EU considers helping with Mideast energy infrastructure to bypass
conflict zones
[April 25, 2026] By
MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS and SAM McNEIL
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A painful fuel crunch and soaring oil and gas
prices triggered by the Iran war have nudged the European Union to look
hard into funding alternative energy routes in the Middle East to
circumvent hot spots like the Strait of Hormuz.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday that the
EU is ready to work with Persian Gulf countries for new projects
conveying energy to global markets that wouldn’t be held hostage to war
or geopolitical strife.
"The events of the past month have taught us a hard lesson,” von der
Leyen told a news conference at the end of an informal meeting of EU
leaders in the capital of Cyprus. “Our security is not just related, it
is intrinsically linked. A threat to a merchant vessel in the Strait of
Hormuz is a threat to a factory, for example, in Belgium.”
The EU executive called for ramping up defense ties and promoted the
bloc's maritime security mission in the Red Sea as a possible naval
security option in the Persian Gulf, but focused her public remarks on
European support for repairing and building Middle East energy sites.
Diversification of Middle East energy infrastructure
“We are also ready to team up with the Gulf countries to diversify
export infrastructure away from solely the bottleneck of the Hormuz
Strait," she said, also offering to help repair Gulf energy
infrastructure damaged in the war.
A fifth of the world's oil and gas normally passes through the Strait of
Hormuz, but the war has largely closed the waterway, spiking fuel
prices.
Early Friday, Brent crude was up 98 cents at $100.33 a barrel. U.S.
benchmark crude picked up 81 cents to $96.66 per barrel.
Von der Leyen repeated that as a result of the oil and gas price hikes,
the 27-nation bloc’s energy bill in the last 43 days skyrocketed by 25
billion euros ($29.3 billion.)
Neither she nor European Council President Antonio Costa offered precise
details on which projects are being considered or when they’ll move
forward. But von der Leyen referred to the India-Middle-East-Europe
Economic Corridor between the EU and the world’s largest democracy.
Von der Leyen said a summit between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation
Council scheduled for later this year will give both sides the
opportunity to explore such projects.
The EU's focus on its southern neighbors
The rotating EU presidency is currently held by Cyprus, an island nation
adjacent to Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Turkey. Cyprus President Nikos
Christodoulides has sought to bring the bloc closer to countries in the
Middle East to shore up their economies and bolster their security.
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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, left, speaks
with the Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Jasem Mohamed
Albudaiwi before a family photo of the EU Summit in Nicosia, Cyprus,
Friday, April 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
That focus was underscored by his guests at the EU leaders informal
summit: Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, Egyptian President
Abdel-Fattah El Sissi, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Jordan's Crown
Prince Hussein and GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi.
“We know that Europe needs Syria as much as Syria needs Europe,” Al-Sharaa
said, while Aoun called on EU support for rebuilding his war-ravaged
country.
Costa praised Aoun for banning the military activities of Hezbollah that
he called “an existential threat” to Lebanon, pledging to assist the
country in disarming the militant group.
Costa said that “the European Union is not part of the conflict, but we
will be part of this solution.”
Human rights groups blasted EU leaders for not increasing pressure on
Israel over its military campaigns in the Middle East.
EU leaders including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said they would
not lift sanctions on Iran until a wide array of issues were resolved,
including ending its missile program and support for proxies within the
region.
“It’s too early to talk about relief of any kind of sanctions,” said
Costa.
Cyprus itself came under attack early in the war when a Shahed drone
fired from Lebanon on March 2 damaged an aircraft hangar at a British
military base on the island’s southern coast. Greece, France, Italy,
Spain and the Netherlands dispatched warships with anti-drone
capabilities to defend the island.
That has spurred renewed interest in a clause in the EU's foundational
treaties about mutual assistance if a member nation is attacked.
Christodoulides said the EU leaders had agreed to start creating a
formal mechanism for such responses because they agreed that “ad hoc
arrangements” are unreliable.
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McNeil reported from Brussels. Associated Press writer Baraa Anwer in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia contributed to this report.
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