The public square - Ewelina Hartstein, DG Energy | Energ’Ethic - Climate Justice and Energy Transition

Description

Two years ago at EUSEW 2024, I called my vox pop episode "the dog who caught the bus." After years of running hard to define the European Green Deal, the EU had finally caught what it was chasing, and seemed unsure what to do next. I ended that episode saying it was time for extra communication efforts, starting with uncomfortable conversations.

Two years on, this episode asks the same question from inside the institution. Ewelina Hartstein leads external communication at DG Energy and is one of the people responsible for staging EUSEW. We talk about the work behind the work: how DG Energy chooses what gets said, who gets to speak, and what remains off-stage at a moment when energy policy is entangled with affordability, security, and trust.

What the conversation surfaces:

Why "it comes from Brussels" is, in her own words, an expression she does not like
What it means that EUSEW "brings together a community of people who are convinced," and how DG Energy thinks about engaging the unconverted
The 20th anniversary edition's three-word theme (clean, secure, competitive) and the affordability dimension she insists belongs alongside them
A live disagreement on whether the conversations EUSEW hosts are "uncomfortable" or "perfectly legitimate"
The shift she names directly: energy moving from commodity to right, and a new EU awareness campaign on people's rights in energy launching at EUSEW

A behind-the-scenes conversation released around EUSEW 2026 (9 to 11 June, Brussels and online).

Marine Cornelis is the founder of Next Energy Consumer, a policy consultancy working on energy poverty, consumer rights, and housing at EU level. If you are working on a related mandate or research question, you can reach her at contact@nextenergyconsumer.eu

Energ' Ethic goes out every other week.

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Music: I Need You Here - Kamarius
Edition: Podcast Media Factory

