Are fuel cuts back on the table?

Brussels Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.4 • 202 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2026

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Europe is facing another potential energy shock — and this time, Brussels is starting to float something politically tricky: using less fuel. Host Zoya Sheftalovich is joined by POLITICO’s senior EU politics editor Ian Wishart to break down a warning from Brussels that points to a possible need to cut fuel use, as fears grow of a prolonged disruption linked to the war in Iran. They also zoom in on Kyiv, where EU foreign ministers are marking the anniversary of the Bucha massacre of March 2022 while pushing forward plans for a special tribunal to prosecute Russia’s war of aggression. And back in Brussels, a €3.6 million plan from the Committee of the Regions is raising eyebrows — and prompting questions about priorities. If you have questions or comments, you can reach us on our WhatsApp at +32 491 05 06 29. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Vanta.
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0:28.0	vanta.com. Good morning. It's Tuesday, March 31, and this is the Brussels Playbook podcast.
0:40.5	The vibe in Brussels today, well, it's electric as the EU starts preparing people for
0:45.1	a new energy crisis that could be around the corner.
0:48.7	And also on the pod, foreign ministers are meeting in Ukraine to mark the anniversary of
0:52.8	the butcher massacre.
0:54.5	And the committee of the regions is thinking big, very big, with plans for a 3.6 million euro to be spent on new digs.
1:03.1	I'm Zoyevdanovich, and with me today is our senior EU politics editor, Ian Wishart. Hey, Ian.
1:07.4	Hello, Zoya.
1:08.2	Ian, what's your favourite Brad Pitt movie?
1:10.1	What was he in Top Gun or anything like that? That's not Brad Pitt. No, I don't think I've ever seen a Brad Pitt movie. Jesus Christ, Ian. You need an education. Mine is Burn After Reading, which is a Cohen Brothers flick. But you probably should say why you're asking me that question. Well, Brad Pitt is in Brussels right now, filming a film. Exciting. Yeah. He shut down the park-sankton air all of the day yesterday, so no one could go running through it and the museums were closed. Devastating. Well, we look forward to watching that, don't we? Can't wait. Let's get on with the news. Let's start with something that's probably going to hit people pretty directly at their hip pockets. Brussels is basically telling Europeans that they may need to travel less
1:48.8	to save money on fuel and to essentially not run down the supplies of energy that Europe has.
1:54.6	This is quite dramatic, isn't it, for the European Commission to be, well, it's sort of via
	...

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