EU ministers meet to debate bloc-wide windfall tax on energy firms as record fuel prices bite households

From the Newshound archive · first published 19 September 2026.

Six EU member states have put an EU-wide windfall tax on energy companies' excessive profits on the table for formal debate, as the Strait of Hormuz energy crisis pushes fuel costs to record levels. Tánaiste Simon Harris, presiding over the Eurogroup at Dublin Castle during Ireland's EU Council presidency, said certain companies are earning "extraordinarily large profits" driven not by innovation but by the Strait's closure. European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde described energy prices as a "significant variable" in the bank's inflation outlook. Member states have yet to reach any agreement on whether such a levy should go ahead.

Harris said the profits are "not on the basis of enterprise or innovation" but purely a result of the Hormuz closure, while households face severe pressure.

Lagarde told ministers that energy prices are hitting consumers and investors alike and complicating the ECB's drive to return inflation to its 2 per cent target.

Eurogroup president Kyriakos Pierrakakis said the single-currency economy has proved stronger than expected this year, even as the energy shock deepens.