EU leaders balk at joining Middle East fight, grapple with high energy prices

BRUSSELS (AP) - European leaders doubled down Thursday on refusing to join the United States and Israel military campaigns in the Middle East as they met in Brussels to grapple with rising oil and gas prices caused by the war.

European leaders have deflected entreaties from U.S. President Donald Trump to send military assets to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the global flow of oil, gas and fertilizer. However, rising energy prices because of the war and fears in Europe of a new refugee crisis have pushed leaders to make the Middle East a priority at the summit.

"We are very worried about the energy crisis," said Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever ahead of the summit. He said that energy prices were too high before the war, but that the conflict "created another spike."

"If that becomes structural, we're in deep trouble," he said.

The summit was initially expected to center on overcoming Hungary's opposition to a massive loan for Ukraine, but the conflicts in Iran and Lebanon reset the agenda.

European leaders have been deeply critical of the Iranian government, but none have offered immediate help to the U.S. Britain is flat-out refusing to be drawn into the war. France says the fighting would have to die down first.

Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said that Europe "will not allow itself to be blackmailed" into joining the United States and Israel military campaign in the Middle East.

"Europe - and Austria as well - will not allow itself to be blackmailed," he said ahead of the European Council summit of the leaders of the 27 EU nations. "Intervention in the Strait of Hormuz is not an option for Austria anyway."

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said there was "no appetite" among leaders to expand a European naval force in the Red Sea to help secure the Strait of Hormuz or otherwise join the fray.

Four of the EU's largest economies signaled a willingness Thursday to contribute to "appropriate efforts" to ensure ships can pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz.

France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, alongside the United Kingdom and Japan, issued a joint statement welcoming "the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning" for securing the key oil route, and demanding Iran "cease immediately" its drone and missile attacks and other attempts at blocking it.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the war must end before his country can help with matters such as keeping shipping lanes clear.

"We can and will commit ourselves only when the weapons fall silent," he said of potential German military support to secure shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. "We can then do a great deal, up to opening sea lanes and keeping them clear, but we're not doing it during ongoing combat operations."

He said that would require an international mandate, among other complicated steps, "before we can even consider such an issue."

While the EU isn't a party to the conflict, Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten said he understood the U.S. and Israeli reasons for launching the campaign against the "brutal" Iranian government. He called for the EU to increase both sanctions on Iran and support for Iranian opposition groups

But others blasted the war as "illegal" and destabilizing.

"We are against this war because it is illegal," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said: "It's causing a lot of damage to civilians, of course, refugees and the economic consequences that the whole world, especially the global south, is already suffering."

Trump had mentioned NATO support for clearing the Strait of Hormuz but has not officially requested it, said Evika Silina, prime minister of Latvia, one of the 23 out of the 27 EU nations that are NATO members.

"When there will be some official requests, I think we always have to evaluate those requests," she said.

The European Commission has told leaders it has a mix of financial instruments that member nations could deploy to lower energy prices, which will be up for discussion. No single policy will likely work to blunt the economic shocks from the war across the bloc's myriad markets from Romania to Ireland.

EU leaders are hoping their experience weaning off of Russian energy in the wake of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and of building up the bloc's military spending toward self-sufficiency will enable to them to do the same for energy independence.

While some European capitals have called for the suspension or scrapping of climate policies to stave off the worst of the recent spike in energy prices because of the war, others have argued that the EU's long-term energy strategy should be home-grown sustainable energy decoupled from vulnerable fossil fuel markets.

European Council President Antonio Costa said that "energy means security" and that the EU should "build our own capacity to produce our own energy, because it's the only way to be secure."

Leaders from Italy, Austria, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia asked Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to slow the rollout of the EU's Emissions Trading System. They said it was "too steep and overly ambitious" in light of "fragility of today's economic ecosystems" in a letter seen by The Associated Press.