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BRUSSELS — The European Commission says it wants to derive 46 percent of the European Union’s total energy from electricity by 2040 — double the current level — but has backed away from setting a legally-binding target.

The Electrification Action Plan , unveiled by EU energy chief Dan Jørgensen on Friday, aims to reduce Europe’s reliance on imported oil and gas while lowering energy costs for households and industry. The Commission estimates that hitting the electrification target would cut oil demand by 40 percent and gas demand by 70 percent.

“The age of fossil fuels is coming to an end,” EU energy chief Dan Jørgensen said Friday. “Today we are proposing to double the electrification rate in Europe. This is not a small thing. It took us from the Stone Age till now to get to 23 percent, and now we want to double it in 14 years.”

But exactly how the EU will ensure it meets that target was less clear. In an earlier draft obtained by POLITICO , the Commission had proposed making the target legally binding. The final plan instead sets an “indicative target” of 46 percent, with the Commission saying it will assess making it binding as part of the post-2030 Energy Union package.

“We are still seeing that over half of the EU’s energy consumption is made by imported fossil fuels,” an EU official told journalists during a technical briefing on Thursday, pointing to the bloc’s vulnerability to global energy shocks. Since the escalation of the Middle East conflict, the EU has spent more than €50 billion extra on fossil fuel imports, the official added.

The plan targets industry, transport and buildings, with the latter accounting for around half of EU gas consumption. It introduces new measures to accelerate heat pump deployment, expand charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and support industrial electrification.

The electrification push comes as the Commission warns that progress has stalled despite rapid growth in clean power generation. More than 70 percent of EU electricity generation now comes from clean sources, mainly renewables and nuclear, but the electrification rate has remained stuck at around 23 percent over the past decade.

The plan focuses on five main barriers identified by the Commission: the gap between electricity and gas prices, access to infrastructure, innovation and the upfront cost of electrification technologies such as heat pumps and electric vehicles.

A central element are the efforts to reduce the electricity-to-gas price gap, with electricity currently costing up to 2.5 times more than gas on average, according to the Commission.

The energy package also includes new measures on network charges aimed at making electricity grids more efficient by encouraging consumers, producers and grid operators to adapt their behavior.

“The aim of this proposal is to make sure that all system users, be they on the production or on the consumption side, have the right incentives available to help us manage our electricity system in the most cost-effective manner,” an EU official said.

The initiative calls on member states to ensure electricity is not taxed more heavily than gas, arguing that taxation remains a barrier to electrification.

However, the proposal stops short of dictating how countries set electricity tariffs. Instead, it establishes principles for national regulators to encourage smarter consumption, flexibility and more efficient grid management. “We provide a series of principles. But at the same time, it is then for national regulatory authorities to apply these principles,” the official said.

This article has been updated.