this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
191 points (99.5% liked)

Europe

10614 readers
776 users here now

News and information from Europe πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
  10. Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.

(This list may get expanded as necessary.)

Posts that link to the following sources will be removed

Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media (incl. Substack). Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com

(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)

Ban lengths, etc.

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the primary mod account @EuroMod@feddit.org

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Denmark’s energy minister called on citizens to reduce their energy use amid the ongoing Middle East conflict.

Oil prices jumped to over $100 a barrel on Thursday, raising fears of rising inflation.

β€œIf it is not strictly necessary to drive the car, then don’t do it,” the minister stressed to Danish citizens.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] bluefootedbooby@sopuli.xyz 9 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I mean - sure, if you make the freaking public transport at least a decent option, mister minister. When it costs twice as much as a car, and takes twice as much time to get to work then you can fuck off with your sanctimonious pleading. I don't drive the car because I like to.

[–] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 1 points 21 minutes ago

Do you have numbers to backup the twice as expensive as driving claim?

[–] Gork@sopuli.xyz 70 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Let this entire thing please normalize remote working again.

[–] Luccus@feddit.org 42 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Uhm, excuse me, but how are you supposed to click and type, while you're not situated in a depressing cubicle, after driving 1Β½hrs to get to the depressing cubicle?!

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 2 points 4 hours ago

That's basically halve the country. Why choose to work so far away? That's not really a common commute for a Dane.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Y'all get cubiclesβ€½

[–] liuther9@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I like hybrid option if my team is full of good people. It is nice to socialize with your colleagues.

[–] Diurnambule@jlai.lu 1 points 7 hours ago

Depend of the team I think. We changed manager recently and all my colleagues don't eat together, they do various thing during the lunch break. I was eating with the team before, I am eating alone now... Going on site is not for socializing anymore.

[–] diablomnky666@lemmy.wtf 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Not to mention the economic terrorism remote workers are performing every day by not going out to lunch and happy hours in dismal chain restaurants concentrated in business districts we call downtowns. Will no body think of the shareholders?!

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Not really a thing in Europe. Well, not where I live.

[–] diablomnky666@lemmy.wtf 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah, it's mainly a US problem. Local governments were structured to rely on sales tax revenue and had massive budget shortfalls when remote work took off. While remote work is better for the environment and employee mental health, but it was detrimental to the local economies, so many cities started mandating returning to office instead of reevaluating how our cities are structured/zones. Currently they're not as much places to live as they are paces to conduct business, then commute back to suburbs to live. It's fucked and our politicians are bought/paid for by the entrenched industries that got us into this mess in the first place. Maybe we'll do better post balkanization of the empire.

[–] Gladaed@feddit.org 1 points 1 hour ago

I very much am aware. I would just prefer people to respect the Danes and other foreigners enough to not assume their experience is relevant or typical for said group of persons. Foreigners do stuff differently and on r/notmycountry you should preface your experience with context.

[–] IronBird@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

ime, plenty of people who choose to live downtown if they could afford to. but parasites have cornered housing supply to insure noone will own anything ever again

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 49 points 1 day ago (3 children)

One good thing about this shitty timeline. Renewables and biking might get a big push from this. When oil becomes scarce then using it to create long term value instead of burning it for a single use becomes much more attractive.

[–] lemonhead2@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (4 children)

not in the US. the govt seems disconnected with reality

[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Even there actually. Lots of states and companoes are suing the trump admin, because they had big plans for solar and windfarms that are now being stopped or delayed because of trump. Capitalists actually love renewables because they are super profitable. Its only the old oil money inheritors that dont.

[–] shane@feddit.nl 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I thought that renewable energy had at least two problems for capitalists:

  1. Renewable energy is getting cheaper and cheaper, which makes returns on investment decline over time.
  2. Renewable energy is easily distributed, working against concentration of wealth (the whole point of capitalism).
[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Most renewables in the US are still company owned afaik. Solar farms have absurdly small operating cost, so you just invest once and then endlessly milk it for 15-25 years. All you gotta do is mow the grass or let some sheep graze it and do some checks from time to time. Wind is a lot more complicated to maintain, because its mechanical, but the land use is much much lower so you can just pay a farmer to get him to let you use a few small plots of his land to put some turbines up. Its a win win for you and the farmer.

[–] Melchior@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago

It lowers global prices for solar panles, wind turbines, heat pumps, electric vehicles and so forth in the mid to long term. That is going to impact the US as well.

Cycling is a local matter anyway.

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

β€œseems”

[–] eigenspace@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You're a lost cause anyways. We're talking about saner countries.

[–] aproposnix@scribe.disroot.org 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Americans are fscked. They only have their cars.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Setting aside mass transit use, the relative impact of higher oil prices in the US will, I'd imagine, probably be higher than in somewhere like Europe, because Europe already has relatively high prices because it has hefty fuel taxation in the places that I've looked at, whereas the US has relatively low fuel taxation. That'll make the relative price change of the cost of the crude oil changing be larger in the US.

https://moneyweek.com/economy/uk-economy/budget/604621/what-makes-up-the-price-of-a-litre-of-petrol

This has fuel duty in the UK (a consumption tax) being 39% of the price of fuel. Then VAT is 17%. So right there, that's over half the price at the pump, 56%.

The cost of the gasoline itself


and the crude required is only one input of that


is only 29% of the price at the pump.

https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=10&t=10

For mid-2024, this has federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline, and average state taxes


sales and consumption tax in the US varies by state and municipality


of 32.61 cents per gallon of gasoline.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU000074714

Average fuel price in February 2026 is $3.065/gallon.

So taxation makes up about 17% of the price of fuel in the US.

