 billion was committed. That leaves nearly €246 billion sitting on the table while deadlines approach.
Part of the explanation lies in the bureaucratic complexity of deploying EU recovery funds. Member states must submit detailed spending plans, get them approved by the European Commission, and then actually execute projects that meet specific criteria. Each step introduces delays. Permitting for renewable energy projects, particularly wind farms, remains notoriously slow across much of Europe.
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