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Transcription

Speaker #0
I think that what has clearly been acknowledged and is no longer even under question is that energy used to be handled primarily as a commodity, but it has increasingly acquired the dimension of being a right. And this is very basic. We all want to have, we have this conversation thanks to the fact that we have computers and we have electricity and we could connect and there's internet and Wi-Fi and whatnot.
Speaker #1
Two years ago, just after the European elections, I recorded a vox pop episode at EUSEW, the European Sustainable Energy Week 2024, and called it the dog who caught the bus. After years of running hard to define the European Green Deal, the EU had finally caught up what it was chasing and now seemed unsure what to do next. That episode ended with the line I've not stopped thinking about. I said at the time that it was time for extra communication efforts, starting with uncomfortable conversations. Two years on, I want to ask the same question from inside the institution, not from the participation in the room, but from the people responsible for staging the conversation in the first place. EUSEW, the European Sustainable Energy Week, 20th edition this year, is the closest thing the EU has to a public square for its energy transition. A public square, however, is not the same as public trust. In 2026, the Commission is asking citizens to hold three demands at once. Clean, secure, competitive. But for many households, those are not three sides of one project. They are unresolved tensions. My guest today is Ewelina HARTSTEIN, who leads external communication at DG Energy. She's one of the people responsible for what gets said inside EUSEW, who gets to speak and what is staged. versus what is generally debated. So this is a conversation about the work behind the work. And two years later, about whether the dog on the bus has found its destination. Ewelina, welcome to the show.
Speaker #0
Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
Speaker #1
Thank you, Ewelina. So you started DG Energy, working inside DG Energy, working on inter-institutional processes and international energy relations. with a focus on EU neighborhood policy. You now lead external communication for the same DG. What made that shift happen? And was it a deliberate pivot or did the role find you?
Speaker #0
Thank you for the question. It's actually a very interesting one and one that forces me to try to have a bit of a holistic approach to the different paths that I have explored since I joined the European Commission. But to answer the question why I am where I am right now, I would need to take a step. further back in time when I was a student of European integration. Very, very interested in the processes that led ultimately Poland to join the European Union. I'm Polish, so this is a spoiler here. And I had the privilege to observe how important it is to join the European Union, what are its benefits, why a country like Poland would aspire to be in this, what we perceived as a privileged club in the first place. And now... a place that we co-create, co-shape. But in the meantime, I became an EU official. And of course, now I also look at things from the EU perspective. So I am a proud representative of my country. But I also do believe genuinely in the European project and in the European integration, while understanding and working on it, understanding that this is not an obvious path for everybody in the European Union, and that it is a project that one needs to work on a lot. So I worked in academia, I worked at the College of Europe in Bruges on different aspects and different policies related to European integration. And then I joined the European Parliament. And I've made my first and hands-on experience in direct democracy, working on foreign affairs in particular, allowing me to also understand what is the importance of parliamentary diplomacy, extending it towards the European neighbors. eastern neighborhood in particular, as you mentioned. And so then the next step in my career when I joined the commission, the European Commission, was to be part of the executive that has a number of different responsibilities. They are defined in the treaties. We are the guardian of the treaties, so we monitor the provisions. We are there to make sure that the principles and the values as translated into legislation actually get enacted upon. but also in the European general interest. And I feel very strongly about this role, and this is a vocation in my case. Then I, of course, worked through different aspects of it. So there was the inter-institutional. This is how legislation gets negotiated, because the commission comes with proposals. But then it's the European Parliament with the council in parallel that actually establish their respective positions. And then they come together to decide on what it should be, what the final text should be. And this is fascinating as a process. It's not an easy one. It's a process that can last. in luxurious times when we have the time to deliberate, to analyze, etc. It can be a year and a half even before a legal text sees the light of day. So, you know, but it all has its reasons and there is a logic built into the entire system. I could observe this. I was responsible also for a number of internal processes. And I have always seen and heard about the democratic deficit around the European Union. It's something I learned when I studied in Poland and then I studied. In Belgium, you know, this was a concept that everybody was trying to crack to understand where it is coming from, why people feel dissociated from Brussels. For me, a Polish person who has just aspired to join, it was also difficult to accept that there could be a constituency not seeing the added value of European integration. And this is how I slowly but surely oriented myself towards a more communication-oriented type of a job. because I wanted to see whether there is... how to build the system further, how to make part of it, but in a constructive manner that is closer to citizens, that explains complex processes and concepts to people so that they understand what is the added value of what happens at the EU level. Some member states use what comes through the process that they are participating in from the beginning. And you know how this is all translated to the benefits of the citizens, knowing that the process has obstacles and all the solutions are not immediately perfectly fit. for every purpose, so they also have to be molded in response to the circumstances on a local or regional level as well.
Speaker #1
Yeah, that's so interesting, and that resonates also with my own path, because one of my first jobs was an internship at the European Parliament in the 2009 European elections, and I was an intern at DJ Communications, working on really this kind of gap and trying to you encourage people to vote at the election and I remember I was so furious when I was hearing friends back in France who were like oh yeah but we don't really care about the European elections we don't care about Europe and I was like but come on guys it's shaping our lives and a few countries have just like no not a few a lot of countries have just joined this wonderful project how can how can you be proud of it and try to shape it a little bit and And yeah, afterwards, I stayed in Brussels and I realized how disconnected sometimes people like us, like the two of us, were from also the reality on the ground from other people and especially on certain topics. And energy is one of them. Like, I don't think that a lot of people realize how much of the energy policy is decided at a... 28 now 27 member states level right so it's uh it's it's it's very very complex and it defines the our our future energy at the level of the energy mix but
Speaker #0
also it has a huge impact on our climate you know i totally hear you and you know i i there are certain things that i could say at a general level so for instance uh it is true that more than three quarters of all legislation that people see and feel around them in their daily lives does start in Brussels. I don't like the expression it comes from Brussels because it sounds like it is something imposed. No, it's a process that is completely a participatory one where every member state has a say and is heard and has the possibility to shape it from day one under different conditions and depending on the policy field, of course, under different conditions. But it is still not something that is imposed. It's just something that we do together. And that's a concept that I think doesn't always, you know, And. is understood widely and then when you zoom in into the energy field there is this traditional complexity first of all energy is perceived as something as something highly technical when i was about to join my director general right now i heard comments around me saying that you're not an engineer and you're not a lawyer specializing in internal market do you really think that you're gonna you know be able to find your way around there and it's only when you enter that you discover that this world is first of all fascinating very very rapidly evolving there is and then It's a huge shift of paradigm when it comes to our clean energy transition, the ambition to go somewhere where our environment is cleaner and better off, where our climate is. protected as much as possible from the external effects of human action, where we have immediate impact on our competitiveness, on how we're faring in terms of economy. So, you know, it's an extremely versatile sector. It's a policy that is absolutely, you know, very interesting. I recommend it to everybody. But it does come with a lot of, let's say, technical knowledge and, you know, aspects. I still don't know how to build a high voltage line, for instance. I am not going to be able to build an interconnector, gas interconnector. But, you know, it is still something that you can, you know, get passionate about. Then, being a bit more serious, it is a shared competence as per the treaties. So we have an article, Article 194 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, that says that member states decide. what their energy mix is. And of course, there are certain framing conditions to it. So you have to make sure you respect the internal market rules. We are bound by certain targets, be it on the renewable side, energy efficiency, and reducing emissions of our greenhouse gases. So there is a certain, again, it's not complete liberty, but member states still decide. And this determines a lot the dynamic in how the energy policy is shaped. Thank you. This is, I think, the aspect that is still not entirely widely understood by wider audiences. And I have a lot of respect for, you know, the fact that people have 24 hours a day. And if you want to at least get eight hours of sound sleep, that limits the time and possibility to get interested in all intricacies and aspects of anything related to public life. You have also countries where participatory democracy is at a much more advanced level. And those where, you know, citizens leave it up to the government much more or their interest is just not the same. So, you know, us trying to explain our role as communicators, trying to explain exactly what it is that we do, has to have a good balance between, you know, what is understandable and what is pertinent and relevant for citizens and what actually belongs to the world of regulators, national administrations, stakeholders. They will know how to use the information we're passing on and then translate it further. But of course, every citizen since at least 2022 is affected by energy prices that are rising, are volatile. This has immediate effect on wallets, on pockets. And you might have heard and seen as well that immediately when Russia invaded Ukraine and we had the surge of prices, both on electricity and gas. The question out there in the wider audiences was, well, why isn't the EU doing anything about it? Indeed, the EU was doing a lot within the rights that it had. But of course, to translate these messages was not always easy. Because people look at their invoice and they wonder, like, what am I paying for? And why isn't the EU stepping in? This is around the time when I joined the communication. And, you know, we really put a lot of effort into presenting, preparing communication materials, explaining the basics. But you have to understand many things about it. It's not only, was it that you're paying for? What's on your bill? What shapes this bill? What are the different components? And it's not only as some would want to have it, climate policy, the EU climate policy that adds on, I don't know how many percentage on the bill and we should scrap it. Life would be great if it was as easy as this.
Speaker #1
No.
Speaker #0
But on one hand, there is this, what we call outreach and an attempt to raise awareness. On the other hand, there is also the room to show to people what it is they can do, you know. And this is not only us at the level. We also work with the member states and we try to reach as much as possible regional and local levels as well to promote the information on how citizens can behave, to be part of the clean energy transition, meaning how to reduce your own bill, what to do to reach out for the clean energy sources. that are perhaps not as complicated to grab as one thing.
Speaker #1
And you have one event that is quite your flagship event. It's called the European Sustainable Energy Week. I must say I've been coming to the Sustainable Energy Week for probably as long as I've been working on energy policy, etc. So probably 16 years or so. So I might be one of the veterans. and I've been finding it incredibly interesting because this is maybe one of the few moments where you have the possibility for NGOs and the third sector and businesses alike to discuss and confront themselves directly with policymakers. So that creates a very, very stimulating week. I think it's only three days, but that creates a very stimulating conversation that usually shapes the discussions for the year to come. But you said you started working in VG Energy in 2022, and you started working on the Sustainable Energy Week probably right after that, right? you
Speaker #0
I will just explain. I started in 2015, but I was first in my different other roles. And then I joined the team working on EUSEW in 2022. And indeed, soon afterwards, I was also allowed to co-create events.
Speaker #1
Great. So did you already have ideas on how to shape EUSEW when you joined? Or did something... When it landed on your desk, did something surprise you, right? Because compared to what it looks like from the outside.
Speaker #0
And so I actually had to experience something that other people have told me about ISEF before I was responsible for it. And by saying I'm responsible for it, of course, I'm taking a bit to greater credit. This is indeed the biggest, the flagship event of the European Commission and actually in Europe on sustainable energy and energy transition. But there are many, many authors to the success behind. So my director general cooperates very, very closely with CINEA, the executive agency that is also a co-creator. And we have also other services behind. So many, many mothers and fathers of the success. But when I received this responsibility, this privilege to be in charge, I had never been to EUSEW myself. And I was told by an experienced colleague who said, you have to live it. You have to go through it once and then you will understand what it is about. On the face of it, it sounded like, you know, organizing an event. It's a conference. We've been to so many of these, all of us. You know that some of them are successful, some of them are less so. They can be well organized, less well organized. Sometimes a conference only needs a star, a VIP presence, and then everybody all of a sudden comes. And I was really, you know, explained, no, no, wait, wait and see. And I accompanied the preparation process, of course, but it's really living through the first use that made me understand what is the scale of this event? What is the importance of it? So, as you said yourself, there is this absolutely unique mix of people you get to meet policymakers at the highest political level because you have commissioners. Occasionally, the president of the European Commission also honors us with her presence. And you have, of course, senior managers from the European Commission, also middle managers, but also policy officers who are really the ones, you know, the pen holders behind a lot of work that sees the light of day. You have stakeholders, you have NGOs, you have academia, you have young people, because we have also launched a new program with young energy ambassadors. And they now, for a couple of years, started one year mandate with the European Commission at EUSEW, precisely. So it is an amazing and a unique mix and experience. Then you see how versatile the topics are. So we, of course, organize the conference around five thematic blocks. But it's also a huge challenge to decide which topics are going to be covered. We follow the political priorities. And these, you know, maybe don't change entirely from one year to another. But we do fine tune according to what is the most important topic of this. year or of this period. We're trying to stay attuned to the needs, the geopolitical context as well. So the titles of the conference reflect that as well. And it's a huge preparation process. And we have the saying that EUSEW never stops because while it takes a place only for over three days, as you said, we call it a week because we assume everybody comes on Mondays and Fridays, but then they are already in the conversation during this period. Oui. always finish a EUSEW and start preparing the next one. It's a very, very preparatory process to make everything fall into place for these three days. And it is, of course, very inspiring. We get to meet ourselves a lot of very interesting people with whom we work on it. So ultimately, yeah, it is a very engaging time for us, but one that comes also with a lot of effort. So to come back to your question, because I don't know if I answered it completely, it's only after the first EUSEW that I could offer some insights into how I would see it. further shape. But we work very closely with our commissioner on this. This is his flag. He is the host and he is the one that of course also wants to meet the stakeholders and interact with them. We also try to explore other ways to engage. wider audiences. There are those who can come to Brussels, but there are also many, many that cannot allow themselves for many reasons. And so over COVID, we have explored the online participation at the conference and it has become a hybrid event since. So now I will privilege and of course, welcome everybody to come in person to Brussels. It's perfectly fine and absolutely feasible to also attend online. including interacting online. So there's a platform that offers business-to-business dialogue in many different forms. Everything can be retrieved. Also, we record sessions. So we're trying to make an effort to make it available while it happens, but also later. So then there's a legacy of each of the conferences.
