The EU windfall tax on energy companies raised €26 billion in 2022.

Omissions

• The roughly EUR 26 billion figure refers to the combined collected proceeds for tax years 2022 AND 2023, not to 2022 alone, as the claim's framing suggests.
• For fiscal year 2022 alone, the EU solidarity contribution collected approximately EUR 6.85 billion, less than 30% of the expected revenue, according to the Tax Foundation's analysis of the Commission's data.
• The measure was adopted only in autumn 2022 (Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854), so most of the collection fell in fiscal year 2023, which explains why a single-year (2022) figure cannot equal the two-year total.
• The initial Commission estimate was around EUR 25 billion annually from oil and gas; the EUR 26.15 billion actually collected over two years is close to that single-year estimate, which could create a misleading impression of annual performance.
• The Commission source is dated 2025-05-15, after the tax's two-year application period, and the Tax Foundation analysis was published later still; these post-date the 2022 reference period but describe data from it.

Sources

• PrimaryEuropean Commission – Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, 'Commission final report on emergency measure on the fossil fuels sector'In addition, by the cut-off date of the reporting, total collected proceeds for the tax years 2022 and 2023 amounted to EUR 26.150 billion.
• SecondaryTax Foundation – 'EU Windfall Profits Taxes: European Oil and Gas Policy'For the fiscal year 2022, the EU solidarity contribution collected roughly €6.85 billion, less than 30 percent of the expected revenue.
• SecondaryEurodad – 'As EU surtax on fossil fuel profits ends, European Commission report reveals it generated €28 billion of additional public revenue'An EU surtax on fossil fuel industries' profits, which was limited to the fiscal years 2022 and 2023, generated an estimated €28 billion of additional public revenue.