Finance ministers from Germany, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Italy and Poland have asked the European Union to discuss a bloc-wide windfall profit tax on oil companies at a meeting in Dublin on Sept. 18-19. In a letter to Ireland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, they said the supply shock triggered by Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran had sharply increased energy costs, with oil prices up about 25% since Feb. 28, diesel prices more than 70% higher and gasoline prices up around 20%. They said existing government measures had not permanently stabilized prices and called for a common approach that would include lessons from the 2022 excess-profit tax, with more targeted treatment of foreign profits earned by multinational oil companies. The ministers also sought the rapid release of a European investigation into refinery margins to assess whether refiners were benefiting unfairly from the price spike. The proposal follows earlier calls for a permanent levy and Portugal’s draft tax, while Oxfam has estimated that six major oil companies could earn combined annual profits of €147 billion.