The EU has paid over EUR 100 billion extra for imported fossil fuels since the war in the Middle East began, without receiving more fuel.
EnvironmentEuropean Union
- Omissions
- The precise cumulative figure is an estimate produced by a think tank (Institut Jacques Delors, ~€104 billion) and reported by news agencies; no single primary European Commission/Eurostat statistic for the full '€100 billion+' cumulative amount was located in the available sources, though the European Commission is cited for the earlier €47 billion figure.
- The additional cost has risen steadily as the conflict continued: roughly €26 billion after two months, €47 billion by June 2026, about €60 billion at the 100-day mark, and about €104 billion in the later tracker update — so the exact total depends heavily on the cut-off date.
- The speaker's own wording (reported by Balkan Green Energy News) refers to 'this year' (2026), whereas the claim phrases the period as 'since the war in the Middle East began'; these coincide only if the war started in 2026.
- The phrase 'without receiving a single molecule more' is an approximation: Eurostat notes that petroleum import quantities 'did not change much' rather than that they were completely unchanged.
- The strongest word-for-word match (Balkan Green Energy News) appears to report the same speaker's/Commission's own statement, so it is not fully independent corroboration.
- Sources
- SecondaryXinhua (english.news.cn)The European Union (EU) has paid an extra 100 billion euros (about 113.3 billion U.S. dollars) for the same volume of fossil fuel imports since ...
- SecondaryInstitut Jacques Delors (Jacques Delors Centre tracker)Added to the estimated €104 billion in additional costs on fossil fuel imports, the cost of the crisis for the Union now stands at nearly ...
- SecondaryBalkan Green Energy News"We have now surpassed EUR 100 billion that we paid extra for our energy this year, without receiving one extra molecule of gas or oil," the EU ...
- SecondaryEU PerspectivesAccording to the European Commission, the additional cost of importing fossil fuels since the start of the conflict has reached €47 billion.