According to IRU’s latest fuel update, the EU average diesel price fell by 1.9% week on week to €1.863 per litre. It was the second consecutive weekly decline and follows a period of sharp pressure on fuel costs since late February.
However, the fall does not mean fuel pressure has disappeared. IRU says the EU average remains 14% above the 27 February baseline, while the gap between the cheapest and most expensive EU diesel markets is still close to €1 per litre.
The most expensive markets listed by IRU were Denmark and the Netherlands, both at €2.189 per litre, followed by Finland at €2.080, Belgium at €2.060 and France at €2.033. At the lower end of the table, Malta remained at €1.210, while Poland stood at €1.487 and Czechia at €1.586.
For UK operators, the pressure remains sharper: IRU puts UK diesel at £1.82 per litre, 29% above the 27 February baseline.
Crude oil has also eased, with Brent trading at around $95 a barrel on 5 June, down 3% since 22 May. But IRU says the market remains highly volatile, with Brent moving between around $91 and $99 a barrel in the space of a week.
The next pressure point is the policy calendar. Several countries introduced temporary fuel-tax cuts, price caps or transport-sector relief measures during the fuel shock, and a number of those measures are now approaching expiry.
IRU notes that Italy’s excise cut expired on 6 June, while relief measures in Poland, Lithuania and Croatia are due to be tested around 15 June. A larger group of measures, including support in Germany, Spain, Hungary, Czechia, Austria, Latvia and other countries, is due to expire at the end of June unless governments extend them.
This means pump prices could rise even if crude oil does not. IRU warns that, if planned expiries go ahead, diesel could increase by around €0.10 per litre in Italy and by around €0.14–€0.20 per litre in some other markets.
The timing is important for hauliers working on contracts where fuel clauses do not fully reflect weekly pump-price movements. IRU says contract rates in Europe’s six largest freight markets have risen by around 3% since the start of the crisis, while spot rates have increased by around 6%, leaving operators to absorb a larger part of the fuel-cost increase themselves.
The European Commission’s Weekly Oil Bulletin also recorded a fall in EU fuel prices at the start of June, with diesel down 2.62% and petrol down 2.11% in the EU27.
IRU says the latest figures show that the immediate fuel spike has eased, but the operating risk for road transport is shifting towards uneven national support schemes and expiring tax measures.
