Six European Union governments have banded together to demand a bloc-wide windfall tax on oil companies, accusing energy giants of exploiting the turmoil unleashed by the Israel-Iran conflict to pad their profit margins at consumers' expense.

Finance ministers from Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland and Portugal, joined by Spain's economy minister, sent a joint letter to Ireland's finance chief, whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, urging that the levy be placed on the agenda when the bloc's finance ministers gather in Dublin next month.

The push comes as oil majors report soaring earnings following the disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz triggered by the US-Israel military campaign against Iran earlier this year. The ministers argue the price spikes at the pump are outpacing what's justified by the actual rise in crude costs.

"Oil companies are enjoying overall profitability and margins on refined products that exceed the rise in crude oil prices."

A Familiar Playbook, a Tougher Sell

The six governments want Brussels to revive the model used in 2022, when the EU imposed a temporary "solidarity contribution" on energy firms cashing in on the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That levy raised billions for consumer relief funds across the bloc, and its architects are betting a similar case can be made now that Middle East volatility, not a European war, is behind the windfall.

But the coalition is well short of the unanimity EU tax measures require, and the letter has already exposed cracks closer to home. Germany's own government is split down the middle: Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, of the center-left SPD, backs the tax, while Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU has resisted similar measures in the past. A German finance ministry source insisted "excessive crisis profits must be returned to consumers," but Berlin has yet to present a unified position to its EU partners.

The letter lands as households across the continent absorb higher fuel and heating costs tied to the wider fallout from the Iran war's supply shock, with the ministers warning that "growing discontent about the rise in the cost of living" is spreading across the bloc. The European Commission has so far given no indication it plans to propose a new EU-wide levy, meaning the six nations face a steep climb to turn their letter into binding law before winter energy bills start arriving.

Whether the proposal survives contact with Brussels bureaucracy — and Germany's own coalition politics — will become clearer when finance ministers sit down in Dublin next month.