Europe is waiting for its fusion energy strategy

In September 2024, the Future of European Competitiveness, better known as the Draghi Report, concluded that fusion was one of the industries with breakthrough potential capable of contributing to reversing the continent’s stagnation in productivity growth. It therefore called for “an overarching innovation strategy” for the commercialisation of fusion energy within the EU. Nearly two years later, Europe is still waiting for an EU fusion strategy.

If successfully commercialised, fusion energy could help provide the clean, abundant, and firm power required for Europe to meet its decarbonisation goals, secure energy independence, and drive Europe’s innovation agenda into Industry 5.0.

The long development process of that strategy underscores an increasingly untenable policy gap at a moment when global momentum in fusion energy is accelerating. Countries like the United States, China, Great Britain, and even Member States within the EU like Germany are developing regulations and public-private partnership (PPP) structures to unlock public finance and private capital to support their countries’ fusion industries transition from research to an industrial stage.

As Clean Air Task Force’s Fusion Engine for Growth report stated last year, “The window for action is open, but it will not remain so forever. Global competitors are pursuing fusion energy in earnest, and without sustained industrial action and commitments, Europe will be left behind despite decades of fusion energy leadership.” 

Key elements of a comprehensive fusion energy strategy

The European Commission must bring forward a comprehensive fusion strategy as soon as possible, providing the clarity and direction needed to anchor Europe’s long-term competitiveness in this technology.  The European fusion strategy should:

• Make fusion energy commercialisation in the 2030s the core objective
• Shift to a key enabling technologies-based roadmap designed to use public sector resources to de-risk crosscutting, common challenges fusion developers will face on their pathway to commercialisation
• Launch a robust PPP program without delay
• Establish regulatory principles separating fusion from fission

An effective approach will require a clear articulation of objectives, coordinated investment pathways, and a robust governance structure capable of translating research excellence into deployment at scale.

Widespread support for a European fusion energy strategy

The European fusion ecosystem has made the need for an overarching innovation strategy known. In October 2025, Clean Air Task Force led a joint letter with fifteen other organisations calling for a European fusion strategy which moves decisively from a fragmented, research-centric approach to a comprehensive, commercially driven industrial strategy.

In January, Members of European Parliament led a call for action supported by industry to deliver a European fusion strategy based on measurable outcomes which integrates the private sector and accelerates commercial fusion energy deployment.

In April, startups across Europe launched an open letter addressing the energy crisis facing Europe and calling for an ambitious fusion strategy to accelerate the commercial deployment of fusion as a long-term pillar of European energy security.

In May, 11 Members from different political groups of the European Parliament have now made clear the waiting must end in sending a letter to European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jørgensen and European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva, calling for the release without delay of the pending European Fusion Strategy.

The letter demands an actionable strategy from the Commission with concrete timelines and credible funding commitments, stating that “a strategy that only sets out intentions will not be enough.”

The letter aligns with CATF’s positions on the needed content of the strategy, and we stand fully behind the ecosystem’s calls for the strategy’s prompt release with an ambitious, commercial orientation. Europe has the opportunity, and the responsibility, to pair urgency with ambition, and present a fit-for-purpose, commercially-oriented fusion strategy.