On March 19-20, 2025, during Fuel Congress 2025 “Decarbonising Transport: Is the Green Deal on the track?” we gathered over 300 listeners from 18 countries around the world. More than 40 representatives, including officials from Central and Eastern European governments, business leaders from the fuel and transport sector, and members of the academic community, took part in 6 discussion panels:

Political debate – between decarbonization, economic competitiveness, and energy security,

Energy transition in commercial road transport,

Fuels of the future,

Just energy transition,

Energy security and modern fuel infrastructure,

Energy priorities of Central and Eastern Europe countries in times of war and decarbonization.

The Congress took place at a crucial moment for the transport sector – decisions made in the coming years will have a significant impact on the profitability of companies in Central and Eastern Europe. Poland, currently holding the Presidency of the EU Council, emphasizes its role as a regional leader, especially in the area of decarbonizing commercial transport. In his opening speech, Bogdan Kucharski, Chairman of the Board of Directors of POPiHN and President of BP in Poland, highlighted that:

“The geopolitical situation, security, as well as investment opportunities, which in many areas face technological barriers, make it necessary to thoroughly revise our actions. The direction of the transformation remains unchanged, but the strategy to reach the goal must take into account new elements of the environment that have not played a significant role until now. There is a growing awareness that the fuel and transport industries continue to be the foundation of economic development”.

Daniel Yergin, Vice Chairman of S&P Global and one of the most recognized figures in the global oil industry, also spoke about the necessity of maintaining a pragmatic approach and an awareness of the challenges associated with the energy transition. An interesting observation he made was that, on a global level, energy transition has not yet occurred, and the consumption of oil and coal continues to set new records. Therefore, according to Yergin, we should rather speak about the supplementation of the energy system with renewable energy sources (“Energy Addition” rather than “Energy Transition”).

In response to the growing divergence in the assessment of reality between the European Commission and the fuel and transport industries, representatives of 12 Central and Eastern European and national organizations associating companies from the fuel and transport-automotive sectors have signed a joint Call for Action to the European Commission. The signatories call for urgent action to organize the way in which climate and energy policy is implemented in the Member States and for additional work to be undertaken at the EU level, which will ensure the competitiveness of the EU economy and protect the poorest citizens. The document indicates three main postulates:

Establish a coherent EU transport and energy strategy, which enables Central & Eastern European (CEE) countries to boost their competitiveness and create equal decarbonization opportunities;

Embrace Green Deal objectives by implementing smarter decarbonization measures in the Clean Industrial Deal;

Ensure fuel security by increasing the capacity of pipeline, railway and port infrastructure.

Since then, the manifesto has gained further support from additional European organizations. As a result, the Call for Action has now been endorsed by more than 30 entities that recognize the urgent need to align climate policy with socio-economic realities and security considerations. The document was submitted to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on April 17, 2025.

During the Congress, the POPiHN Annual Report for 2024, titled “Oil Industry and Trade” was also presented. The most significant piece of information was that 2024 marked the first year in many decades without oil imports from Russia. As recently as 2005, Russia supplied 97%, and in 2015, 84% of the crude oil to domestic refineries. Thanks to an effective sanctions policy, a “Copernican revolution” took place – and in 2024, the main suppliers of crude oil were: Saudi Arabia (54%), Norway (30%), and the USA (7%).

The Congress was also accompanied by a presentation of the cross-industry European initiative “Tour d’Europe” aimed at showcasing the potential of alternative fuels in commercial road transport and advocating for technological neutrality in the design of EU climate policies. In this context, an important statement was made by Martin Vohanka, the founder and CEO of Eurowag:

„Politicians have a responsibility to set the direction for climate action, but should leave it to industry to find the best ways to achieve these goals while working together on the development of comprehensive policies to ensure that all aspects are properly and consistently addressed“.

Key players in the fuel sector were involved in the debate on the energy transition. The sponsors included: Eurowag (gold), Orlen (silver), bp, PERN, and Unimot (bronze).

We are convinced that through events like the Fuel Congress 2025, we will be able to jointly shape European climate policy. With great hope, we look forward to continuing our collaboration in the future and further working together to develop optimal solutions for decarbonizing the transport sector while ensuring economic and energy security and maintaining the competitiveness of the EU economy.