Diesel Prices in Europe by Country 2026: Cheapest, Dearest and Tax Share

Which European country has the cheapest diesel?

Malta has the cheapest diesel in the European Union by a wide margin. Its average pump price was €1.210 a litre in the week of 26 October, according to the European Commission's Weekly Oil Bulletin ^[1]. Poland (€1.781), Spain (€1.888) and Bulgaria (€1.890) follow ^[1].

At the other end, Finland was the most expensive EU country at €2.547 a litre. Denmark (€2.502), the Netherlands (€2.469) and Belgium (€2.375) complete the top four ^[1]. The EU average, which the Commission weights by consumption, was €2.146 ^[1]. That is 0.33% higher than the week before and 40.4% higher than a year earlier ^[1].

Malta is a special case. Its pump prices have not moved this year: diesel was also €1.210 in the bulletin of 23 February ^[3]. The state-owned importer Enemed keeps pump prices fixed with heavy government support, and the island has held them stable since 2021 ^[14]. Maltese law even protects the 13-cent gap between petrol and diesel ^[14].

How much of the diesel price is tax?

Every European pump price has four parts: the product cost, excise duty, other levies and value-added tax (VAT). The product cost covers crude oil, refining, transport and the retailer's margin ^[2]. Across the 27 EU countries, taxes averaged 37.4% of the diesel price on 26 October, on a simple unweighted average ^[2].

Italy has the heaviest tax load. Excise of €0.673 and VAT of €0.405 make up 48.0% of its €2.247 litre ^[2]. Belgium (43.4%), Denmark (42.8%), France and Malta (both 42.5%) come next ^[2]. Poland has the lightest tax load at 25.4%, followed by Spain (26.8%) and Sweden (26.9%) ^[2].

The tax share has fallen as fuel became more expensive. Euronews, using Commission data, put taxes at about 44.6% of the EU diesel price on 16 March ^[11]. Excise is a fixed amount per litre, so a higher product cost lowers its share even when no tax rate changes. The two figures use different methods, so the comparison is only indicative.

Why do diesel prices differ so much between countries?

Taxes explain much of the gap, but not all of it. Finland's product cost was €1.497 a litre, the highest in the EU, before €1.051 of taxes ^[2]. Italy's product cost was only €1.169, yet its taxes lift it to seventh place ^[2]. Sweden shows the reverse: a product cost of €1.490 but excise of just €0.140 ^[2].

Excise rates now cluster at the legal floor. Seven countries, including Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Malta, charge €0.330 a litre on diesel ^[2]. That equals the EU minimum of €330 per 1,000 litres, which Latvia cut to on 1 October ^[5].

Several countries also regulate retail prices. Belgium and Luxembourg have capped fuel prices for decades ^[12]. Belgium's maximum diesel price hit a record €2.501 a litre on 22 September ^[13]. Slovakia capped station margins at €0.10 a litre from 1 October. Czechia set daily maximum prices for October and waived part of its diesel excise ^[5].

The differences create strong incentives near borders. In the week of 26 October, diesel was €0.517 a litre cheaper in Poland than in Germany ^[6]. The gap between France and Spain was €0.464 ^[6].

Which countries cut fuel taxes in 2026?

Germany cut its energy tax on petrol and diesel by 14.04 cents a litre from 1 October to 31 December ^[5]. With VAT, the government puts the relief at 17 cents a litre, at a cost of about €2.5 billion ^[15]. It ran the same cut in May and June ^[7]. Berlin also aims to introduce a fuel price cap by 1 January 2027 at the latest ^[15].

Spain kept its hydrocarbon tax 20 cents a litre below its pre-March level in October ^[5]. The cut is due to fall to 13 cents in November and 6 cents in December ^[13]. Spain's package has cost about €5 billion since March ^[13].

Italy took the opposite path. Its temporary diesel excise cut, worth 6.1 cents a litre by the end, expired at midnight on 5 October ^[13]. Excise returned to €672.90 per 1,000 litres from 6 October ^[4]. Eni raised its own diesel price ceiling from €2.19 to €2.25 a litre in response ^[13].

Poland used VAT instead of excise. It charged 8% VAT rather than 23% on fuel from 31 March to 30 June and from 17 to 31 August ^[4]. The lower rate returned on 3 October and runs to 31 December ^[4]. Hungary, Ireland, Cyprus, Croatia, Romania, Austria and Czechia also lowered excise for parts of the year ^[4]. France chose targeted support: €100 payments to 5.5 million commuters within a €450 million package ^[12].

The tax cuts show up clearly in the weekly data. Poland's price fell from €2.017 to €1.803 between 30 March and 6 April, after its VAT cut began ^[3,4]. In the bulletin of 5 October, Polish diesel dropped from €2.060 to €1.764 and German diesel from €2.437 to €2.254 ^[3].

How much have diesel prices risen since February?

The EU average was €1.594 a litre on 23 February, the last bulletin before the war began on 28 February ^[3,4]. By 26 October it had risen to €2.146, an increase of about 34.6% (Alupetra calculation) ^[1,3]. The record was €2.24 on 28 September ^[4].

The increase has been very uneven. Bulgaria's diesel rose 53.9% and Estonia's 51.0%, from relatively low starting points ^[3]. Germany's price rose 32.6%, from €1.733 to €2.298 ^[7]. Poland (+25.1%) and Ireland (+23.0%) rose least among countries with market pricing, helped by tax cuts ^[3,4].

What about the UK, Türkiye, Norway and Switzerland?

Countries outside the EU do not report to the Commission's bulletin, so other sources are needed. GlobalPetrolPrices.com, which reports in US dollars, put Norway at $3.031 a litre and Switzerland at $2.920 on 26 October ^[9]. On its figures Denmark, at $3.076, was the dearest in Europe ^[9]. Its method differs from the bulletin's, so its ranking does not match exactly.

In the United Kingdom, the live average of all forecourts was 198.7 pence a litre on 30 October, about €2.383 ^[8]. Government weekly figures for 26 October gave 199.2p ^[16]. In the 28 October Budget, the Chancellor kept fuel duty at 52.95p a litre and extended the 5p cut to July 2027 ^[16].

In Türkiye, Petrol Ofisi's diesel price on 30 October was 96.70 lira a litre in Istanbul and 98.00 in Ankara ^[10]. Petrol cost 76.20 lira in Istanbul, so diesel is markedly dearer ^[10]. The special consumption tax (ÖTV) on diesel is rising in monthly steps, from 6.00 lira in October to 13.9006 lira in January ^[5]. GlobalPetrolPrices placed Türkiye at $1.943 a litre, among the cheaper markets in wider Europe ^[9].

What to watch

• Tax cuts ending. Germany's energy-tax cut and Poland's reduced VAT both run to 31 December ^[5,4]. Without an extension, German diesel would rise by about 16.7 cents a litre on 1 January ^[5].
• Spain's step-down. The Spanish relief falls in November and December and ends on 1 January unless a new decree extends it ^[5].
• Germany's price cap. Details of the planned cap, modelled on Luxembourg and Belgium, are still being negotiated with the oil industry ^[15].
• Italy's next move. Rome has said it is still considering whether and how to renew support ^[13].
• Türkiye's tax steps. Further ÖTV rises on diesel are scheduled for 1 November, 1 December and 1 January ^[5].

Alupetra trades diesel and gasoil against EN 590 and other written specifications and follows wholesale and pump prices in Europe every day.