Europe Debates a Windfall Tax as Fuel Prices Bite

European governments have discussed imposing a bloc-wide windfall tax on energy companies, as near-record fuel and gas prices pile pressure on leaders trying to contain mounting public anger, according to the Guardian. The paper reports that a German minister said companies were "exploiting" the situation in the Middle East, and that sky-high prices have become a major domestic issue for European leaders.

The Guardian's account places the renewed windfall tax debate in the context of Middle East instability feeding through into European pump prices and household gas bills. It does not, in the passage available, name Italy among the governments pushing the measure, and this dispatch does not attribute a position to Rome that the wire does not state.