Speaker #1
Yeah, that's absolutely true. And I remember it really, really well, the 2020 edition. Because I was invited to speak and I could speak. The thing is, in the meantime, I had given birth to my baby girl. So I wouldn't have been able to travel to Brussels for any reason. But I was able to attend and present some work on the national energy and climate plans and on energy poverty. So that was also a very, very good opportunity to tune up. By the way, I started the podcast maybe six months later, also because I felt that, you know, the kind of conversations that I had during EUSEW that are sometimes you bump into someone that you haven't seen in years and, you know, you have this serendipitous conversation that leads to something else and, you know, this really great platform for mingling. I was missing it. So that's also why I decided to start the podcast. podcast in the first place because I thought, okay, I need to have conversations with people I want to know more about. So that was also the idea. So that might have come like maybe something came from the 2020 edition. And it's one of the particularities, right, of EUSEW to invite a lot of external voices in the room. So there are ambassadors, including people like me. I've been an ambassador for since the beginning of the program, but there are also awards. There are, of course, media partners. It's probably one of the best covered events in terms of media participation. There are also the Sustainable Energy Days to make sure that there are some related events that happen in the territories outside Brussels and outside the bubble that tend to be the one we know. How do you think, as one of the organizers, how do you think about the role these voices are playing? And maybe that they are the voices that the commission itself cannot play.
Speaker #0
So, absolutely. As you know yourself, you've followed EUSEW much, much younger than me. So, you know how the concept of USEP evolved. And it started as a conference that was targeting energy efficiency topics and renewables. And it then grew to be a... very holistic event around all possible topics of clean energy transition. But of course, we would never be able to do it ourselves. And there is a saying that EUSEW is not a conference, it's a community. One thing I mentioned about how long the preparation process lasts points in this direction as well. We try as much as possible to keep our community engaged throughout the year. And it's very important for us that people associate themselves with the event. just because it allows us to bring them together around the topics that are important for them. So, you said it's a co-created event, par excellence. We, from the European Commission perspective, take charge of offering the frame. And we are also organizing the VIP part of the program. So, there's the opening session. We always have the Commissioner, the Parliament, the Council present in the very beginning. We do special, let's say, sessions. Like this year, for instance, we will welcome all former energy commissioners who have been in the job for the past 20 years because it's the 20th anniversary. But then the afternoon of the first day and the two days that follow are co-created. People apply. to host a session at EUSEW. And this is very important for us, that this voice travels, that there is this certitude that we are willing to listen, open to have a conversation, have this debate in public, have it transmitted live, and also then picked up on later if needed. We are even exploring, we're a bit shy about this for now because we need to make sure that all the technicalities work. But, you know... conferences and events have now moved on since what they used to be, I don't know, 15 years ago. And we are looking into interactive tools that can also engage participants both online and even in the room to make sure that everybody feels they not only listened to a conversation happening on stage, but could also be an active listener and active participant. So in that sense, you know, this community, the work of digital ambassadors and cooperation with our media partners. is extremely, extremely important. EUSEW runs a blog and their entries by many different versatile authors can be found. We try to present different aspects of the spectrum. You know that there are certain technological solutions that are more popular than others. And we want to also offer the possibility to have a conversation around it. So not only at EUSEW, but also beyond. And sustainable energy days that you mentioned are also one way of to... be present beyond Brussels, make it more tangible also for those who cannot travel, cannot be here. We cannot also accommodate everybody, but the ones who feel that they are a strong voice of clean energy transition and can do it elsewhere, we're also very happy to endorse it. There's also even a little exhibit of different, we call it, EU's use of stands. We have different projects exposed right in front of the biggest plenary room where different companies, different associations, different NGOs present their work, their products and promote Mingle. And this is also a very interesting and important part of the conference.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I remember very well when I was also in this kind of role. I also remember when EUSEW was not only at the Charlemagne building, but also in other buildings, including President's Palace, etc. It was always so incredibly complicated to run from one place to the other. And the sense of community, I think it's really, really interesting to see it because sometimes it's the only opportunity people have to meet over the year in a setting where they feel that So they belong and their voice is heard. And that's extremely important. But let's go to the 2026 theme, which is extremely timely. You decided it probably a long time ago, but it's given the circumstances and the energy price crisis, again, that we are facing. It's extremely interesting. It's a clean, secure and competitive energy union. I hadn't heard the term energy union in probably 10 years, so I find it quite interesting to put it back here. But overall, these three words, clean, secure and competitive, they are doing quite a lot of heavy lifting here. Because when, really from your organizer, when you build a program around those three, how do you decide what to foreground when? For many households, those three words are not aligned, but in tension. That's extremely ambitious.
Speaker #0
So let me reveal maybe a tiny bit of the precise cuisine aspect of how we prepare and how we decide on the title. We always start sometime in the early autumn of the year before. And we look at two things. What is coming up in the Commission Work Program that is energy relevant? What is it that we, our services, our next-door colleagues... are going to be working on and what will be the big adoptions, so the big either legislative or non-legislative packages, but the ones that will be driving and defining the narrative of the year to come. And we also check this against the geopolitical context and political context of the moment. That is the trickier part because it's very difficult to anticipate what will be in the situation, be it internal European Union or what might happen elsewhere. in June of the year to follow. The best example being the closure of the Strait of Hormuz right now has again brought energy to the forefront. Again, in the headlines, energy is driving inflation. There are also legitimate concerns or other questions about the security of supply and how this will impact our functioning, our economy, not only in terms of energy prices themselves, but also supply chains of different other materials that are blocked. And how will Europe in particular, but the world from a more global perspective, what kind of consequences it will have. So the way we framed it, the reason why we went for this kind of title was that towards the end of the year, we are preparing a revision of the energy union framework. That means there's a foundation in place right now. This is the one that determines the national energy and climate plans, but also that identifies the targets that we have to meet in renewables. energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions reduction. This is something we've already mentioned before. And so we are working towards this. We have, as I mentioned, the energy union as a concept. It's a concept that has identified what exactly we as you want to achieve in the energy field so that we are competitive, so that we have the security of supply, so that we drive the clean energy transition, that we defend. our internal market and its freedoms and that we make sure that while we bet on sustainable energy technologies we do it with the right research agenda and that we have the right investment into it so this was a concept developed but it is time now to look into this concept with all the many different parameters you know we've had the clean industrial deal we've had the european Green Deal before, which already equipped us with a large package of legislative... tools and measures to deliver. But now it's time to see, it's time to take stock. Is this working? What is it that we should do better? What is it that perhaps we should do less of as well? And how to make sure that we drive, and particularly investments in clean energy transition forward. So this will be happening, if all goes well, towards the end of the year. I always remain a bit cautious when it comes to planning, you know, that things can shift slightly around, but it is in the agenda, it is ongoing. There has been an inter-service. consultation so it's already in the public domain as well because we have collected a lot of input on this there have been workshops there are different engagements so we working towards this and you said it's the best opportunity we have to put this conversation also in the spotlight one more time but this is the energy union aspect you have mentioned the three the three adjectives we we use one could add at least one more and that is affordable because a very important aspect of it. And I know that... It is a popular thing to put them in juxtaposition, to say that they are somehow contradicted, that there is a certain tension. And I think that we have been over the years trying to prove that precisely there is a way to devise policy to make sure that we can deliver on all these threats without detriment to one or the other. It is a parallel process that involves many threats. We need to look at our security supply framework. We also will be doing that. We have... a very ambitious agenda already on cleaning the energy sector. We have the grids package that is also being now discussed by co-legislators. That is one of the important contributions to how to modernize, how to invest further, how to build and develop the grids so that it is fit for the 20th century clean energy needs. And sustainability has always been the driver of UCEDD. So I think there is a key. surprise there.
Speaker #1
Yeah, there is also the Citizens Energy Package that was released very, very recently and all the, let's say, accompanying documents that were released also with the Accelerate EU communication. So it comes from a few weeks ago and it's really about all the material that is about helping member states implement existing energy policy that are going towards the consumer. And I think it's indeed, I mean, when you mention affordability, it's like, it's the basis at the end of the day. And, you know, that's interesting that you are mentioning these elements and that you are also saying that they are so tied together and that I bring the human dimension. Because back in 2024, when I recorded this Spokespop episode, one of the things that I came away kind of worried. was that the human dimension was risking to get crowded out by competitiveness, security of supply, raw materials, etc. And interestingly, I think that this kind of human dimension, maybe sometimes it feels that it lives by, it's left by the door, but it always comes back. It comes back by the window, right? Because at the end of the day, it's the goal of an energy policy, right? To serve the needs of the citizens. That's also one of the reasons why I like the name Citizens Energy Package so much, because it shows the... the duties and the responsibilities of the states or the in this case of the european union to serve its citizens as well so i'm really looking forward to the kind of conversations that will be brought inside the sustainable energy week because i've noticed that there are less conversations around energy poverty than in the previous years right so i think it's interesting because we we need to to address different topics at the same time. But also to keep in mind that the energy conversation is not only about moving the electrons, but also making sure people are served by these electrons, not elections. But, you know, another thing that I said back in 2024 is that it was time for extra communication efforts, starting with uncomfortable conversations, right? And two years later, from... your seat and your extensive work what does this kind of uncomfortable conversation look like and do you still believe that they are one that you're having within yourself i think uh the
Speaker #0
user brings together a community of people who are convinced this is the one thing that perhaps we could explore further. It would be interesting to start engaging also with daewans who are not yet converted, but actually perhaps present the potential to be converted. Because when you meet people who are aligned on the principles that then discuss the details of how to get there, it's a different conversation. And in that sense, the conversation, the only aspect that you call uncomfortable, but I think I would call just perfectly legitimate and okay to have, would be how to get there. What is it that we need? Are we providing us as policymakers There's... enough of support enough of incentives enough signals so that it is actually happening or are our stakeholders perceiving it the same way so it is important an important reality check i think that this is the the greatest value of the conversation that we hear colleagues of work of course in vacuum so a lot of these stakeholders they will be meeting because they are your sector specific stakeholders so colleagues working on heat pumps will of course know who their interlocutors and the other side aren't. At the same time, it is a... an opportunity to have it set out there in public, as I said. So it is really, it's never meant to be a confrontation, but it is one where, you know, we give the voice to those who actually need to spell out also what are the needs that require further work on. A lot of it revolves around investment, how to activate private capital, how to make sure that, you know, it's not only public money, this is never going to be possible, but how to create the right incentives and lessons framework, what are the tools, what is still needed. We keep saying that Europe's competitiveness is hampered by the fact that it has a very strong, very dense and heavy regulatory framework. But actually, we also advance an argument that this is our strength because we have predictability and stability for investment and, you know, also political stability that comes from that. So there are many different elements of such a conversation that could happen. To come back to your point on keeping the citizen and the... benefits for citizens also and and citizens needs in in focus i think that what has clearly been acknowledged and is no longer even under question is that energy used to be to handle primarily as a commodity but it has increasingly acquiring the dimension of being a right and this is very basic we all want to have we have this conversation thanks to the fact that we have computers and we have electricity and we could connect and there's internet and wi-fi and whatnot so and And, you know, we all want. streetlights to be on at night and that should be something a basic comfort should always guarantee to everybody. But we're not always everywhere there. Energy and electricity in particular, but also gas and other sources tend to become very expensive at times. So we need to be very much attuned to how to shape the system better so that people are shielded and protected. Energy poverty is maybe a concept, but then when you look into when you scratch the surface and look how it is being actually impacted, operationalize what we require from member states increasingly to identify people in vulnerable that could be facing a dangerous situation to explain to us what member states would like to do and what they're doing to support these people help give them best practices share with purposes we have published recently a catalog of measures that have been adopted by the member states and a digital repository of similar measures So, you know, we also offer this opportunity to compare and present. And one final point, if I may, this is a bit during maybe a bit of our own commercial, but we have also prepared. And we will launch at YouServe an awareness-raising campaign on people's rights in energy. So this is tying in with the Citizen Energy Package. We will be going out with a set of dedicated messages, first targeting three member states that we hope to perhaps build on this burger in the future and make it also available for other member states. But we actually will want to start sharing the information with people out there, what it is. that people have the right to, thanks to the European Union, but also what they can do themselves to be active members of the clean energy transition.
Speaker #1
That's absolutely music to my ears. It's not only about having rights, but making sure that you are able to use them and to benefit from them. So that's extremely important, and that's definitely a topic I will keep on following. And I will be at EUSEW, so I hope we will... get a chance to meet during that week. And to all of our listeners, just remember that European Commission officials, they are human after all. They are very, very accessible. Don't be afraid to talk to them. They are nice people.
Speaker #0
And if you cannot come to use it, you can always register and follow online.
Speaker #1
Thank you so much, Ewelina, from this behind-the-scenes. It is urgent and I look forward to seeing you then.
Speaker #0
Thanks very much. Thank you for the invitation. And I also look forward to meeting you very, very soon in Brussels.
Speaker #1
Energetic explores the people, policies and institutions shaping Europe's and the world's energy transition. I am Marine Cornelis. If you found this conversation valuable, you can share it with colleagues working on housing, governance and cultural protection. You will find references and further reading in the show notes. Until next time.

