European Energy Communities Forum 2025

As members of REScoop, the month of May saw Lorenza Casini, Energy Commons team lead, and Jonathan Atkinson, Retrofit team lead, together with colleagues from People Powered Retrofit, head to the 2025 European Energy Communities Forum.

It took place in Kraków, Poland, on 20—22 May 2025, during Poland’s six-month Presidency of the European Council, and the aim of this year’s forum was for REScoop members to “meet, discuss and strategise on ways to grow the energy democracy movement and unlock its full potential”.

A group of people are seated in a circle for a discussion in a brightly-lit conference room. In the foreground, an older man with grey hair and glasses gestures with his hands as he speaks to a younger man in a purple t-shirt, who is listening intently. Other participants are seated in the background, and a banner for the "European Energy Community" is partially visible on the right.

Across two Forum days, 180 passionate citizens, energy community leaders, and experts from 42 countries were brought together. We attended excellent presentations, workshops and open debates. It gave us the opportunity to connect with fellow energy community organisations and catch up with old and new friends as well as discover the beauty and history of Kraków.

Here are some highlights and memories we brought home with us!

Key themes that were discussed:

💡Demonstrating and supporting a just energy transition;

💡Co-creating mechanisms for better visibility and policy advocacy at EU level, national level and at local level; and

💡Devising and facilitating finances as enablers of transformative community energy projects and initiatives.

Three large, hand-drawn infographic posters on easels at a workshop. The posters use colorful diagrams to visually categorise event participants by their origin on a map of Europe ("WHERE FROM"), their sector ("WHO"), and their professional role ("PRACTITIONERS," "RESEARCHERS").

A main observation from us was around the change in emphasis for the policy case for Community Energy in Europe, away from being mainly around climate mitigation to becoming a means to tackle other societal issues such as European energy security and the shift towards ever greater renewables, grid stability, electrification and affordable energy.

We were also inspired by the many workshops and sessions that enabled us to look at practical tools of interventions – from how to create and work with truly inclusive language, from applying neuroscience for behaviour change approaches and drivers for action, to case studies and tools to support our work in collaborating with municipalities (local authorities) to deliver projects that benefit their communities.

We observed an increasing level of maturity and complexity in the sector, specifically the development of agencies and federations to support the development of grassroots community energy organisations. More than anything we met and learnt so much about different people and different organisations that we believe can contribute to our work.

Check out more images and photos from the three days of the forum on the REScoop website.