EUROPEAN STRATEGY
The European Commission presented the European Green Deal in 2019. It is the most ambitious package of measures that should enable European citizens and businesses to benefit from a sustainable green transition. The Green Deal has led to several communications and directives in the following years to achieve its targets.
The Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy is the key policy initiative released in 2020 to support the development of ocean energy in the EU. It places significant emphasis on the need to continue the cost-reduction of ocean energy technologies to enable the uptake of wave and tidal energy technologies in the EU energy system. In October 2023, the Commission states in its new communication ‘Delivering on the EU offshore renewable energy ambitions’v that the EU has made good progress in ocean energy development since the launch of the Offshore Strategy. This has been achieved notably with EU funding for R&I (Horizon Europe/Innovation Fund). However, progress is needed in many areas such as design and validation of ocean energy devices, logistics and marine operations. 100 MW of ocean energy capacity is achievable by 2027 and 1 GW by the end of the decade or early 2030’s.
REPowerEU is a plan for 1) saving energy, 2) producing clean energy and 3) diversifying their energy supplies. The plan sets out a series of measures to rapidly reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the green transition, while increasing the resilience of the EU-wide energy system. It is backed by financial and legal measures to build the new energy infrastructure and system that Europe needs. It is confirmed that renewables are the cheapest and cleanest energy available, and can be produced domestically, reducing our need for energy imports. REPowerEU will speed up the green transition and spur massive investment in renewable energy.
Following REPowerEU, the European Commission proposed the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) in March 2023. The NZIA entered into force on 29 June 2024 (Regulation (EU) 2024/1735) and is now due to be implemented. It creates the necessary conditions to facilitate investments in net-zero technology manufacturing projects and makes it easier for project promoters to build up net zero industrial manufacturing. It does so by addressing the core drivers of net-zero technology manufacturing investments through measures such as i) lowering the administrative burden for net-zero manufacturing projects by streamlining administrative requirements and facilitating permitting, ii) ensuring access to information, iii) facilitating access to markets in public procurement procedures and auctions, as well as schemes aimed at supporting private demand by consumers and iv) supporting innovation through regulatory sandboxes. The EU aims to strengthen its domestic manufacturing capacities of key clean technologies and to increase the competitiveness and resilience of its industry. In 2025, implementation advanced via a Commission Delegated Regulation (23 May 2025) updating NZIA Annex sub-categories and ‘primarily used components’. Under ‘Other offshore renewable technologies’, the Delegated Act explicitly lists tidal stream energy technologies and wave energy technologies as final products; however, no ‘primarily used components’ (PUCs) are defined for either category, reflecting the current lack of standardised components in the sector.
In parallel, the EU electricity market design reform entered into force on 16 July 2024 (amending Directive (EU) 2024/1711 and Regulation (EU) 2024/1747). The reform reinforces the use of longer-term contracting and de-risking instruments, supporting investable frameworks for innovative renewables.
The revised Renewable Energy Directive introduces an indicative target for Member States to dedicate at least 5% of newly installed renewable energy capacity by 2030 to innovative renewable energy technologies, which include ocean energy. To support implementation, the Commission published, on 2 July 2025, a recommendation and guidance identifying barriers and enabling measures for innovative technologies, explicitly referencing ocean energy. The Commission encourages Member States to include targeted policies to support the deployment of ocean energy technologies in the revised National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). The national plans outline how the EU Member States intend to address energy efficiency, renewables, emissions reductions, interconnections, and research and innovation. The European Commission received from all Member States final updated plans in 2024/2025. Only Portugal provides an indicative target of 0.2 GW for the development of ocean energy to contribute to the objective of 1 GW of ocean energy by 2030. Member States were encouraged to include trajectories, thorough planning and targeted installed capacities for deployment of renewable technologies for the next 10 years, with an outlook to 2040, in their final NECPs.
As part of the Clean Energy Technology Observatory the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has published the report ‘Ocean energy in the European Union - 2025 Status Report on Technology Development, Trends, Value Chains and Markets’. It provides an evidence-based analysis feeding the policy making process and hence increasing the effectiveness of R&I policies for clean energy technologies and solutions. It monitors EU research and innovation activities on clean energy technologies needed for the delivery of the European Green Deal and assesses the competitiveness of the EU clean energy sector and its positioning in the global energy market.
Maritime spatial planning (MSP) is a necessary tool to allocate sea space for different uses of the sea using an ecosystem-based approach and to ensure long-term co-existence and preservation of the ecosystems. The Commission has established an EU MSP Platform for sharing knowledge and experiences, prepared guidance on managing tensions with sectors in competition with ORE and issued best practices for multi-uses of space and cross-border cooperation.
