EU citizens enjoy specific energy-related rights and protections, defined at EU level, and set out in national law, in addition to the general consumer rights guaranteed by EU legislation.
A Eurobarometer survey published in December 2025 examined EU consumers’ behaviour in the energy transition. Respondents expressed the need for better protection of vulnerable consumers and those in energy poverty, greater clarity and transparency in energy bills and stronger prevention of unfair commercial practices such as telemarketing, among other priorities.
Citizens Energy Package
A significant step towards delivering more affordable and accessible energy to all Europeans, on 10 March 2026, the Commission launched the Citizens Energy Package.
It aims to reduce energy bills, protect and empower citizens to actively participate in the clean energy transition, tackle energy poverty and help EU countries implement the existing EU laws effectively.
Consumers and the EU electricity market design
The Clean energy for all Europeans package, adopted in 2019, includes 8 pieces of EU legislation, of which 4 are referred to as the electricity market design. These rules outline a comprehensive framework for consumer protection, information and empowerment in the EU electricity sector.
Following the energy crisis that started in 2021 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Electricity Market Design rules were revised and entered into force in all EU countries on 16 July 2024. Since mid-January 2025, EU countries have been required to transpose most of these rules into national law. The rules on energy sharing apply since 17 July 2026, as well as the possibility to have multiple suppliers for individual premises.
Stable and affordable energy prices
To support stable and affordable energy prices, the updated rules ensure that consumers are offered a variety of electricity contracts to choose from to better match their needs and allow them to benefit from renewables. For example, a consumer might opt for a fixed-term, fixed-price electricity contract to ensure predictable costs for their main household needs, while choosing a dynamic price contract for their heat pump or to charge their electric car at the time of day or night when electricity is cheapest.
The updated rules also ensure that consumers receive better information on energy offers before signing up so that they can easily understand if the offer meets their needs. They can also directly access renewable energy-based electricity, by sharing energy collectively, peer-to-peer based on private agreements, or through a legal entity, including through an energy community.
The revised rules help ensure continuity of supply for consumers via 'suppliers-of-last-resort', who are designated to take over the supply of electricity to customers if their supplier ceases to operate and prevent supplier bankruptcies due to uncovered risks.
EU countries and regulators must ensure that these obligations are enforced, and tailor-made according to their national market structure and suppliers' size.
The reformed rules also facilitate access to hedging products. For instance, under the rules, energy communities, whether in the capacity of supplier, producer or consumer, have access to power purchase agreements. This allows them to supply their members or other final customers with their own or external production capacity.
In the Affordable Energy Action Plan, the Commission highlighted that households can save between €150 and €200 every year simply by switching to the electricity supplier that offers the lowest prices.
Sharing renewable electricity
Under the energy sharing concept in the Directive improving the EU’s Electricity Market Design, final customers in the electricity market will be able to more easily access renewable electricity generated or stored off-site by family, friends, neighbours or communities.
This will help them to decouple their household electricity bills from gas prices.
Final customers who engage in energy sharing have the right to see their electricity bill reduced in proportion to the shared electricity they self-consume leading to increased affordability. They can also set a price for surplus electricity shared to ensure a reasonable return on investment.
Energy sharing is expected to further drive investment in renewable energy, as well as make renewable energy more accessible to a wider range of consumers, allowing for instance, low-income families living in social housing to access cheaper renewable energy generated from solar panels on public buildings.
The Affordable Energy Action Plan underlines that households can save between €500 and €1 100 per year by participating in energy communities.
Continuity and affordability of supply
Along with the existing EU rules to combat energy poverty, the revised energy market design legislation introduces that necessary steps are taken to ensure that the most vulnerable customers are protected from disconnection.
While many EU countries implemented measures to protect vulnerable customers during the energy crisis, the revised rules ensure that these customers remain protected from disconnection.
EU countries can, in times of emergency, intervene in price setting for households and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), below cost, for a limited period and a limited volume of electricity consumption to ensure an incentive to reduce demand.
Accessing new data-driven energy services
Access to data from meters, and most importantly smart meters, that can support near-real-time communication exchanges, is key for the delivery of data-driven digital services and consumer empowerment. To facilitate this, and the overall interoperability of energy services across the EU, the Commission is mandated to develop technical rules, with the help of network operators and relevant stakeholders, for smooth access to metering data by customers who consume or produce and eligible market parties.
The first set of rules was established under the Implementing Regulation on access to metering and consumption data (EU/2023/1162), adopted in June 2023. A second set, was adopted in April 2026 under the Implementing Regulation covering data exchanges required for customer switching (EU/2026/855). These rules are designed to make switching electricity suppliers faster, simpler and more transparent across the EU.
By the end of 2026, they will enable the technical switching process, involving the registration of a new supplier at a metering point with the relevant market operator, to be completed within 24 hours. Faster switching empowers consumers to act on better offers and supports retail competition by making it easier for competitive suppliers to attract new customers.
Further rules are envisaged for other areas, including data exchanges for demand response. Collectively, these rules will
- facilitate the easy, safe and secure flow of data to those eligible
- help better run existing processes
- incentivise the development and delivery of new energy services (energy sharing and demand response)
- promote a better and wider choice of offers for consumers
Guidance and templates
To support implementation, guidance documents and common reporting templates have been developed. The Commission issued guidance on reporting national practices for access to metering and consumption data, followed by guidance for customer switching data developed by ENTSO-E and the EU DSO Entity through their Joint Working Group on Data Interoperability, and as mandated by the regulation.
These common templates allow EU countries to report consistently and comparably on how the European reference models and technical rules are implemented in practice, with the results made available through a common Repository of national practices, provided by ENTSO-E/EU DSO Entity. By making national approaches easier to find, understand and compare, the repository will improve transparency and predictability in data exchanges, lower barriers to market entry and make it easier for suppliers and innovative energy service providers to operate across the EU. This can strengthen competition and innovation, reduce unnecessary administrative costs, and ultimately give consumers a wider choice of services and more opportunities to participate in the energy transition.
Municipalities have a crucial role in delivering a just and clean energy transition on the ground. They are responsible for public buildings and services and engage and enable citizens to take individual and collective actions that support the transition.
Cities and regions can create conditions for better energy sharing, establishing energy communities, or for improving access to sustainable sources of energy, including adjusting their permitting procedures and facilitating access to regional funds.
All EU countries’ national authorities also provide national contact points for citizens and energy consumers and some also provide tools to compare energy contracts.
The Commission has, over the past years, launched several initiatives to improve action at local level such as the Citizens Energy Advisory Hub, the Covenant of Mayors, the Smart Cities Marketplace, the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub, the Clean Energy for EU Islands Initiative and the Coal Regions in Transition Initiative.