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Open but Not Powerless: Towards a Common Understanding of EU Digital Sovereignty
Get PDFThis policy brief, titled Open but Not Powerless: Towards a Common Understanding of EU Digital Sovereignty, outlines the EU’s strategic imperative to assert digital sovereignty while remaining open to global collaboration. Defined as the EU’s capacity to exercise strategic independence in the digital domain—encompassing data governance, infrastructure control, and innovation—digital sovereignty aims to reduce vulnerabilities in economic, security, and technological spheres. The brief emphasizes that this does not equate to isolation or protectionism but rather to strengthening EU competencies in critical areas such as semiconductors, cloud services, and AI, while aligning with democratic values like transparency and the rule of law. A multi-layered framework is proposed, structured across four interlinked dimensions: (1) Digital Governance, focusing on regulatory frameworks and international influence; (2) Digital Infrastructures, Software, and Data, emphasizing secure connectivity, cybersecurity, and data ecosystems; (3) Digital Products and Markets, addressing industrial competitiveness and fair competition; and (4) People, highlighting the need for digital literacy and citizen empowerment. The brief underscores both opportunities (e.g., EU-led initiatives like the Digital Services Act and EuroStack) and risks, including structural dependencies on non-EU providers, fragmented national strategies, and gaps in digital skills.
The analysis also identifies critical policy priorities, such as prioritizing investments in strategic technologies, enhancing interoperability of data systems, and bridging the digital skills gap to ensure societal trust. The research agenda highlights the need to address geopolitical exposures, environmental constraints, and social inclusion, advocating for adaptive governance models that balance autonomy with global interdependence. By mapping these interconnected challenges, the brief serves as a foundation for future policy action, aiming to translate digital sovereignty from an aspirational concept into a tangible, evidence-based strategy for the EU’s resilience and competitiveness in an increasingly contested digital landscapeJRC.T.4 - Data Governance and Service
On the use of JRC electrolyser testing facilities for forthcoming standardisation activities
Get PDFLow-temperature electrolysis technologies, namely alkaline electrolysers and proton-exchange membrane electrolysers are in the front run for large-scale deployment in industrial electrolysis applications. Newcomers in the field are anion-exchange membrane electrolysers. All of them still have knowledge gaps that need to be filled which is addressed in this document by making use of a 30 kW low-temperature electrolysis test bench for examination of stacks.
This report contributes to the European Commission's objective of accelerating the European hydrogen economy by rapidly scaling up electrolyser deployments to produce green hydrogen from renewable energy sources. In line with the ambitious targets set by REPowerEU and the European Union Clean Industrial Deal (COM(2025) 85 final), it is essential to address key knowledge gaps regarding electrolyser performance, lifespan, and durability, as well as pressing environmental and safety concerns, in a timely manner.
Specifically, this study examines how to leverage a newly acquired testing facility for Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysers to strengthen the Joint Research Centre's support for the European Union's hydrogen policy agenda and address stack performance and long-term durability under intermittent real-world renewable power profiles, safety limits at low partial loads, and the environmental impact of membrane-derived PFAS residues.JRC.C.1 - Battery and Hydrogen Technologie
Minimum energy taxes for climate and clean air in the EU: Environmental and distributional impacts
No full textEU energy taxes could provide a powerful lever to enhance climate action, yet they are characterized by exemptions and are not aligned with climate and environmental goals. This paper assesses the environmental and distributional impacts of a revised Energy Taxation Directive, broadening the tax base and increasing the minimum energy tax levels across energy sources, sectors, and EU countries. We combine an economy-wide general equilibrium model and a household-level microsimulation model to quantify the effects on emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants, tax revenue, poverty, inequality, and welfare. Three scenarios consider additive reforms as they gradually stack up energy, climate, and air pollution-based components in the design of minimum energy tax rates. These reforms raise effective energy taxation in the EU roughly by one quarter, by half, and by two-thirds, respectively. Removing exemptions and harmonizing tax rates based on energy content brings down CO2 and PM2.5 emissions in the EU by 2–3 %, with substantial heterogeneity across EU countries. Reform scenarios that add climate and air pollution-based tax components lead to stronger emission reductions and reveal environmental co-benefits, as CO2-based tax rates lower air pollutant emissions, and tax rates reflecting air pollution damages lower CO2 emissions. We furthermore quantify the social trade-off between emission reductions and inequality, and illustrate numerically that regressive impacts can be overcome through revenue recycling. The inequality-increasing price effect is partially offset by income-side impacts (before revenue recycling) but is strengthened by cross-country heterogeneity in energy use and taxation. Overall, our findings suggest that gearing the EU’s energy tax structure towards environmental sustainability can help deliver a just transition when embedded in a broader policy package.JRC.B.2 - Fiscal Policy Analysi
The Role of Biofuels and Bioenergy in the Decarbonisation of the EU Energy System: Insights from the POTEnCIA Model
No full textThe transition to a sustainable energy system is a cornerstone of the European Union's strategy to mitigate climate change and achieve the ambitious goals set out in the European Green Deal. Central to this transition is the need to understand the complex dynamics of biofuels and bioenergy within the EU's energy mix. This paper presents a comprehensive modelling approach using the Policy Oriented Tool for Energy and Climate Change Impact Assessment (POTEnCIA), a hybrid partial equilibrium model developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC). POTEnCIA evaluates alternative pathways for the EU energy system, integrating energy supply and demand across industry, buildings, transport, and agriculture sectors. The present analysis shows that the consumption of biofuels in the EU increases from around 21 Mtoe in 2025 to 57 Mtoe in 2050, with advanced biofuels production also increasing progressively towards 2050. The production of biofuels from food and feed crops provides progressively minor contributions, while the consumption of biokerosene in the aviation sector and biomethanol in the maritime sector, particularly post-2030, significantly increases. The use of bioenergy for electricity and heat generation is anticipated to remain significant, and the role of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) becomes increasingly important by 2050.JRC.C.2 - Energy Efficiency and Renewable
