The finance ministers of Spain and four other European countries are urging the European Union to impose a bloc-wide windfall tax on energy companies, concerned that surging oil and gas prices driven by the war in Iran will fuel inflation and strain households.<\/p>\n
Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said Saturday that his counterparts from Germany, Italy, Portugal and Austria had signed a letter to the European Commission citing \u201cmarket distortions\u201d caused by the price spike.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conflict in the Middle East has caused oil prices to rise, placing a significant burden on the European economy and on European citizens,\u201d the letter, dated Friday and made public by Cuerpo in an online post, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to ensure that this burden is distributed fairly,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
Europe is largely dependent on imported oil and gas, leaving it vulnerable to external shocks. In 2022, turmoil in energy markets following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine pushed inflation into double digits in many European countries.<\/p>\n
At the time, the EU imposed a \u201csolidarity contribution\u201d that included caps on excess energy profits.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the current market distortions and fiscal constraints, the European Commission should swiftly develop a similar EU-wide contribution instrument,\u201d the letter said. \u201cIt would also send a clear message that those who profit from the consequences of the war must do their part to ease the burden on the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n
Driven largely by higher oil prices, the annual inflation rate in the 21 countries that use the euro rose to 2.5% in March, from 1.9% in February.<\/p>\n
Iran has blocked most tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a chokepoint for about 20% of global oil and gas \u2014 in a move that threatens to stress fuel markets for months.<\/p>\n
European Union Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen warned this week that disruption caused by the closure means fuel prices are unlikely to \u201cgo back to normal in a foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The finance ministers of Spain and four other European countries are urging the European Union to impose a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,2381,42,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-2210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-germany","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}