Italy’s leading business lobby, Confindustria, is calling on the government to urgently address the country’s high energy costs, which it says are undermining industrial competitiveness.
“Our companies continue to face energy prices that are over 35% higher than the European average, and up to 80% more than in some major industrialized countries,” said Confindustria President Emanuele Orsini during the group’s annual meeting on Tuesday.
Orsini warned that these elevated costs are dragging down Italy’s ability to compete economically, especially compared to other European countries.
Energy prices across Western Europe—especially in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy—have surged in recent years. Eastern and southeastern European nations have faced even steeper increases, with prices in those regions exceeding levels seen in Western Europe in recent months.
Europe’s global competitiveness has suffered as energy costs have become volatile and remain significantly higher than in the United States and China—up to five times higher in some cases. New U.S. tariffs are also adding pressure on European industries already struggling to stay afloat.
Some facilities across the continent now face potential closure after years of trying to cope with expensive energy bills.
In response, Confindustria is urging the Italian government to reform how electricity prices are calculated, including removing the link between gas prices and electricity rates. The group is also pushing for a return to nuclear power to help secure long-term energy stability.
Earlier this year, Italy’s government approved a plan to begin drafting legislation that would allow the country to restart nuclear energy production, more than four decades after shutting down its reactors. Italy originally abandoned nuclear power following a 1987 referendum in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster. A second public vote in 2011 reaffirmed the decision to stay away from nuclear energy.
However, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration has committed to reintroducing nuclear power, specifically next-generation small modular reactors (SMRs), as part of a broader strategy to reduce emissions and support industrial growth.
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