European industrial leaders join forces to accelerate clean hydrogen deployment for industrial competitiveness and energy independence in Europe

• The European Resilience Alliance for Clean Hydrogen & Derivatives (ERA) launches today, in an event opened by Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition for the European Commission.

• ERA is a pan-European, CEO-led initiative bringing together leading industrial companies across the clean-hydrogen value chain to accelerate and scale clean hydrogen deployment in Europe.

• ERA’s mission is to advance Europe’s industrial decarbonisation and resilience by producing its own low-carbon fuels, industrial input materials, and products. ERA aims to mobilise a unified coalition for policy and bankability across the value chain, as well as to build scalable markets, clusters, and cross-border corridors to promote scale and self-reliance.

• The alliance – whose founding members include ENAGÁS, FLUXYS, FORTUM, GASGRID FINLAND, MOEVE, NORDION ENERGI, OGE, RWE, SEFE, STEGRA, and THYSSENKRUPP, in cooperation with HYDROGEN EUROPE – has published a white paper setting out concrete policy recommendations to close the gap between ambition and deployment of clean hydrogen projects in Europe.

Today, the European Resilience Alliance for Clean Hydrogen & Derivatives (ERA) was officially launched at the European Parliament in Brussels, in an event opened by Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition for the European Commission, and co-hosted by Members of the European Parliament Andrea Wechsler and Nicolás González Casares. The ERA launch event was attended by key policymakers and industry leaders.

Andrea Wechsler said "Europe’s energy transition is not just about decarbonization – it is about building a resilient sovereign energy system that delivers for both citizens and industry. Resilience must become one of the guiding principle of our energy policy, grounded in diversification, system integration, and credible market frameworks that turn ambition into investment."

ERA is a pan-European, CEO-led initiative uniting leading industrial companies across the clean-hydrogen value chain to address Europe's energy challenges, enhance industrial competitiveness, and secure strategic autonomy in the face of rapidly changing geopolitical and industrial pressures.

ERA’s founding members include ENAGÁS, FLUXYS, FORTUM, GASGRID FINLAND, MOEVE, NORDION ENERGI, OGE, RWE GENERATION, SEFE, STEGRA, and THYSSENKRUPP, in cooperation with HYDROGEN EUROPE, representing the full clean hydrogen value chain across the European Union.

ERA will work through two core pillars to translate Europe’s climate and competitiveness ambitions into cost-competitive, deliverable projects. First, it will provide a unified voice towards policymakers at EU, national, and regional levels to create the conditions necessary for a cost-competitive clean energy value chain. Second, it will coordinate across the entire value chain-from energy production and infrastructure to industrial demand and finance-to identify and resolve practical bottlenecks.

White paper to bridge the gap between ambition and deployment

To coincide with its launch, ERA has released a white paper that diagnoses regulatory bottlenecks, stress-tests existing policy frameworks against industrial realities, and details the financial and infrastructure barriers holding back Europe’s clean hydrogen market, alongside concrete policy recommendations to bridge the gap between ambition and deployment.

The white paper highlights that despite a large pipeline of projects across the clean hydrogen value chain, fewer than 7% have reached a Final Investment Decision (FID). The paper identifies the reasons why Europe’s clean hydrogen deployment is falling behind ambition, namely the fragmented implementation of EU regulation, complex Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin (RFNBO) rules, high electricity costs, insufficient demand certainty, and uncertainty around infrastructure development. It calls on European institutions and Member States to take urgent, coordinated action across four pillars:

1. Demand must drive clean hydrogen ambition: Create stable, bankable demand for clean hydrogen through immediate transposition of Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), harmonised implementation of regulations including ReFuelEU Aviation and FuelEU Maritime, and the creation of lead markets in hard-to-abate sectors including industry, transport, and defense.
   

2. Clarity and simplification of clean hydrogen support frameworks is key: Shift from regulatory rigidity to industrial pragmatism by reducing electricity costs, which currently make up 70% of hydrogen production costs, as well as redesigning EU subsidies to prioritise large-scale, industrially anchored projects, and directing scarce resources where they matter the most.
   

3. Turn private capital into clean hydrogen power: De-risk investment by safeguarding robust Emissions Trading System (ETS) and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) pricing, using the resulting revenues to make clean hydrogen competitive, extending RFNBO transitional provisions to well beyond 2030 to lower ramp-up costs, and introducing state-backed portfolio guarantees.
   

4. Infrastructure as the lifeline of an integrated European energy market: Scale up funding for the European hydrogen backbone, coordinate cross-border planning to connect production and demand hubs with clear timelines, and create EU-wide risk-sharing instruments for early infrastructure investment.

The full white paper can be accessed here: http://www.eu-resilience-alliance.com/

Speaking at the press briefing ahead of the launch, Miguel Ángel López Borrego, CEO of thyssenkrupp AG & thyssenkrupp Decarbon Technologies, said: "Europe's vulnerability is structural. Its dependence on external energy, technologies, supply chains, and critical materials threatens its long-term prosperity and industrial leadership. At the same time, Europe must deliver on its climate targets. Therefore, resilience has become a political and economic imperative requiring action. As the European Resilience Alliance, we are taking the lead, shouldering responsibility, and working together to strengthen Europe’s energy resilience and industrial competitiveness while accelerating decarbonisation."

Maarten Wetselaar, CEO, Moeve, commented: “A European energy system supported by clean hydrogen offers long-term price certainty, energy independence, and an industrial future that is no longer tied to volatile oil and gas cycles. At a time of growing geopolitical instability and intensifying energy shocks, clean hydrogen can enable Europe to decarbonise its hardest-to-abate sectors, strengthen its domestic energy system, secure long-term global competitiveness and put it on the path to Net Zero."

Olli Sipilä, CEO, Gasgrid Finland, highlighted: “Strengthening Europe’s industrial and societal resilience must begin immediately. Volatile imported fossil fuels cannot form the backbone of our industrial competitiveness in the decades ahead. Green, clean European energy represents a major opportunity. We have the resources — now we must make them available. New energy infrastructure is essential to enable this transformation. A hydrogen backbone infrastructure is the true game changer, lowering costs and unlocking investment opportunities at scale”

The full list of CEOs participating in the European Resilience Alliance includes:

• Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri, CEO, Enagás

• Pascal De Buck, CEO, Fluxys

• Markus Rauramo, CEO, Fortum

• Olli Sipilä, CEO, Gasgrid Finland

• Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, CEO, Hydrogen Europe

• Maarten Wetselaar, CEO, Moeve

• Hans Kreisel, CEO, Nordion Energi

• Thomas Huewener, CEO, OGE

• Nikolaus Valerius, CEO, RWE Generation

• Egbert Laege, CEO, SEFE

• Niklas Wass, CEO, Stegra Boden

• Miguel Ángel López Borrego, CEO, thyssenkrupp & thyssenkrupp Decarbon Technologies

• Marie Jaroni, CEO, thyssenkrupp Steel

• Nadja Håkansson, COO, thyssenkrupp Decarbon Technologies & CEO, thyssenkrupp Uhde

About the European Resilience Alliance

The European Resilience Alliance is a CEO-led cross‑value‑chain coalition of leading industrial companies from across Europe working to strengthen Europe’s energy resilience and industrial competitiveness while accelerating decarbonisation.

For questions, please contact:

ResilienceAlliancePMO@thyssenkrupp.com