EDIT: That being said, the US is also, these days, a net oil exporter. So there will be winners in the US, like oil extraction companies


but it won't be vehicle operators.

EDIT2: Actually, it's probably slightly lower than 17% in the US, because it's convention in the US to exclude sales tax in listing prices, so the $3.065 won't actually be the post-tax pump price. It will include state consumption tax, though, so I don't have a way to directly compute it from just those figures.

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 0 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Bikes are already at the limit. We need transport options for longer distances that are not a lot worse than a car.

[–] diablomnky666@lemmy.wtf 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe something on rails to cover large distances between cities and towns, or like a really big car that can fit 50-100 people. If only such things existed....

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not between cities - within a city. If I can't get around without a car once I'm there I'm going to drive my own car. Besides most trips are within a metro, if people only drove between metro areas that would be a big difference.

[–] diablomnky666@lemmy.wtf 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Both is good. With the exception of NYC, most light rail and bus networks are focused on commuter traffic in the US and trying to go anywhere other than downtown and back home is a struggle. Crosstown routes are rare or require several changes and 2-3 hrs vs 15-30 minutes by car or bicycle.

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not against it. However if you need a car when you get there you may as well drive. By contrast if you can not drive near home sometimes you won't (like if your car breaks), and the better the local system is the more likely you are to use it

though the bad options most of us have is one reason not to use it.

[–] mjr@infosec.pub 1 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Driving a car sucks more the longer the distance, as 130km/h is considered fast for a car, but pretty slow for a train. Trains doing less than 200km/h aren't considered high speed. The longer the journey, the bigger the time advantage of a train should be, plus you don't have to pay attention on pain of death the whole journey.

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 1 points 19 hours ago

Sure, but in return you have your car when you get there. If the destination is a car centric place this saves a pile of money. you also can go where you want, see what you want...

note that I live in the us we get one train per day at 100km/h - the car is faster and cheaper. Is still use the train but it isn't anything what you are thinking of. At least we can sleep on the train.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Most US local governments are borderline dysfunctional and can't build anything. I would love this but I personally see more promise with e-bikes any anything else.

I think the best solution is to allow neighbors to get together and build their own cheap bike infrastructure but that's still considered a fringe idea right now.

Our governments would rather block solutions than implement them.

[–] MummifiedClient5000@feddit.dk 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I truly do not give a shit until the blame for all the cars is shifted from citizens to employers.

[–] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 1 points 19 minutes ago (1 children)

Studies found that during covid and work from home, average vehicle miles driven didn't significantly decrease. People still need their cars for errands and social reasons. The real culprit is the infrastructure.

[–] MummifiedClient5000@feddit.dk 1 points 6 minutes ago

Studies that covered Denmark? I doubt that. Other countries? Maybe, but I don't care.

You might have to translate this to read it: https://dce.au.dk/aktuelt/nyheder/nyhed/artikel/reduceret-forurening-fra-vejtrafik-under-coronakrisen-giver-faerre-for-tidlige-doedsfald-og-sygedage-i/ but the reduced traffic during corona had a positive effect on air pollution and related deaths and sicknesses.

[–] pmk@piefed.ca 24 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I started commuting by bus when this started. The trip takes 10 minutes longer, but it's time I would have spent doomscrolling before work anyways. Now I can doomscroll on the bus instead.

[–] Ibuthyr@feddit.org 2 points 6 hours ago

I take the E-Bike and listen to podcasts or blast some music. I know I know, dangerous blablabla. Don't care. I love it the way it is.

[–] CAVOK@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

Commuting by train myself. I've picked up audiobooks. Lovely way to start and end a workday. Highly recommended.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Unfortunately if I take the bus, trip goes from 30 mins to 2 hours...

[–] mjr@infosec.pub 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Elect better politicians who will improve the bus service, then.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 6 points 18 hours ago

Would if I could. I vote so hard bro.

[–] WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If there's no traffic, it goes from 10-15 minutes to ~1+ hour (most of which is outside of the buses). Ebiking is great though (~40 minutes and not as affected by traffic - sometimes its faster than driving because of that).

[–] artyom@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's great if you can managed not to get blended to death by the 10k lb. monster trucks you're forced to share the road with.

Almost all of the ride is on a trail on the way to work. On the way back, I just go through residential streets that are pretty much empty by the time I go home (where its too dark to take the trail). Moved to where I do because of how convenient it is for commuting. Used to do the ride when I lived further away and had to ride on some busier roads and the perpetual construction on one of the roads made a stretch one-lane that shouldn't be.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Maybe one day we'll figure out how to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, and increase economic stability by transitioning to electric vehicles...

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.org 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Why not transition to using public transport AS much AS possible instead? Most people literally do not need their own car, if we would have a good public transport system.

[–] artyom@piefed.social 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I specified "electric vehicles", of all types. Could be electric cars, buses, trams, ebikes or whatever.

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

if we have to still use oil, i dont see why not focus on buying from norway? dont they still have oil too? or is it just too little?

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Because international commodities don't work that way. They're priced according to supply and demand, with cost of production and transportation as a limiter on supply. The supply of middle eastern oil has been drastically reduced to Europe, which means there's more demand for the oil you do have, one major supplier being Norway.

Ramping up production in response to high prices is slow, expensive, and risky. They'll likely slowly increase production if the state of affairs continues for a long time, but it'll be like the situation when sanctions on Russia began

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 hours ago

ffs, reason why everything will collapse in western countries with ww3 will be because of complete lack and care of planning for future and because everything has been made so brittle, not because everything will be bombed to the ground. our retarded leaders have made everything dependent on things that are completely out of our control and protection.

[–] drkt@scribe.disroot.org 5 points 1 day ago

Good fucking luck. We are married to our cars.