European Commission Energy Spokesperson Anna Kaisa Itkonen explains future plans to accelerate Europe’s leadership in fusion research and development.
With its huge potential to provide safe, cost-effective and sustainable energy options, nuclear fusion presents promising opportunities for the future of Europe’s energy systems. Recognizing this, the European Commission (EC) is committed to accelerating research and innovation in interdisciplinary fields in order to improve the EU’s position in the global competition for commercialization.
The EC promotes and funds fusion research through the Euratom Research and Training Program and through partnerships such as Fusion for Energy and the Eurofusion Consortium, and plays a central role in the international ITER project, which aims to demonstrate the scientific feasibility of fusion power generation.
The coming year is likely to be pivotal for the Commission’s fusion direction as it prepares the EU’s first professional fusion strategy. This strategy will set out a number of actions that will help the EU maintain its leadership and competitiveness in the fusion sector.
To find out more about the EU’s recent advances in fusion research and future plans, Innovation Platform spoke to Anna Kaisa Itkonen, European Commission Spokesperson for Energy.
Looking back at the progress of fusion in the EU in 2025, what were the main achievements and lessons learned? How has this shaped the direction of the EC’s fusion priorities going forward?
The Clean Industries Pact and Affordable Energy Action Plan position advanced energy technologies as key to competitiveness, industrial modernization and long-term energy affordability.
President von der Leyen’s remarks at the World Economic Forum on 21 January 2025 underline that investing in next-generation clean energy technologies, such as nuclear fusion, is a priority for the European Commission.
The cornerstone of progress in fusion is the ITER project, the world’s largest international fusion development collaboration. As the first “power plant-sized” fusion device currently under construction, ITER aims to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. Currently, the implementation of the ITER project is accelerating and will reach an unprecedented execution rate in 2025. The Commission works closely with member states’ national programs, particularly those of France and Germany, where rapidly developing fusion research and start-up ecosystems are emerging, and provides the basis for subsequent project-level efforts.
Other key achievements in 2025 include the decision to support the construction of the DONES facility in Spain. This is of strategic importance for the European qualification of materials for future fusion plants.
Within the framework of the Euratom Research and Training Program, the European Commission has reformed the work program of the European Partnership Eurofusion in 2025, focused on research in less mature technologies and initiated actions towards the establishment of public-private partnerships in fusion. Addressing the remaining technology gaps to build the first fusion power plants will require close collaboration with industry, including start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises. To this end, the European Commission created a dedicated call on fusion under the European Innovation Council (EIC) work program 2026 and funded the GO4FUSION initiative to build new European public-private partnerships (PPPs) under the 2026-2027 work program of the Euratom Research and Training Programme.
The EU’s first-ever fusion strategy is scheduled for early 2026. Can you give us an update on this and what it means for fusion in the EU?
In its proposal for the next Horizon Europe programme, the European Commission has already set bold and transformative goals. It is the EU’s ambition to overcome the engineering and technical challenges required to be the first to introduce fusion energy into the electricity grid (a fusion moonshot).
The European Commission is developing the EU Integration Strategy to realize this ambition and ensure EU leadership in integration through a comprehensive enabling framework. The strategy is expected to be adopted in the coming months and will build on extensive consultation with stakeholders, including a call for evidence launched last year.
What are the key priorities that the European Commission will focus on to advance fusion research and development in Europe and accelerate Europe’s position in the global race for fusion commercialization?
The Commission aims to enhance Europe’s leadership in fusion by leveraging its role at ITER to support fusion research by building key technology testing infrastructure. The Commission also aims to foster private sector engagement, mobilize private investment, develop strong EU industry-led supply chains and a dynamic fusion start-up sector, and establish the strategic international cooperation and regulatory framework necessary to accelerate fusion research and innovation. The new fusion initiative therefore aims to establish a fusion public-private partnership (PPP) and provide support to fusion start-ups in the 2026-2027 work program of the Euratom Research and Training Program.
In September 2025, the EC submitted a draft budget for the EU’s next Euratom program, with most of it allocated to fusion research. This is a significant increase compared to the current program budget. Why has the budget, especially for nuclear fusion, increased so significantly?
The proposed budget is EUR 8.7 billion over the seven-year Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) period and includes EU contributions of EUR 5.15 billion for the ITER project (separate to the current Euratom research and training program in the MFF). The remaining amount is balanced between fusion and fission research.
For fusion in particular, the significant increase compared to previous periods reflects the need to address the remaining scientific, technological and industrial bottlenecks towards the commercialization of fusion in Europe. It also demonstrates the ambition to maintain the EU’s leadership in fusion, with the aim of supporting the maintenance of a coherent research ecosystem in the EU, maximizing synergies between participation in ITER and other fusion activities that seek to address some of the technological gaps required for the commercialization of fusion, and engaging the private sector to foster bottom-up breakthrough efforts.
Please note: This is a commercial profile
This article will also be published in the quarterly magazine issue 25.
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