EU fuel quality rules have become the latest target in the search for quick relief from high energy prices, after French President Emmanuel Macron asked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to loosen them. In a letter dated 18 September 2026, whose receipt the Commission confirmed on 22 September, Macron argued that relaxing European specifications on fuel quality could allow the bloc’s refineries to raise output of diesel, kerosene and other products by up to 20 per cent at a time when supply is tightening.
The request is specific. According to reporting by the Brussels Times and Bloomberg, Paris wants temporary exemptions from requirements on density, compression and desulphurisation, the technical parameters that determine what can legally be sold at European pumps. France also asks for more flexibility on the blending of biofuels into diesel, which Macron described as a source of additional room for supply. The Élysée has put the potential gain in production at between 5 and 20 per cent, depending on the parameters relaxed.
The most politically sensitive element concerns climate policy rather than refining. Macron called for a one-year delay to the EU methane regulation, under which importers of oil, gas and coal are due from 1 January 2027 to report the methane emissions linked to their supplies. That position marks a shift for France. At the end of June, twelve Member States including Belgium asked for parts of the methane rules to be pushed back by three years, and France did not join them. The Commission has already signalled that it will not go that far, but it has proposed waiving fines for three years, a compromise that importers and the United States government have said does not go far enough.
The justification in the letter is a stark reading of the market. Macron wrote that global oil stocks had fallen by more than 500 million barrels because of the war in the Middle East and warned that unless the Strait of Hormuz reopens quickly, the global supply of oil products could drop by around 4 million barrels a day. He highlighted Europe’s reliance on the region for 36 per cent of its kerosene imports. European diesel futures have moved above 200 dollars a barrel at points this month, and retail prices including tax are considerably higher.
There is a precedent for what Paris is asking. The Commission accepted similar exemptions during the Covid-19 pandemic, when supply chains were disrupted and regulators prioritised continuity. The difference now is that the rules in question sit alongside the Union’s climate targets, and any loosening of EU fuel quality rules or methane reporting will be read by environmental groups as a signal that the Green Deal is negotiable whenever prices rise.
The Commission’s first response was cautious. A spokeswoman said the proposals would be analysed carefully but stressed that the current oil shock requires a different answer from the 2022 gas crisis, when Russia cut deliveries. She pointed to joint action by Member States and noted that national governments can still cut energy taxes, which can account for up to a quarter of household energy bills. The Gas Coordination Group is due to meet on Thursday to review the situation across the Union.
Domestic politics explain the urgency in Paris. France has a long memory of fuel protests, unions are threatening strikes, and the government is presenting targeted support measures with very little fiscal space ahead of next year’s presidential election. Asking Brussels to adjust EU fuel quality rules costs the French budget nothing, which makes it an attractive lever.
Whether the Commission pulls it will become clearer before EU leaders meet in Brussels next month with competitiveness and energy prices high on the agenda. A narrow, time-limited derogation on refinery specifications looks possible. A further delay to the methane regulation would be a much harder sell, and it would reopen a fight that the Commission thought it had contained in June.
