???? Truck drivers blocking roads in southern Italy over fuel prices, bakers closing their shops, tents in Spanish squares over rents, growing protests in France, Portugal and Albania: the cost of energy and the cost of living are back in the streets.

???????? At last week's European Council, leaders fought until midnight over carbon pricing and over cuts to an already modest EU budget. Yet the priority of ending our dependence on fossil fuels held, and energy efficiency got an unusually visible and constructive place: paragraph 10 of the Conclusions calls for fostering it as part of an energy transition that "remains the most effective strategy for achieving Europe's strategic autonomy, strengthening resilience, structurally lowering energy prices, and delivering the clean, abundant and homegrown energy needed to power the economy of the future".

That was the backdrop to the fifth European Energy Efficiency Day, held on 15 October in the European Parliament, co-organised for the first time with the European Commission's DG Energy and hosted by MEPs Annalisa Corrado and Niels Flemming Hansen.

???? Our answer to the crisis is simple: the cheapest energy is the energy we do not need to buy. In the last crisis, European governments spent 500 to 600 billion euros to cushion bills, mostly by subsidising fossil fuels. A euro invested in efficiency lowers bills for good, and the products and technologies that make it happen are largely made in Europe: about €200 billion in yearly turnover, 2.2 million jobs and 21,361 patents since 2000.

???? In front of Commissioner Jørgensen, a long-standing ally of energy efficiency, we set out three asks:

1️⃣ Keep the rules and do not reopen them.
2️⃣ A binding 2040 target on energy consumption, not on intensity: an intensity target can be met while consumption and fossil imports keep growing. What counts for our bills and our security is how much energy we actually use.
3️⃣ A dedicated place for efficiency in the next EU budget.

???? The day in numbers: 25 supporting organisations, 14 speakers and 150 participants in the European Parliament, 12 workshops in the days around it, and 30 articles in the first issue of System Efficiency Europe, our new magazine. Its mirror-blue cover is meant to make everyone who looks into it part of a growing efficiency community. And 109 guests joined us for the gala dinner in the Parliament's beautifully arranged salons.

???? The gala was also the setting for the very first European Energy Efficiency Champion Award. There are many awards for efficiency projects; ours recognises people. Our first two Champions are Harry Verhaar, Head of Global Public and Government Affairs at Signify, for industry, and Brian Motherway, Head of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Inclusive Transitions at the International Energy Agency, for policy: two people whose work has changed how Europe and its institutions think about efficiency.

???? So let us say it once more, loud and clear. Efficiency is how Europe brings down bills, cuts the imports that make us vulnerable, supports the deployment of renewables and keeps its industry competitive. It is no cap on growth: Europe needs 44% less energy per euro than in 1995. Yet the defenders of the old energy system have the best lobbyists and the deepest pockets, and they will fight to keep the Council's words from turning into action. Every speaker told us the same thing: be louder. If your company makes, installs or uses efficiency solutions, this is your fight too.

We need you, now: JOIN US! ????