The Union’s energy infrastructure should be upgraded in order to prevent technical failure and to increase its resilience against such failure, natural or man-made disasters, adverse effects of climate change and threats to its security.

The Union’s energy infrastructure should be resilient to the unavoidable impacts that climate change is expected to create in Europe in spite of the mitigation efforts. Hence, strengthening the efforts on climate adaptation and mitigation, resilience building, disaster prevention and preparedness is crucial.

The development of trans-European energy infrastructure should take into account, where technically possible and most efficient, the possibility of repurposing existing infrastructure and equipment.

The  EU Strategy for Energy System Integration also underlined the need for integrated energy infrastructure planning across energy carriers, infrastructures, and consumption sectors. Such system integration starts from the point of departure of applying the energy efficiency first principle and taking a holistic approach in policy and beyond individual sectors.