Chapters

Introduction to Energy as a Right
0sec
Guest Introduction: Ewelina Hartstein
58sec
Ewelina's Journey in the European Commission
2min
The Complexity of Energy Policy
8min
The Role of European Sustainable Energy Week
14min
Themes for 2026: Clean, Secure, Competitive
27min
Energy as a Right and Addressing Energy Poverty
37min
Conclusion and Future Outlook
40min

About Energ’Ethic - Climate Justice and Energy Transition

Energy transitions are failing not because of technology, but because of governance. Who bears the cost of getting it wrong. Who is excluded from the benefits. Who holds the institutions accountable.

Energ'Ethic is a podcast about those questions. Hosted by Marine Cornelis — founder of Next Energy Consumer and a leading voice on energy poverty, consumer rights, and the social conditions of the energy transition — each episode brings together the people who are closest to where policy meets reality: regulators navigating enforcement gaps, researchers with evidence that hasn't reached the policy room yet, practitioners managing the friction between EU ambition and local capacity.

The conversations are rigorous and grounded. The guests are people with direct institutional knowledge and genuine stakes in getting this right.

Energ'Ethic is listened to by policymakers, legal and regulatory professionals, NGO and civil society leaders, and researchers working at the intersection of energy, housing, consumers, and governance. It is not a generalist show about the energy transition. It is a specialist conversation for people who are already inside the problem.

