EU bill for fossil fuel imports increased by over EUR 22 bn since onset of conflict in Middle East: European Commission

BRUSSELS, 13th April, 2026 (WAM) – The European Commission revealed that the EU bill for fossil fuel imports has increased by over EUR 22 billion since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East 44 days ago.

‘’This shows the enormous impact this crisis has on our economy,” said President of the European Commission von der Leyen in a statement following an exceptional meeting held here today to discuss the economic impact of the situation in the Middle East on the European Union.

”Therefore, we also discussed a series of measures that we will present to leaders at the next informal EU Council (EUCO) in Cyprus next week. We will have a communication the Wednesday before the EUCO starts in Cyprus. And today, we discussed a number of measures that we could present.”

‘’First and foremost, she said, it is important that we have a robust coordination among the Member States. We are also looking into EU-wide coordination of Member States’ gas storage filling, to avoid that many Member States go to the market at the same time, so they are competing against each other. We will also coordinate oil stock releases, to achieve the largest possible effect of these releases. And we will ensure that Member States’ emergency measures will not impact the Single Market. That is the ‘coordination’ part.’’

The measures, she emphasised, should be targeted to vulnerable groups, timely – they have to be fast, not in a year but immediately – and temporary – so for a short amount of time you can apply them, but if they are cast in law, you have to make sure that you get out of the measures in a timely manner.

”We will discuss with the Member States and show some typical best practices – how to design income support schemes. This all will be in the communication that we will present next week. And already this week, we will consult Member States on more flexible State aid rules – that is an important tool too –, to give Member States more space for temporary State aid support in the most exposed sectors.”

”We have made progress in growing renewables and nuclear in Europe – they both now account for over 70% of our electricity generation. But of course, we need to go much further. And these clean energy sources need better integration in the energy system,” she said.

At the moment, she added, huge volumes of clean power remain unused or even wasted. So what we need is storage and flexibility, and accelerate grid connections. To improve the overall situation, we have presented the Grids package in December.

”We also need to accelerate the electrification of our economy; of our industrial operations, of how we heat our homes, of our mobility. In other words: electrifying Europe means making Europe more independent. But at the moment, we are lagging with the electrification – behind both China and the United States. So we will present our electrification strategy before the summer as well,” she added.