Competitiveness has become a focus for EU policy, including with regard to net-zero technologies. Conclusions of the European Council of April 2024 urged to strengthen the EU’s competitiveness. The new Competitiveness Compass sets out a set of measures to strengthen the EU’s competitiveness in the coming years, building directly on the in-depth analysis from the Draghi report. The Draghi report emphasises the economic opportunities clean technologies represent for the EU, as an innovation leader in clean technologies. At the same time, the report highlights the main barriers holding back the EU’s competitiveness and calls for an aligned and targeted strategy, taking into account differences between industries. Additionally, the 2025 progress report on competitiveness of clean energy technologies notes that specific attention is needed to increase the economic viability and to bring innovative technology to the market.
In June 2025, the European Commission adopted the European Ocean Pact as a single, coordinated framework bringing together EU ocean-related policies. The Pact spans six priorities, including competitiveness of the sustainable blue economy, support to coastal and island communities (including outermost regions), and strengthening ocean research and innovation. For ocean energy, the Pact is relevant because it foresees an ‘Ocean Act’ by 2027, building on a revision of the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive to strengthen cross-sector planning and sea-basin coordination, and it explicitly recognises that offshore activities — including offshore energy — are increasing pressure on limited maritime space, reinforcing the need for coordinated co-existence approaches.
MARKET INCENTIVES
In 2020, the European Commission launched the Innovation Fund succeeding the NER 300.
The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for the demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies and it will provide more than EUR 10 billion of support over 2020 2030 for the commercial demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies, aiming to bring to the market industrial solutions to decarbonise Europe and support its transition to climate neutrality. The Innovation Fund improves the risk-sharing for projects by giving more funding in a more flexible way through a simpler selection process and is also open to projects from energy-intensive industries. The Innovation Fund focuses on highly innovative technologies, such as ocean energy, and big flagship projects within Europe that can bring on significant emission reductions.
The Commission supports the ocean energy sector via BlueInvest. This programme aims to boost innovation and investment in sustainable technologies for the blue economy, by supporting readiness and access to finance for early-stage businesses, SMEs and scale-ups. The BlueInvest pilot initiative managed by the European Investment Fund, provides financing to underlying equity funds that strategically target and support the innovative blue economy. This sector can play an important role in the transformation to a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, an ambition announced in the European Green Deal. The programme is backed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the financial pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe. This is consistent with CETO evidence that EU venture capital and private equity investment in ocean energy is emerging (EUR 56 million in 2024), but continued de-risking and predictable revenues remain critical for scaling.
PUBLIC FINANCE PROGRAMMES
Horizon Europe is the successor of Horizon 2020 and the total budget for Research and Innovation is 95.5 billion EUR. The programme started in 2021 and includes topics on ocean energy development under the Climate, Energy and Mobility subprogramme.
CETO report indicates that since 2014, over EUR 365 million has been invested in ocean energy technology projects under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe (H2020: 75 projects totalling over EUR 310 million; Horizon Europe: 18 projects totalling EUR 55 million). EU funding in signed ocean energy projects reached over EUR 31 million in 2024, recovering from lower levels in 2022–2023.
In 2022, a call for projects was opened for the demonstration of sustainable tidal energy farms (EU funding budget 40 million euros). Two projects have been selected for funding (SEASTAR and EURO-TIDES).
In 2023, a call was opened for the demonstration of wave energy farms (EU funding budget 38 million euros). The call was closed in January 2024. 2 projects have succeeded to complete these preparations (ONDEP and Powerfarm EU).
A call for the development of critical technologies for future ocean energy farms was opened in 2024 with a closing date in 2025. Projects could focus on innovative materials, technologies for operation and monitoring, use of artificial intelligence and subsea infrastructure (EU funding budget 8 million Euro). 2 projects have been funded under this call (COIN and FOREST).
The Innovation Fund launched in the end of 2025 a call for net-zero technologies with a total budget of 2.9 billion EUR. Ocean energy is acknowledged as one of these technologies. If the project is successful, the proposed technology should move to the next stage of a large-scale demonstration or first-of-a-kind commercial production. This specific call seems suitable for further development of ocean energy towards the market.
The European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) is the follow-up of the EMFF programme and runs from 2021 to 2027 and supports the EU common fisheries policy (CFP), the EU maritime policy and the EU agenda for international ocean governance. It provides support for developing innovative projects ensuring that aquatic and maritime resources are used sustainably.
The InvestEU Programme will bring together under one roof the multitude of EU financial instruments currently available and expand the successful model of the Investment Plan for Europe, the Juncker Plan. With InvestEU, the Commission will further boost investment, innovation and job creation.