For organisations and sponsors: Energ'Ethic offers partnership opportunities for organisations seeking to reach a senior, policy-literate audience. Partnerships are selective and editorially independent. Contact: contact@nextenergyconsumer.eu

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Energ’Ethic - Climate Justice and Energy Transition

Energy transitions are failing not because of technology, but because of governance. Who bears the cost of getting it wrong. Who is excluded from the benefits. Who holds the institutions accountable.

The conversations are rigorous and grounded. The guests are people with direct institutional knowledge and genuine stakes in getting this right.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Description

What the conversation surfaces:

Why "it comes from Brussels" is, in her own words, an expression she does not like
What it means that EUSEW "brings together a community of people who are convinced," and how DG Energy thinks about engaging the unconverted
The 20th anniversary edition's three-word theme (clean, secure, competitive) and the affordability dimension she insists belongs alongside them
A live disagreement on whether the conversations EUSEW hosts are "uncomfortable" or "perfectly legitimate"
The shift she names directly: energy moving from commodity to right, and a new EU awareness campaign on people's rights in energy launching at EUSEW

A behind-the-scenes conversation released around EUSEW 2026 (9 to 11 June, Brussels and online).

Energ' Ethic goes out every other week.

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Reach out to Marine Cornelis via BlueSky or LinkedIn
Music: I Need You Here - Kamarius
Edition: Podcast Media Factory

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Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Transcription

