As energy shock bites, EU nations from Poland to Italy roll out varied relief measures

For anyone holding European energy exposure, the national measures reported alongside the OECD ranking point in different directions. Greece is paying for relief by taxing gambling more heavily, the Netherlands added money for free energy-saving services in homes, and Lithuania halved train fares ^[6]. Fortune's account of the report does not name the ten countries, so it is not clear which of these governments are on the list ^[1].

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described the pressure in her State of the European Union address last week. "The pressures from higher energy prices and borrowing costs are biting for people and for businesses," she said ^[14]. She said Europe needs to "double down on our affordable, homegrown, clean energy" ^[14]. The relief households get this winter is being set in national capitals, down to France bringing forward heating vouchers of 48 to 277 euros for 5.8 million families by three months ^[7][9].

France is the case with a published price. Its 450 million euro package covers about 2.2 days of the extra 203 million euros a day EU citizens are paying for diesel ^[8][10][1]. The terms are a small puzzle. At 100 euros each, the 5.5 million eligible workers come to 550 million euros if every one of them claims ^[8][2]. That is 100 million euros more than the whole package, before the extended fuel subsidies for farmers, fishermen and construction firms are counted ^[9][2]. Either Paris is budgeting for partial take-up or part of the payment was funded before Tuesday ^[2].

The French payments run to the end of the year ^[8]. Emmanuel Macron's letter to the EU executive warned of "strong increases in prices" if the Strait of Hormuz does not reopen to tanker traffic and Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline to the Red Sea is not repaired ^[13]. His request to Brussels is on the supply side: looser fuel quality rules and a cap on conventional biodiesel in standard diesel raised from 7% to 10% ^[12], an allowance about 43% larger ^[3].

A reopened Hormuz and easing prices would let national measures lapse on their own dates, and the differences between countries would shrink with them. A Brussels move on fuel rules would narrow the gap between capitals with one bloc-wide supply step. If prices hold into the new year, subsidies cost more each month, and a levy on fuel sellers' profits of the kind Poland has proposed ^[4] becomes an easier way to pay for them. Greece is already raising a tax to fund relief ^[6]. I think the third case is the one fuel producers and sellers should be priced for. The counter-case is that Poland's levy is still only a proposal, from one country ^[4]. If it stalls, or no other government adopts one before France's subsidies expire, the country risk stays in Warsaw and the rest of the patchwork is a cost that falls on taxpayers.