{"id":20040,"date":"2026-04-22T11:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/20040\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T11:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T11:36:14","slug":"eu-unveils-set-of-measures-to-address-energy-crisis-amid-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/20040\/","title":{"rendered":"EU unveils set of measures to address energy crisis amid Iran war"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday a series of measures to \u2060address the \u2060impact of surging energy prices <\/a>on the region’s markets following the \u200bU.S.-Israeli war \u200bwith Iran.<\/p>\n

The commission \u2060said the measures \u2013 announced in a package called “AccelerateEU” \u2013 included optimizing the distribution of jet fuel between EU countries, in order to avoid shortages.<\/p>\n

“The choices we \u2060make \u2060today will shape our ability to face the challenges of today and the crises of tomorrow. Our AccelerateEU strategy will bring both immediate \u2060and more structural relief measures to European citizens and businesses,” said \u200bEuropean Commission President Ursula von \u200bder Leyen.<\/p>\n

“We must accelerate the \u2060shift \u200cto \u200chomegrown, clean energies. This \u2060will give \u200cus energy independence and \u200bsecurity, and mean \u2060we are better \u2060able to weather geopolitical \u2060storms,” \u200bshe added.<\/p>\n

Here’s how the European Union plans to respond.<\/p>\n

Electricity first<\/p>\n

Central to the EU proposals is a focus on reducing reliance on oil and gas to cushion \u2060against future fossil fuel supply disruptions and price spikes. The \u2060commission set out plans on Wednesday to change EU tax rules, to ensure electricity is taxed below natural gas, confirming draft plans previously reported by Reuters.<\/p>\n

That aims to incentivize consumers and companies to replace systems running \u200bon gas with heat pumps and industrial machinery that runs on electricity.<\/p>\n

The proposal will \u200balso \u2060make it easier for governments to cut energy-intensive industries’ and vulnerable households’ electricity taxes to zero, to curb bills in the near term.<\/p>\n

Brussels will make legal proposals to amend the tax rules in May. EU tax rules are politically difficult to change because they require unanimous approval from all 27 member states.<\/p>\n

Electricity taxes and levies in the EU are, on average, around twice as high as those for natural gas, according to analysis by think tank Strategic Perspectives.<\/p>\n

The commission will also propose an electrification target before summer, to push industries to switch from fossil fuels to electricity.<\/p>\n

Oil and gas stocks<\/p>\n

The European Commission will coordinate countries’ efforts to fill gas storage in the coming months \u2013 including the timing of purchases.<\/p>\n

The aim is to avoid price spikes, which could be caused by companies rushing to buy at the same time.<\/p>\n

Gas storage is currently \u206031% \u2060full, but the EU requires this to rise to 80% ahead of winter, and companies have been slow to replenish stocks while prices are unusually high.<\/p>\n

Brussels will also facilitate possible releases of oil stocks by coordinating the timing and volumes in the EU, the commission said. International Energy Agency (IEA) members \u2013 which include most EU countries \u2013 agreed last month to release 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves, in a bid to calm oil markets.<\/p>\n

Jet fuel<\/p>\n

The EU imports about 40% of its jet fuel, of which half comes via the Strait of Hormuz. Airports have warned Europe could face jet fuel shortages within weeks.<\/p>\n

The commission will map Europe’s transport fuel supply and stocks and step in to \u2060optimise the distribution of fuel to avoid shortages, it said. It will also consider reviewing the EU’s requirement for countries to hold at least 90 days of oil stocks, to include a specific jet fuel requirement.<\/p>\n

Brussels will draw up guidance on how to handle potential jet fuel shortages \u2013 \u200bon issues such as airlines losing airport slots due to cancellations and the EU’s anti-tankering rule, designed to prevent planes from \u200bloading extra fuel in cheap locations.<\/p>\n

The European Commission will also map Europe’s refining capacity and introduce measures next month to ensure that existing capacity is fully used, it said.<\/p>\n

‘Immediate relief’<\/p>\n

The EU proposals include a list of \u2060recommendations to provide “immediate relief,” \u200calthough it will \u200cbe up to individual governments to take them up. They include delaying nuclear power \u2060plant closures, financial help to quickly install plug-in batteries and solar panels, and reducing \u200cthe price of public transport.<\/p>\n

State aid<\/p>\n

Separately from the proposals published on Wednesday, the EU is preparing plans to let countries subsidize fuel and fertilizer prices \u200bmore. In a draft of these temporary state \u2060aid rules, seen by Reuters, the EU would let governments subsidise up to 50% \u2060of fuel or fertilizer price increases companies have paid since the Iran war began.<\/p>\n

In a bid to avoid massive, untargeted \u2060subsidies straining public budgets, only a \u200bfew sectors will be eligible \u2013 including farming, fishing and road transport. The subsidies must be granted this year.<\/p>\n

The draft EU plan would also allow a higher intensity of aid to help industries pay their power bills.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n The Daily Sabah Newsletter\n <\/p>\n

\n Keep up to date with what\u2019s happening in Turkey,
\n it\u2019s region and the world.\n <\/p>\n

SIGN ME UP\n <\/p>\n

\n You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
\n This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission unveiled on Wednesday a series of measures to \u2060address the \u2060impact of surging energy prices…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1276,14539,39,4,40,711,4292],"class_list":["post-20040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-energy-crisis","tag-energy-sector","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-fuel-prices","tag-us-israel-iran-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}