BRUSSELS, September 26 — European governments are reaching for subsidies, tax changes and regulatory pauses to blunt the impact of record gasoline and diesel prices, and the OECD says the most active responders are concentrated in one bloc. In a report published Wednesday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that seven of the ten nations working hardest to contain the economic damage from diminished energy supplies and soaring fuel prices are European Union members.
The finding lands as a direct measure of exposure: the EU imports nearly all of the oil it consumes and 85% of its natural gas. Imports supply 57% of the bloc’s energy needs, with much of what it produces domestically coming from renewable and nuclear sources, according to the EU’s statistical office.
The mechanics of the response
The interventions run the length of the policy toolkit. Lithuania cut train ticket prices in half. Greece is taxing gambling more to fund public relief efforts.
Italy delayed the scheduled demolition of coal-fired power plants and slashed the required paperwork for oil and natural gas projects. The Netherlands increased funding for a program providing free energy-saving services in homes.
Poland has proposed heavily taxing the record profits of certain fuel producers and sellers. Follow the money and the logic is straightforward. Each measure shifts part of the fuel bill off households and businesses and onto a government balance sheet, a tax base, or a future liability.
Italy’s paperwork cuts and its coal-plant reprieve are the tell: they do not cost the treasury in the same way a subsidy does, but they extend the life of fossil generation and speed approvals for new oil and gas projects. That is a supply-side bet, not a demand-side one.
The pressure is not new. Before the United States and Israel attacked Iran, Russia’s war in Ukraine had already disrupted global energy supplies and caused turmoil in Europe. The two conflicts have compounded the challenge, prompting a wave of interventions that range from immediate consumer relief to longer-term efforts to reduce paperwork for fossil fuel projects and expand energy-saving programs.
Where the burden lands
EU citizens are spending an extra 203 million euros ($231 million) a day just for diesel fuel, according to the European advocacy organization Transport & Environment. Europeans are becoming more incensed as pump prices surpass the equivalent of $12 a gallon in some countries. Antony Froggatt, an analyst at the organization, framed the asymmetry bluntly.
“It’s a cruel irony that the U.S. is the least vulnerable to a crisis of its own making, while Europe’s economy again takes the hit,” he said. The catch is that the measures on the table treat symptoms.
Subsidies, tax shifts and paused demolitions lower the immediate cost of energy without changing the underlying reliance on imported supply. The OECD report highlights the breadth of the response across the EU — from transport subsidies to tax measures and regulatory pauses — and the breadth is itself the story. Seven of the ten most active nations sit inside a bloc that buys nearly all its oil and most of its gas abroad.
What to watch next is whether the relief measures outlast the price spike. Poland’s proposed windfall levy on fuel producers and sellers, Greece’s gambling tax and the Netherlands’ expanded home energy-saving program all imply a longer fiscal commitment than a one-off rebate.
If fuel prices stay elevated, governments will face a second decision: keep paying to absorb the shock, or let the cost pass through and accept the political consequences.
