European officials brought a hopeful message into 2026: After a tumultuous 2025, which they spent reacting to one crisis after another emanating from Washington, they were ready to start setting their own agenda.
So much for that.
A summit in Brussels on Thursday put on full display just how profoundly Europe’s plans have again been derailed by President Trump. Leaders from the European Union’s 27 nations gathered for the marathon meeting, one that was originally billed as an opportunity to jump-start the bloc’s economic competitiveness.
But since the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran nearly three weeks ago, the meeting’s focus has shifted to escalating fuel prices and the fallout of war in the Middle East. Hungary’s insistence on blocking a desperately needed loan to Ukraine has further distracted attention.
Here’s what Europe’s leaders are talking about.
Fuel prices are a big worry.
European energy costs have soared since the war in Iran broke out on Feb. 28. After Iranian missile strikes damaged a huge liquefied natural gas plant in Qatar, gas prices in Europe on Thursday hit more than double their prewar level.
Fearing a repeat of 2022’s painful cost crunch, European nations were scrambling to find some way to offset the impact on consumers.
“We are very worried about the energy crisis,” Bart De Wever, the Belgian prime minister, told journalists as he entered the gathering in Brussels. “We were already worried before the start of the war.”
The attacks “create further chaos,” Kaja Kallas, the top E.U. diplomat, said on Thursday morning.
Various options are being considered to alleviate the pain. Several nations have suggested that, to defray costs, the European Union should relax rules meant to curb carbon emissions.
“Flexibility could benefit our people,” Evika Silina, prime minister of Latvia, told reporters before the meeting.
But Nordic countries and some other northern European nations have pushed back against weakening emissions standards, saying that would undermine important progress toward green energy.
The decarbonization rules are “a cornerstone of our climate policy,” said Petteri Orpo, the Finnish prime minister.
Europeans fret that Iran will distract from Ukraine.
Even as they fret over the price of fuel, European nations were nervously eyeing other potential fallout from war in the Middle East. They have mostly resisted President Trump’s call to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route that Iran is blocking, out of concern they would be dragged into the fighting.
“We can and will only be able to get involved once the guns fall silent,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany said.
Luc Frieden, prime minister of Luxembourg, said, “We want to have safe passage for the ships that are in the Strait of Hormuz, but we should be very careful not to be drawn into a conflict that might escalate.”
European officials have also expressed worries that the Mideast turmoil will distract from Russia’s war in Ukraine at a time when Kyiv urgently needs the West’s support.
“My worry is that the events in the Middle East can overshadow the war in Ukraine,” Gitanas Nauseda, president of Lithuania, told reporters before the gathering.
Leaders are expressing frustration with Hungary.
European leaders will focus on at least one issue related to Ukraine on Thursday: that of Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary blocking a 90-billion-euro loan, about $100 billion, to Kyiv that the European Union agreed to in December.
Mr. Orban says he is refusing to allow the loan to move forward because Ukraine is being slow to repair a damaged pipeline that pumps Russian fuel to Hungary and Slovakia.
“The Hungarians are not able to get the oil which belongs to us,” Mr. Orban told reporters as he walked into Thursday’s meeting, saying that he could not support the loan until his nation began to receive the oil.
But many European Union officials suspect that the obstruction has to do with an election in Hungary on April 12 — and they are pressuring Mr. Orban to allow the money to flow.
“It’s regretful that we are losing the time,” Mr. Nauseda from Lithuania said.
Ms. Kallas was even blunter: “I’m not very optimistic,” she told reporters. “In the time of elections, people are not that rational.”
Leaders have expressed alarm that Mr. Orban is holding up a package that he had previously agreed to — potentially undermining the value of such E.U. agreements.
Competitiveness is still on the agenda — technically.
The economy will still find its way into the discussion on Thursday. The participants plan to talk about steps to simplify regulation and attract companies to the European Union. But those issues are taking a back seat to geopolitics.
“Today the leaders will focus on competitiveness,” Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, told reporters — somewhat hopefully — as he entered the meeting.
Within a few sentences though, even he had to focus on the news of the day.
“Of course, nobody can ignore that we are facing challenging times on energy,” Mr. Costa said.
Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting from Berlin.
Jeanna Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief for The Times.
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