EUSEW at twenty: a personal history of encounters and energy

Another EU Sustainable Energy Week has passed. What remains is not the events, nor the speeches, nor even the photos and videos. What remains are the connections between people long after the Charlemagne Building rooms have emptied. 

I am a ‘EUSEW Digital Ambassador’ this year, and my connection to EUSEW goes all the way back. I arrived in Brussels and entered into the sustainable energy advocacy in 2005. This perfectly coincided with the beginning of a key European initiative: the Sustainable Energy Europe (SEE) Campaign. The European Commission recognised that Europe’s energy future could not be shaped by directives alone, nor by member states, markets or institutions acting in isolation. The sustainable energy transition required something less tangible and rather difficult to create: a public sphere for sustainable energy, a space and time in which diverse actors could recognise themselves as stakeholders in a common undertaking. 

The Campaign Associates, as they were called, consisted of municipalities, energy agencies, universities, companies, civic organisations and associations across Europe. Euroheat & Power, where I was responsible for communications at the time, was among its early members. The Associates were never merely partners in this initiative. Each carried own expertise, sustainability ambitions and sectoral competencies. Together, we became a repository of European possibilities, translating policy objectives into stories and actions that could be shared across the EU. 

Out of this initiative, the first EU Sustainable Energy Week, that took place in 2007, was created. I was there, helping to coordinate an event dedicated to the Euroheat & Power’s Ecoheatcool project. What I still remember is not only the excitement of these first policy discussions, but also the atmosphere. Stakeholders from many different sectors, that are often unaware of one another, started to perceive themselves as part of a common EU sustainability narrative. It was a totally new world of engagement and shared deep commitments to sustainable energy. 

By 2010, when the idea of Energy Efficiency in Industrial Processes (EEIP) began to take shape, the choice of where to launch the initiative seemed self-evident. There was only one place where we could properly enter the EU world: EUSEW. And so, on 12 April 2011, in the Sicco Mansholt Room of the Charlemagne building, EEIP was launched. In a very real sense, EEIP was born at EUSEW. Today, EEIP is a Strategical Partner of EUSEW. 

The age of Campaign Associates was giving way to the age of stakeholder platforms. But the underlying drive was unchanged. If the first generation sought to disseminate ideas, the second sought to create permanent policy and industry spaces in which those ideas could be tested and transformed. EEIP became one such space: a meeting point where policymakers, industrial actors, innovators and energy efficiency financiers could confront the concrete challenges of implementation and discover common ground. 

A common ground where municipality can recognise itself in the achievements of an industrial cluster. An engineer discovers in a policymaker’s ambition the outline of a practical solution. An innovation developed in one sector becomes legible as a possibility for another. It was self-evident that progress occurs not in silos but through collaboration. 

Now with EUSEW 2026 behind, we are left with the evidence that Europe’s energy transition advances. As an example, the policy event on the electrification of industrial heat felt, to me, like one of those moments when a technical subject reveals its larger historical meaning. The discussion went beyond technology. Included the financial models for change, the limits of grids, the price of electricity, and building the confidence of investment in a competitive world. Industrial electrification not as a single solution, but as a new framework through which EU sectors can share about resilience, competitiveness and climate responsibility. 

Personally, EUSEW 2026 reminded me of the first EUSEW years. Then, as now, the task was not simply to promote sustainable energy. It was to make scattered possibilities visible to one another. A heat pump in one factory, an electric furnace in another, a financing model, a grid connection, a policy consultation: each is only a fragment. But when all these fragments are brought together, they begin to form a constellation moving towards the real sustainable energy transition. Looking forward to seeing the continuation of the discussion at EUSEW 2027.

About the author

Dusan Jakovljevic is a policy communications specialist with deep expertise in the energy transition, industrial efficiency and sustainable materials. Founder of EEIP and creator of #EuroBubble, Twitter4SE, he supports global stakeholders with clear, impactful policy and technical content. 

About EUSEW

The European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) is the biggest annual event dedicated to renewables and efficient energy use in Europe. EUSEW 2026 marked the 20th edition. EUSEW organises a series of activities that bring together the community of people who care about building a secure and clean energy future for the next generations.

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Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use that might be made of the information in the article. The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and should not be considered as representative of the European Commission’s official position.