Average diesel prices across the European Union have reached a record €2.24 a litre, and Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen says households shouldn’t expect relief soon. Price volatility, he warned, is here to stay. For millions of Europeans who drive to work, heat their homes or run small businesses, that’s a hard message.
Fuel Costs and the Call for Action
In an exclusive interview with Euronews, Jørgensen urged European governments to use the flexibility they already have to ease fuel costs. His appeal came as Donald Trump pressed EU countries to release millions of barrels from emergency oil stocks. The two pressures arrive together: a commissioner asking capitals to act on pump prices, and a US president asking them to open their strategic reserves.
Osama Rizvi, Global Market & Product Strategist at Primary Vision, analysed the latest energy price increase for the programme. The record diesel figure puts fresh strain on household budgets. It also puts the question of how far national governments can cushion those costs, within the rules they already operate under, back on the table.
Spain's Housing Vote
In Madrid, the cost of living was playing out in a different form. Spain's Congress was voting on two government-backed housing decrees, and support from Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's coalition was in doubt. Javier Iñiguez reported from the Spanish capital on the vote, which followed days of street protests.
The decrees aim to tackle soaring rents and protect tenants. Those are the people most exposed when housing and energy costs climb together. If Congress rejects the measures, the consequences could be unpredictable, according to the report. Nobody on the programme would say what would follow a defeat.
Security Pressure on the Eastern Flank
The programme also spoke with Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Țoiu. Russian drone attacks on Ukraine, she said, were spilling into Romanian airspace and along the Black Sea. Bucharest warned of a broader campaign that includes cyberattacks, sabotage and other forms of hybrid warfare.
The war’s human cost now reaches beyond Ukraine’s borders. Communities in a NATO and EU member state live with the spillover from attacks aimed at their neighbour.
The Programme
Euronews anchors Méabh Mc Mahon and Stefan Grobe presented the programme live on television, the Euronews website and digital platforms including YouTube, Facebook, X and Instagram. It airs every weekday at 8 am Brussels time. The 20-minute programme is also available as a newsletter and podcast.
Why This Matters: Record diesel prices, a rent crisis serious enough to bring people onto Spanish streets, and drone incursions on Romania's border look like separate stories. They land on the same households, though. Jørgensen's call for governments to use existing flexibility shows how much of the response to energy costs still sits with national capitals, while the pressure on oil stocks and the security threat on the eastern flank cross borders. From a social democratic perspective, the test is whether European and national institutions can protect tenants and drivers on modest incomes while still backing Ukraine and its neighbours. Spain's vote is an early sign of how far a government can go on that front, and of what happens when parliamentary support runs short.