A modelling approach to estimate carbon fluxes and standing stocks within seagrass meadows
Get PDFMarine ecosystems play a crucial role in climate regulation by sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in large reservoirs (biomass, deep-ocean and sediments) collectively termed Blue Carbon (BC). Coastal Blue Carbon (CBC) ecosystems (macrophytes and allied sediments) store a significant amount of carbon which otherwise would accumulate into the ocean-atmosphere system, potentially exacerbating climate change. Consequently, any alteration in the functioning of these ecosystems might lead to a release of previously stored carbon that, if not appropriately considered, could humper the achievement of climate neutrality. In line with EU priorities on biodiversity conservation and climate action, we developed a numerical model to quantify extant and future carbon fluxes mediated by seagrass meadows, the most significant coastal BC ecosystem in Europe. This report presents the conceptual basis of the model, the mathematical formulation and a global sensitivity analysis to estimate propagation of parameter uncertainty in the model output.JRC.D.2 - Ocean and Wate
Trends, challenges and opportunities in EU cities
Get PDFThis policy brief provides an overview of the main opportunities and challenges facing EU cities in support of the EU Agenda for Cities (2025). It covers demographic, economic, social and environmental issues as well as transport, and safety.JRC.B.3 - Territorial Developmen
Method for the identification and tracking of substances of concern in products and for the preparation of restriction measures on the use of substances in products
Get PDFWithin the context of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and after its entry into force in July 2024, the present report proposes a method for the definition and tracking of substances of concern in products (as defined in Article 2(27) of the ESPR) as well as for the assessment and preparation of potential restriction measures for substances impacting the product aspects listed in Article 5(1) of the ESPR. The method informs the setting of performance requirements and information requirements, when relevant for the product under study.
The intended audience for this report is primarily members of teams who will be undertaking Preparatory Studies for ESPR product groups, including from the European Commission, as well as stakeholders.
The suggested method builds upon the existing Methodology for Ecodesign of Energy-related Products (MEErP), which has been used successfully in the framework of the Ecodesign Directive. The method comprises the following main steps:
— a preliminary data gathering phase, resulting in an inventory of substances, to enable the chemical composition of the product Base Case(s) to be defined;
— the identification of substances of concern that should be subject to information requirements on tracking; and
— where appropriate, the development of considerations for performance requirements on substances occurring in the product or in its life cycle that negatively affect product aspects in Article 5(1), including the evaluation of alternatives to prevent regrettable substitution.JRC.B.5 - Circular Economy and Sustainable Industr
Unlocking data for MRV: Data sharing for effective carbon farming
No full textBuilding on insights from Credible Focus Group 3.4 (FG 3.4) discussions, we emphasize the critical role of long-term monitoring (LTM) data in i) calibration, validation, and simplification of models, ii) validation of MRV approach, iii) upscaling results from local to regional level, and iv) support for digitalization. One major challenge highlighted in our earlier analysis was the limited access to open data and the lack of effective data-sharing mechanisms. Similar issues were observed from the 1st European Carbon Farming Summit (ECFS) that soil databases are not shared. This highlights the urgent need for greater inter-sector transparency and collaboration.
During the 2nd European Carbon Farming Summit, we expanded the scope of discussion beyond LTM data to include both public and private datasets. The key messages from this report are:
- Robust data collection and sharing across the value chain are essential for accurate MRV in carbon farming.
- LTM data is invaluable for model calibration and MRV validation, yet greater trust and clear incentives are needed to encourage data sharing between the public and private sectors.
- “Collect once, use many times” principles can reduce the reporting burden on farmers and streamline compliance with multiple purposes.
- User-friendly digital tools and data-sharing platforms—supported by clear licensing agreements and federated learning approaches—can balance privacy, competition, and openness.JRC.D.1 - Land and Climat
Resilience assessment of a power system due to disruption of interconnectors
No full textThe paper addresses resilience assessment of a power system due to disruption of interconnecting power lines. In the current times of geopolitical instability, certain EU regions are in particularly vulnerable. The power system analysed is based on an anonymized EU region well interconnected with other Member States. Employing the PyPSA-Eur model, the research simulates cross border power disruptions of 10 scenarios in 2025. We rank scenarios by introducing a resilience index. The study aims to quantify and rank importance of interconnecting supply routes to the security of power supply in the analysed region. We also perform selected sensitivity study cases over several disruption scenarios.JRC.C.3 - Energy Security, Distribution and Market
ISO & GeoDCAT-AP Metadata implementation pilot - Final report Phase 1 (October 2024 – June 2025)
Get PDFThe ISO & GeoDCAT-AP Pilot Final report outlines the work, analysis and results for the implementation and evaluation of the GeoDCAT-AP 3.0.0 specification and its XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation) transformation, which is used in transforming INSPIRE geospatial metadata to GeoDCAT-AP, geospatial extension of the DCAT RDF vocabulary. This transformation is crucial for integrating these metadata into the existing Open Data reporting flows, harvesting and embedding them in the European Data Portal (data.europa.eu).
The first phase of the pilot, which ran from October 2024 to June 2025, counted with the active participation of nine European Member States, the Publications Office of the European Union (OP), and several European Commission services - including the SEMIC group of Directorate-General for Digital Services (DIGIT), Directorate-General for Environment (ENV) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), who organised and managed the pilot.JRC.T.4 - Data Governance and Service