Giorgia Meloni travelled to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on 3 to 4 April, the first leader of any European Union, NATO or G20 member state to visit the Gulf since the war began on 28 February1. The trip was unannounced before departure. An unnamed Gulf supplier subsequently notified Rome that 10 LNG (liquefied natural gas) cargoes scheduled between April and mid-June would not be delivered, the first publicly disclosed physical supply cut to a European buyer. Italian airports began rationing jet fuel on 7 April.
Domestic responses across the continent are diverging rather than coordinating. Italy cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by 25 cents per litre for 20 days. Germany finalised a €1.6 billion package on 13 April: a 17-cent excise reduction for two months and a tax-free €1,000 employer bonus2. France rejected a comprehensive fuel-tax cut and allocated €70 million to the road transport sector only. Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Austria have jointly proposed an EU-level windfall tax on energy companies; the European Commission has begun alerting Ireland, Poland and Estonia to expected oil and gas shortages. The blockade-day Brent surge has already pushed pass-through costs onto European forecourts.
The United Kingdom's 40-nation reopening coalition was assembled on the premise that a coordinated European demand-side approach would give diplomatic weight to negotiations on Hormuz. Meloni's Gulf trip dismantles that assumption from the supply side. It is procurement emergency dressed as foreign policy: Italy is lining up Azerbaijan follow-up visits, has deployed aerial defences to the Gulf to protect remaining supply, and has stopped waiting for a collective EU decision.
The practical consequence for the rest of the bloc is fiscal. The divergence between Italy's 25-cent cut, Germany's 17-cent cut, France's transport-sector allocation and the Spain-Portugal-Austria windfall-tax route means the EU cannot present a coordinated energy position in the negotiations the UK coalition was trying to build. Each member state is buying its own political cover at its own cost, and the single market's ability to pool the pain has collapsed before any ministerial meeting has been scheduled.
