US-Iran war adds €100bn to EU’s fuel bill

{"text":[[{"start":9.4,"text":"The EU has spent an extra €100bn on fossil fuels since the start of the US-Iran war for the same volume of imports, underlining the region’s vulnerability to surging diesel prices in particular this winter."}],[{"start":23.08,"text":"“It’s now €100bn that we’ve paid extra for our energy this year, without receiving one extra molecule of gas or oil,” the EU’s energy commissioner, Dan Jørgensen, told journalists at a gathering of the bloc’s energy ministers in Dublin on Tuesday."}],[{"start":38.6,"text":"The warning comes after US President Donald Trump threatened an export ban on diesel. The threat has pushed up already high prices for refined oil products, even though US energy secretary Chris Wright later expressed scepticism about the merits of a full diesel ban."}],[{"start":54.44,"text":"EU officials played down the risk ahead of the Dublin meeting. Jørgensen said he was “happy” about Wright’s comments last week."}],[{"start":62.16,"text":"Darragh O’Brien, energy minister of Ireland, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said he had spoken to US administration officials in meetings at last week’s UN General Assembly. “It doesn’t look like a [90-day ban] is something that’s going to happen,” he suggested."}],[{"start":77.88,"text":"However, EU member states will discuss how to prepare for a winter of high energy prices. Jørgensen has urged member states to suggest measures to cut demand, to continue filling gas stores so they are at least 80 per cent full and to use “targeted and temporary” measures to tackle high prices."}],[{"start":95.64,"text":"He also repeated the need to increase the rate of electrification in Europe on Tuesday. “We need to get out of that dependency, we need to replace the fossil fuels — the imported, polluting, expensive molecules — with homegrown energy,” he said."}],[{"start":109.76,"text":"The OECD has warned that only half of the fiscal interventions by governments globally are being properly targeted, adding to pressures on public finances."}],[{"start":119.12,"text":"On Tuesday, Spain’s energy minister Sara Aagesen Muñoz announced further measures to protect households, saying that Madrid would limit the increase in a regulated gas tariff to 15 per cent."}],[{"start":129.96,"text":"Asked whether those measures would push up demand, she said: “In this situation, we have to protect. The Spanish people can always count on the support of the government.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":140,"text":"In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has persuaded Azerbaijan’s state oil and gas company, Socar, and the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum International to temporarily cap fuel pump prices at their Italian retail distribution networks, IP and Q8."}],[{"start":156.64,"text":"The decision came days after Italy’s state-controlled energy company Eni announced a cap on its own domestic petrol prices for at least a month in what it called a “gesture of solidarity towards the country, consumers and its customers”."}],[{"start":170,"text":"Rome has spent an estimated €2.8bn so far this year in fuel excise tax cuts but has little fiscal space for continued largesse, forcing Meloni’s government to instead appeal to its major fuel suppliers for support."}],[{"start":183.44,"text":"Italy’s deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has also raised the spectre of windfall taxes on energy companies in the next budget. Other governments, including Austria, Germany, Spain and Poland, have called for an EU-wide windfall tax."}],[{"start":202.57,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790682753_3970.mp3"}