Speaker #0
I think that what has clearly been acknowledged and is no longer even under question is that energy used to be handled primarily as a commodity, but it has increasingly acquired the dimension of being a right. And this is very basic. We all want to have, we have this conversation thanks to the fact that we have computers and we have electricity and we could connect and there's internet and Wi-Fi and whatnot.
Speaker #1
Two years ago, just after the European elections, I recorded a vox pop episode at EUSEW, the European Sustainable Energy Week 2024, and called it the dog who caught the bus. After years of running hard to define the European Green Deal, the EU had finally caught up what it was chasing and now seemed unsure what to do next. That episode ended with the line I've not stopped thinking about. I said at the time that it was time for extra communication efforts, starting with uncomfortable conversations. Two years on, I want to ask the same question from inside the institution, not from the participation in the room, but from the people responsible for staging the conversation in the first place. EUSEW, the European Sustainable Energy Week, 20th edition this year, is the closest thing the EU has to a public square for its energy transition. A public square, however, is not the same as public trust. In 2026, the Commission is asking citizens to hold three demands at once. Clean, secure, competitive. But for many households, those are not three sides of one project. They are unresolved tensions. My guest today is Ewelina HARTSTEIN, who leads external communication at DG Energy. She's one of the people responsible for what gets said inside EUSEW, who gets to speak and what is staged. versus what is generally debated. So this is a conversation about the work behind the work. And two years later, about whether the dog on the bus has found its destination. Ewelina, welcome to the show.
Speaker #0
Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
Speaker #1
Thank you, Ewelina. So you started DG Energy, working inside DG Energy, working on inter-institutional processes and international energy relations. with a focus on EU neighborhood policy. You now lead external communication for the same DG. What made that shift happen? And was it a deliberate pivot or did the role find you?
Speaker #0
Thank you for the question. It's actually a very interesting one and one that forces me to try to have a bit of a holistic approach to the different paths that I have explored since I joined the European Commission. But to answer the question why I am where I am right now, I would need to take a step. further back in time when I was a student of European integration. Very, very interested in the processes that led ultimately Poland to join the European Union. I'm Polish, so this is a spoiler here. And I had the privilege to observe how important it is to join the European Union, what are its benefits, why a country like Poland would aspire to be in this, what we perceived as a privileged club in the first place. And now... a place that we co-create, co-shape. But in the meantime, I became an EU official. And of course, now I also look at things from the EU perspective. So I am a proud representative of my country. But I also do believe genuinely in the European project and in the European integration, while understanding and working on it, understanding that this is not an obvious path for everybody in the European Union, and that it is a project that one needs to work on a lot. So I worked in academia, I worked at the College of Europe in Bruges on different aspects and different policies related to European integration. And then I joined the European Parliament. And I've made my first and hands-on experience in direct democracy, working on foreign affairs in particular, allowing me to also understand what is the importance of parliamentary diplomacy, extending it towards the European neighbors. eastern neighborhood in particular, as you mentioned. And so then the next step in my career when I joined the commission, the European Commission, was to be part of the executive that has a number of different responsibilities. They are defined in the treaties. We are the guardian of the treaties, so we monitor the provisions. We are there to make sure that the principles and the values as translated into legislation actually get enacted upon. but also in the European general interest. And I feel very strongly about this role, and this is a vocation in my case. Then I, of course, worked through different aspects of it. So there was the inter-institutional. This is how legislation gets negotiated, because the commission comes with proposals. But then it's the European Parliament with the council in parallel that actually establish their respective positions. And then they come together to decide on what it should be, what the final text should be. And this is fascinating as a process. It's not an easy one. It's a process that can last. in luxurious times when we have the time to deliberate, to analyze, etc. It can be a year and a half even before a legal text sees the light of day. So, you know, but it all has its reasons and there is a logic built into the entire system. I could observe this. I was responsible also for a number of internal processes. And I have always seen and heard about the democratic deficit around the European Union. It's something I learned when I studied in Poland and then I studied. In Belgium, you know, this was a concept that everybody was trying to crack to understand where it is coming from, why people feel dissociated from Brussels. For me, a Polish person who has just aspired to join, it was also difficult to accept that there could be a constituency not seeing the added value of European integration. And this is how I slowly but surely oriented myself towards a more communication-oriented type of a job. because I wanted to see whether there is... how to build the system further, how to make part of it, but in a constructive manner that is closer to citizens, that explains complex processes and concepts to people so that they understand what is the added value of what happens at the EU level. Some member states use what comes through the process that they are participating in from the beginning. And you know how this is all translated to the benefits of the citizens, knowing that the process has obstacles and all the solutions are not immediately perfectly fit. for every purpose, so they also have to be molded in response to the circumstances on a local or regional level as well.
Speaker #1
Yeah, that's so interesting, and that resonates also with my own path, because one of my first jobs was an internship at the European Parliament in the 2009 European elections, and I was an intern at DJ Communications, working on really this kind of gap and trying to you encourage people to vote at the election and I remember I was so furious when I was hearing friends back in France who were like oh yeah but we don't really care about the European elections we don't care about Europe and I was like but come on guys it's shaping our lives and a few countries have just like no not a few a lot of countries have just joined this wonderful project how can how can you be proud of it and try to shape it a little bit and And yeah, afterwards, I stayed in Brussels and I realized how disconnected sometimes people like us, like the two of us, were from also the reality on the ground from other people and especially on certain topics. And energy is one of them. Like, I don't think that a lot of people realize how much of the energy policy is decided at a... 28 now 27 member states level right so it's uh it's it's it's very very complex and it defines the our our future energy at the level of the energy mix but
Speaker #0
also it has a huge impact on our climate you know i totally hear you and you know i i there are certain things that i could say at a general level so for instance uh it is true that more than three quarters of all legislation that people see and feel around them in their daily lives does start in Brussels. I don't like the expression it comes from Brussels because it sounds like it is something imposed. No, it's a process that is completely a participatory one where every member state has a say and is heard and has the possibility to shape it from day one under different conditions and depending on the policy field, of course, under different conditions. But it is still not something that is imposed. It's just something that we do together. And that's a concept that I think doesn't always, you know, And. is understood widely and then when you zoom in into the energy field there is this traditional complexity first of all energy is perceived as something as something highly technical when i was about to join my director general right now i heard comments around me saying that you're not an engineer and you're not a lawyer specializing in internal market do you really think that you're gonna you know be able to find your way around there and it's only when you enter that you discover that this world is first of all fascinating very very rapidly evolving there is and then It's a huge shift of paradigm when it comes to our clean energy transition, the ambition to go somewhere where our environment is cleaner and better off, where our climate is. protected as much as possible from the external effects of human action, where we have immediate impact on our competitiveness, on how we're faring in terms of economy. So, you know, it's an extremely versatile sector. It's a policy that is absolutely, you know, very interesting. I recommend it to everybody. But it does come with a lot of, let's say, technical knowledge and, you know, aspects. I still don't know how to build a high voltage line, for instance. I am not going to be able to build an interconnector, gas interconnector. But, you know, it is still something that you can, you know, get passionate about. Then, being a bit more serious, it is a shared competence as per the treaties. So we have an article, Article 194 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, that says that member states decide. what their energy mix is. And of course, there are certain framing conditions to it. So you have to make sure you respect the internal market rules. We are bound by certain targets, be it on the renewable side, energy efficiency, and reducing emissions of our greenhouse gases. So there is a certain, again, it's not complete liberty, but member states still decide. And this determines a lot the dynamic in how the energy policy is shaped. Thank you. This is, I think, the aspect that is still not entirely widely understood by wider audiences. And I have a lot of respect for, you know, the fact that people have 24 hours a day. And if you want to at least get eight hours of sound sleep, that limits the time and possibility to get interested in all intricacies and aspects of anything related to public life. You have also countries where participatory democracy is at a much more advanced level. And those where, you know, citizens leave it up to the government much more or their interest is just not the same. So, you know, us trying to explain our role as communicators, trying to explain exactly what it is that we do, has to have a good balance between, you know, what is understandable and what is pertinent and relevant for citizens and what actually belongs to the world of regulators, national administrations, stakeholders. They will know how to use the information we're passing on and then translate it further. But of course, every citizen since at least 2022 is affected by energy prices that are rising, are volatile. This has immediate effect on wallets, on pockets. And you might have heard and seen as well that immediately when Russia invaded Ukraine and we had the surge of prices, both on electricity and gas. The question out there in the wider audiences was, well, why isn't the EU doing anything about it? Indeed, the EU was doing a lot within the rights that it had. But of course, to translate these messages was not always easy. Because people look at their invoice and they wonder, like, what am I paying for? And why isn't the EU stepping in? This is around the time when I joined the communication. And, you know, we really put a lot of effort into presenting, preparing communication materials, explaining the basics. But you have to understand many things about it. It's not only, was it that you're paying for? What's on your bill? What shapes this bill? What are the different components? And it's not only as some would want to have it, climate policy, the EU climate policy that adds on, I don't know how many percentage on the bill and we should scrap it. Life would be great if it was as easy as this.
Speaker #1
No.
Speaker #0
But on one hand, there is this, what we call outreach and an attempt to raise awareness. On the other hand, there is also the room to show to people what it is they can do, you know. And this is not only us at the level. We also work with the member states and we try to reach as much as possible regional and local levels as well to promote the information on how citizens can behave, to be part of the clean energy transition, meaning how to reduce your own bill, what to do to reach out for the clean energy sources. that are perhaps not as complicated to grab as one thing.
Speaker #1
And you have one event that is quite your flagship event. It's called the European Sustainable Energy Week. I must say I've been coming to the Sustainable Energy Week for probably as long as I've been working on energy policy, etc. So probably 16 years or so. So I might be one of the veterans. and I've been finding it incredibly interesting because this is maybe one of the few moments where you have the possibility for NGOs and the third sector and businesses alike to discuss and confront themselves directly with policymakers. So that creates a very, very stimulating week. I think it's only three days, but that creates a very stimulating conversation that usually shapes the discussions for the year to come. But you said you started working in VG Energy in 2022, and you started working on the Sustainable Energy Week probably right after that, right? you
Speaker #0
I will just explain. I started in 2015, but I was first in my different other roles. And then I joined the team working on EUSEW in 2022. And indeed, soon afterwards, I was also allowed to co-create events.
Speaker #1
Great. So did you already have ideas on how to shape EUSEW when you joined? Or did something... When it landed on your desk, did something surprise you, right? Because compared to what it looks like from the outside.
Speaker #0
And so I actually had to experience something that other people have told me about ISEF before I was responsible for it. And by saying I'm responsible for it, of course, I'm taking a bit to greater credit. This is indeed the biggest, the flagship event of the European Commission and actually in Europe on sustainable energy and energy transition. But there are many, many authors to the success behind. So my director general cooperates very, very closely with CINEA, the executive agency that is also a co-creator. And we have also other services behind. So many, many mothers and fathers of the success. But when I received this responsibility, this privilege to be in charge, I had never been to EUSEW myself. And I was told by an experienced colleague who said, you have to live it. You have to go through it once and then you will understand what it is about. On the face of it, it sounded like, you know, organizing an event. It's a conference. We've been to so many of these, all of us. You know that some of them are successful, some of them are less so. They can be well organized, less well organized. Sometimes a conference only needs a star, a VIP presence, and then everybody all of a sudden comes. And I was really, you know, explained, no, no, wait, wait and see. And I accompanied the preparation process, of course, but it's really living through the first use that made me understand what is the scale of this event? What is the importance of it? So, as you said yourself, there is this absolutely unique mix of people you get to meet policymakers at the highest political level because you have commissioners. Occasionally, the president of the European Commission also honors us with her presence. And you have, of course, senior managers from the European Commission, also middle managers, but also policy officers who are really the ones, you know, the pen holders behind a lot of work that sees the light of day. You have stakeholders, you have NGOs, you have academia, you have young people, because we have also launched a new program with young energy ambassadors. And they now, for a couple of years, started one year mandate with the European Commission at EUSEW, precisely. So it is an amazing and a unique mix and experience. Then you see how versatile the topics are. So we, of course, organize the conference around five thematic blocks. But it's also a huge challenge to decide which topics are going to be covered. We follow the political priorities. And these, you know, maybe don't change entirely from one year to another. But we do fine tune according to what is the most important topic of this. year or of this period. We're trying to stay attuned to the needs, the geopolitical context as well. So the titles of the conference reflect that as well. And it's a huge preparation process. And we have the saying that EUSEW never stops because while it takes a place only for over three days, as you said, we call it a week because we assume everybody comes on Mondays and Fridays, but then they are already in the conversation during this period. Oui. always finish a EUSEW and start preparing the next one. It's a very, very preparatory process to make everything fall into place for these three days. And it is, of course, very inspiring. We get to meet ourselves a lot of very interesting people with whom we work on it. So ultimately, yeah, it is a very engaging time for us, but one that comes also with a lot of effort. So to come back to your question, because I don't know if I answered it completely, it's only after the first EUSEW that I could offer some insights into how I would see it. further shape. But we work very closely with our commissioner on this. This is his flag. He is the host and he is the one that of course also wants to meet the stakeholders and interact with them. We also try to explore other ways to engage. wider audiences. There are those who can come to Brussels, but there are also many, many that cannot allow themselves for many reasons. And so over COVID, we have explored the online participation at the conference and it has become a hybrid event since. So now I will privilege and of course, welcome everybody to come in person to Brussels. It's perfectly fine and absolutely feasible to also attend online. including interacting online. So there's a platform that offers business-to-business dialogue in many different forms. Everything can be retrieved. Also, we record sessions. So we're trying to make an effort to make it available while it happens, but also later. So then there's a legacy of each of the conferences.
