The impact of global climate change due to increased emissions of greenhouse gases emissions which in turn is a consequence of in particular, the use of fossil fuels, has made EU decision makers to act decisively, e.g. the EU 2020 primary energy target of reducing primary energy use with 20% from 2005 to 2020. The aim of this paper is to present major challenges related to the development and formation of energy policies towards the Swedish industrial and building sector in order to fulfill the EU 2020 primary energy target. This paper is approaching the presented challenges by introducing the theory of Asymmetric Energy Policy Shocks (AEPSs), and addresses some key challenges which are of particular relevance for the fulfilment of the EU 2020 primary energy target for Member States like Sweden which from an energy end-use perspective substantially differs from the EU-25's energy end-use structure. In conclusion, overcoming AEPSs, and moving towards a more Long-Term Energy Policy Approach (LTEPA) will be of key importance for individual Member States, if the 2020 primary energy target is to be fulfilled. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.