The average price of diesel at the pump across the EU has hit a record of 2.24 euros per litre – equivalent to US$9.60 per US gallon – compared with €1.59 before war erupted in the Middle East, according to EU Commission data published Thursday.
Twelve EU member states recorded fresh all-time highs, including Belgium, Italy, Romania and Poland, according to an AFP analysis of data submitted weekly to Brussels by national authorities since 2005.
The data reflect prices at filling stations, either at the start of the week or at the end of the previous week, depending on the country.
The price of diesel, the main fuel used by road freight transport and farming machinery, exceeded €2.50 per litre in Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland, and reached €2.44 in Germany.
In Belgium, where prices hit a record, diesel averaged €2.43 per litre on Monday, compared with €2.39 the previous week.
In Italy, it rose by seven cents to €2.35. French filling stations, excluding overseas territories and Corsica, were charging an average of €2.37 per litre, a very slight decline.
Across the whole of the EU, there was an average rise of one cent per litre over the last week.
The figures from the European Commission’s oil bulletin include taxes, which vary between countries and account for 40% on average of the price paid at the pump across the bloc.
However, they do not take into account targeted subsidies, such as assistance for high-mileage drivers in France.
The aggregate average for the EU’s 27 member states is weighted according to each country’s fuel consumption in 2024. It stood at €1.59 per litre in February, before the US-Israeli strikes on Iran sparked the war in the Middle East.
Fuel prices have been driven higher since February by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for fossil fuels from the Gulf, followed by a Houthi blockade of Saudi exports in the Red Sea and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries.