Speaker #1
Yeah, that's absolutely true. And I remember it really, really well, the 2020 edition. Because I was invited to speak and I could speak. The thing is, in the meantime, I had given birth to my baby girl. So I wouldn't have been able to travel to Brussels for any reason. But I was able to attend and present some work on the national energy and climate plans and on energy poverty. So that was also a very, very good opportunity to tune up. By the way, I started the podcast maybe six months later, also because I felt that, you know, the kind of conversations that I had during EUSEW that are sometimes you bump into someone that you haven't seen in years and, you know, you have this serendipitous conversation that leads to something else and, you know, this really great platform for mingling. I was missing it. So that's also why I decided to start the podcast. podcast in the first place because I thought, okay, I need to have conversations with people I want to know more about. So that was also the idea. So that might have come like maybe something came from the 2020 edition. And it's one of the particularities, right, of EUSEW to invite a lot of external voices in the room. So there are ambassadors, including people like me. I've been an ambassador for since the beginning of the program, but there are also awards. There are, of course, media partners. It's probably one of the best covered events in terms of media participation. There are also the Sustainable Energy Days to make sure that there are some related events that happen in the territories outside Brussels and outside the bubble that tend to be the one we know. How do you think, as one of the organizers, how do you think about the role these voices are playing? And maybe that they are the voices that the commission itself cannot play.
Speaker #0
So, absolutely. As you know yourself, you've followed EUSEW much, much younger than me. So, you know how the concept of USEP evolved. And it started as a conference that was targeting energy efficiency topics and renewables. And it then grew to be a... very holistic event around all possible topics of clean energy transition. But of course, we would never be able to do it ourselves. And there is a saying that EUSEW is not a conference, it's a community. One thing I mentioned about how long the preparation process lasts points in this direction as well. We try as much as possible to keep our community engaged throughout the year. And it's very important for us that people associate themselves with the event. just because it allows us to bring them together around the topics that are important for them. So, you said it's a co-created event, par excellence. We, from the European Commission perspective, take charge of offering the frame. And we are also organizing the VIP part of the program. So, there's the opening session. We always have the Commissioner, the Parliament, the Council present in the very beginning. We do special, let's say, sessions. Like this year, for instance, we will welcome all former energy commissioners who have been in the job for the past 20 years because it's the 20th anniversary. But then the afternoon of the first day and the two days that follow are co-created. People apply. to host a session at EUSEW. And this is very important for us, that this voice travels, that there is this certitude that we are willing to listen, open to have a conversation, have this debate in public, have it transmitted live, and also then picked up on later if needed. We are even exploring, we're a bit shy about this for now because we need to make sure that all the technicalities work. But, you know... conferences and events have now moved on since what they used to be, I don't know, 15 years ago. And we are looking into interactive tools that can also engage participants both online and even in the room to make sure that everybody feels they not only listened to a conversation happening on stage, but could also be an active listener and active participant. So in that sense, you know, this community, the work of digital ambassadors and cooperation with our media partners. is extremely, extremely important. EUSEW runs a blog and their entries by many different versatile authors can be found. We try to present different aspects of the spectrum. You know that there are certain technological solutions that are more popular than others. And we want to also offer the possibility to have a conversation around it. So not only at EUSEW, but also beyond. And sustainable energy days that you mentioned are also one way of to... be present beyond Brussels, make it more tangible also for those who cannot travel, cannot be here. We cannot also accommodate everybody, but the ones who feel that they are a strong voice of clean energy transition and can do it elsewhere, we're also very happy to endorse it. There's also even a little exhibit of different, we call it, EU's use of stands. We have different projects exposed right in front of the biggest plenary room where different companies, different associations, different NGOs present their work, their products and promote Mingle. And this is also a very interesting and important part of the conference.
Speaker #1
Yeah, I remember very well when I was also in this kind of role. I also remember when EUSEW was not only at the Charlemagne building, but also in other buildings, including President's Palace, etc. It was always so incredibly complicated to run from one place to the other. And the sense of community, I think it's really, really interesting to see it because sometimes it's the only opportunity people have to meet over the year in a setting where they feel that So they belong and their voice is heard. And that's extremely important. But let's go to the 2026 theme, which is extremely timely. You decided it probably a long time ago, but it's given the circumstances and the energy price crisis, again, that we are facing. It's extremely interesting. It's a clean, secure and competitive energy union. I hadn't heard the term energy union in probably 10 years, so I find it quite interesting to put it back here. But overall, these three words, clean, secure and competitive, they are doing quite a lot of heavy lifting here. Because when, really from your organizer, when you build a program around those three, how do you decide what to foreground when? For many households, those three words are not aligned, but in tension. That's extremely ambitious.
Speaker #0
So let me reveal maybe a tiny bit of the precise cuisine aspect of how we prepare and how we decide on the title. We always start sometime in the early autumn of the year before. And we look at two things. What is coming up in the Commission Work Program that is energy relevant? What is it that we, our services, our next-door colleagues... are going to be working on and what will be the big adoptions, so the big either legislative or non-legislative packages, but the ones that will be driving and defining the narrative of the year to come. And we also check this against the geopolitical context and political context of the moment. That is the trickier part because it's very difficult to anticipate what will be in the situation, be it internal European Union or what might happen elsewhere. in June of the year to follow. The best example being the closure of the Strait of Hormuz right now has again brought energy to the forefront. Again, in the headlines, energy is driving inflation. There are also legitimate concerns or other questions about the security of supply and how this will impact our functioning, our economy, not only in terms of energy prices themselves, but also supply chains of different other materials that are blocked. And how will Europe in particular, but the world from a more global perspective, what kind of consequences it will have. So the way we framed it, the reason why we went for this kind of title was that towards the end of the year, we are preparing a revision of the energy union framework. That means there's a foundation in place right now. This is the one that determines the national energy and climate plans, but also that identifies the targets that we have to meet in renewables. energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions reduction. This is something we've already mentioned before. And so we are working towards this. We have, as I mentioned, the energy union as a concept. It's a concept that has identified what exactly we as you want to achieve in the energy field so that we are competitive, so that we have the security of supply, so that we drive the clean energy transition, that we defend. our internal market and its freedoms and that we make sure that while we bet on sustainable energy technologies we do it with the right research agenda and that we have the right investment into it so this was a concept developed but it is time now to look into this concept with all the many different parameters you know we've had the clean industrial deal we've had the european Green Deal before, which already equipped us with a large package of legislative... tools and measures to deliver. But now it's time to see, it's time to take stock. Is this working? What is it that we should do better? What is it that perhaps we should do less of as well? And how to make sure that we drive, and particularly investments in clean energy transition forward. So this will be happening, if all goes well, towards the end of the year. I always remain a bit cautious when it comes to planning, you know, that things can shift slightly around, but it is in the agenda, it is ongoing. There has been an inter-service. consultation so it's already in the public domain as well because we have collected a lot of input on this there have been workshops there are different engagements so we working towards this and you said it's the best opportunity we have to put this conversation also in the spotlight one more time but this is the energy union aspect you have mentioned the three the three adjectives we we use one could add at least one more and that is affordable because a very important aspect of it. And I know that... It is a popular thing to put them in juxtaposition, to say that they are somehow contradicted, that there is a certain tension. And I think that we have been over the years trying to prove that precisely there is a way to devise policy to make sure that we can deliver on all these threats without detriment to one or the other. It is a parallel process that involves many threats. We need to look at our security supply framework. We also will be doing that. We have... a very ambitious agenda already on cleaning the energy sector. We have the grids package that is also being now discussed by co-legislators. That is one of the important contributions to how to modernize, how to invest further, how to build and develop the grids so that it is fit for the 20th century clean energy needs. And sustainability has always been the driver of UCEDD. So I think there is a key. surprise there.
Speaker #1
Yeah, there is also the Citizens Energy Package that was released very, very recently and all the, let's say, accompanying documents that were released also with the Accelerate EU communication. So it comes from a few weeks ago and it's really about all the material that is about helping member states implement existing energy policy that are going towards the consumer. And I think it's indeed, I mean, when you mention affordability, it's like, it's the basis at the end of the day. And, you know, that's interesting that you are mentioning these elements and that you are also saying that they are so tied together and that I bring the human dimension. Because back in 2024, when I recorded this Spokespop episode, one of the things that I came away kind of worried. was that the human dimension was risking to get crowded out by competitiveness, security of supply, raw materials, etc. And interestingly, I think that this kind of human dimension, maybe sometimes it feels that it lives by, it's left by the door, but it always comes back. It comes back by the window, right? Because at the end of the day, it's the goal of an energy policy, right? To serve the needs of the citizens. That's also one of the reasons why I like the name Citizens Energy Package so much, because it shows the... the duties and the responsibilities of the states or the in this case of the european union to serve its citizens as well so i'm really looking forward to the kind of conversations that will be brought inside the sustainable energy week because i've noticed that there are less conversations around energy poverty than in the previous years right so i think it's interesting because we we need to to address different topics at the same time. But also to keep in mind that the energy conversation is not only about moving the electrons, but also making sure people are served by these electrons, not elections. But, you know, another thing that I said back in 2024 is that it was time for extra communication efforts, starting with uncomfortable conversations, right? And two years later, from... your seat and your extensive work what does this kind of uncomfortable conversation look like and do you still believe that they are one that you're having within yourself i think uh the
Speaker #0
user brings together a community of people who are convinced this is the one thing that perhaps we could explore further. It would be interesting to start engaging also with daewans who are not yet converted, but actually perhaps present the potential to be converted. Because when you meet people who are aligned on the principles that then discuss the details of how to get there, it's a different conversation. And in that sense, the conversation, the only aspect that you call uncomfortable, but I think I would call just perfectly legitimate and okay to have, would be how to get there. What is it that we need? Are we providing us as policymakers There's... enough of support enough of incentives enough signals so that it is actually happening or are our stakeholders perceiving it the same way so it is important an important reality check i think that this is the the greatest value of the conversation that we hear colleagues of work of course in vacuum so a lot of these stakeholders they will be meeting because they are your sector specific stakeholders so colleagues working on heat pumps will of course know who their interlocutors and the other side aren't. At the same time, it is a... an opportunity to have it set out there in public, as I said. So it is really, it's never meant to be a confrontation, but it is one where, you know, we give the voice to those who actually need to spell out also what are the needs that require further work on. A lot of it revolves around investment, how to activate private capital, how to make sure that, you know, it's not only public money, this is never going to be possible, but how to create the right incentives and lessons framework, what are the tools, what is still needed. We keep saying that Europe's competitiveness is hampered by the fact that it has a very strong, very dense and heavy regulatory framework. But actually, we also advance an argument that this is our strength because we have predictability and stability for investment and, you know, also political stability that comes from that. So there are many different elements of such a conversation that could happen. To come back to your point on keeping the citizen and the... benefits for citizens also and and citizens needs in in focus i think that what has clearly been acknowledged and is no longer even under question is that energy used to be to handle primarily as a commodity but it has increasingly acquiring the dimension of being a right and this is very basic we all want to have we have this conversation thanks to the fact that we have computers and we have electricity and we could connect and there's internet and wi-fi and whatnot so and And, you know, we all want. streetlights to be on at night and that should be something a basic comfort should always guarantee to everybody. But we're not always everywhere there. Energy and electricity in particular, but also gas and other sources tend to become very expensive at times. So we need to be very much attuned to how to shape the system better so that people are shielded and protected. Energy poverty is maybe a concept, but then when you look into when you scratch the surface and look how it is being actually impacted, operationalize what we require from member states increasingly to identify people in vulnerable that could be facing a dangerous situation to explain to us what member states would like to do and what they're doing to support these people help give them best practices share with purposes we have published recently a catalog of measures that have been adopted by the member states and a digital repository of similar measures So, you know, we also offer this opportunity to compare and present. And one final point, if I may, this is a bit during maybe a bit of our own commercial, but we have also prepared. And we will launch at YouServe an awareness-raising campaign on people's rights in energy. So this is tying in with the Citizen Energy Package. We will be going out with a set of dedicated messages, first targeting three member states that we hope to perhaps build on this burger in the future and make it also available for other member states. But we actually will want to start sharing the information with people out there, what it is. that people have the right to, thanks to the European Union, but also what they can do themselves to be active members of the clean energy transition.
Speaker #1
That's absolutely music to my ears. It's not only about having rights, but making sure that you are able to use them and to benefit from them. So that's extremely important, and that's definitely a topic I will keep on following. And I will be at EUSEW, so I hope we will... get a chance to meet during that week. And to all of our listeners, just remember that European Commission officials, they are human after all. They are very, very accessible. Don't be afraid to talk to them. They are nice people.
Speaker #0
And if you cannot come to use it, you can always register and follow online.
Speaker #1
Thank you so much, Ewelina, from this behind-the-scenes. It is urgent and I look forward to seeing you then.
Speaker #0
Thanks very much. Thank you for the invitation. And I also look forward to meeting you very, very soon in Brussels.
Speaker #1
Energetic explores the people, policies and institutions shaping Europe's and the world's energy transition. I am Marine Cornelis. If you found this conversation valuable, you can share it with colleagues working on housing, governance and cultural protection. You will find references and further reading in the show notes. Until next time.

