Germany among states pushing EU to tax energy windfall profits

Yi Wei Wong and Iain Rogers, Bloomberg News on Apr 4, 2026

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Five European Union members urged the bloc to tax windfall profits energy companies are reaping as a result of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

The finance ministers of Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Austria made the joint call in an April 3 letter seen by Bloomberg to Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s climate commissioner.

They wrote that taking such action would “send a clear message that those who profit from the consequences of war must do their part to ease the burden on the general public,” according to the letter, which was first reported by the Reuters news agency.

Without specifying details, ministers referenced a similar measure introduced in 2022 after gas prices soared as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

During the energy crisis triggered by the war, the EU adopted laws to cut gas demand by 15% and also imposed a gas-price cap and a tax on the windfall profits of energy producers.

Dan Jorgensen, the EU’s energy commissioner, said last week the bloc would consider reintroducing the measures used in 2022, while noting that the “crisis of 2022 was primarily a gas crisis” and the current situation has created “a broader range of problems.”

In their letter, the five ministers suggested the Commission consider “the question of whether and how the foreign profits of multinational oil companies can be included in a more targeted way than was the case with the 2022 solidarity contribution.”