The European Commission is moving to give its energy regulator a bigger role in planning Europe's electricity grid, just as several national governments and grid operators dig in against the idea.
The clearest signal came with the appointment of Christof Lessenich, a Commission official, as the new director of ACER, the EU's Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators. Brussels wants the agency to take on a stronger hand in building a single grid plan and linking up power markets across borders, a shift that would move real decision making power away from national capitals and toward Brussels.
Germany leads the resistance
Germany has emerged as the most determined opponent of a stronger ACER. Berlin and the agency have clashed for years over Germany's single electricity bidding zone, under which citizens across the country pay the same power price regardless of local supply and demand. Critics say that arrangement forces expensive, long distance power flows between the windy north and the more congested south. In late 2025, the EU's courts sided with Germany and blocked ACER's attempt to force a split of that bidding zone, a significant setback for the agency.
Germany's four grid operators, Amprion, TenneT, TransnetBW and 50Hertz, have since formally objected to expanding ACER's mandate, arguing that its powers should be kept within clear and appropriate limits. They pointed to what they called structural issues around accountability and competence exceedance as reasons to be cautious about handing the agency more authority.
The Commission is expected to set out its thinking in a white paper later this year, with actual legislation to revise ACER's powers likely to follow in late 2026 or early 2027, meaning the argument between Brussels and the capitals over who runs Europe's grid still has a long way to go.