Chapters

Introduction to Energy as a Right
0sec
Guest Introduction: Ewelina Hartstein
58sec
Ewelina's Journey in the European Commission
2min
The Complexity of Energy Policy
8min
The Role of European Sustainable Energy Week
14min
Themes for 2026: Clean, Secure, Competitive
27min
Energy as a Right and Addressing Energy Poverty
37min
Conclusion and Future Outlook
40min

About Energ’Ethic - Climate Justice and Energy Transition

Energy transitions are failing not because of technology, but because of governance. Who bears the cost of getting it wrong. Who is excluded from the benefits. Who holds the institutions accountable.

The conversations are rigorous and grounded. The guests are people with direct institutional knowledge and genuine stakes in getting this right.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Energ’Ethic - Climate Justice and Energy Transition

Energy transitions are failing not because of technology, but because of governance. Who bears the cost of getting it wrong. Who is excluded from the benefits. Who holds the institutions accountable.

The conversations are rigorous and grounded. The guests are people with direct institutional knowledge and genuine stakes in getting this right.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Embed

Introduction to Energy as a Right

0sec

Guest Introduction: Ewelina Hartstein

58sec

Ewelina's Journey in the European Commission

2min

The Complexity of Energy Policy

8min

The Role of European Sustainable Energy Week

14min

Themes for 2026: Clean, Secure, Competitive

27min

Energy as a Right and Addressing Energy Poverty

37min

Conclusion and Future Outlook

40min

Chapters

Introduction to Energy as a Right

0sec

Guest Introduction: Ewelina Hartstein

58sec

Ewelina's Journey in the European Commission

2min

The Complexity of Energy Policy

8min

The Role of European Sustainable Energy Week

14min

Themes for 2026: Clean, Secure, Competitive

27min

Energy as a Right and Addressing Energy Poverty

37min

Conclusion and Future Outlook

40min