Europe has firmly rejected President Trump's demand for European allies to join a naval mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with EU foreign ministers overwhelmingly responding "no" to the request. EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas emphasized "This is not Europe's war," while German defense minister Boris Pistorius stated "The Americans chose this path, together with the Israelis. We did not start this." Despite this rejection, the closed strait poses significant energy price risks to EU economies, with no coherent counterproposal yet developed.

The rejection comes amid rising energy costs and EU environment ministers preparing to discuss the European Commission's rollback of its combustion engine ban. New analysis reveals that if energy prices remain elevated due to the Iran conflict, drivers of petrol cars would face a five times higher impact than electric vehicle owners. Petrol drivers would pay €3.85 more per 100km compared to €0.7 more for EVs, based on an assumed average oil price of €70 per barrel.

Trump maintains hope some allies might still join, rating French President Macron's response as "an eight" on a scale of zero to ten. Meanwhile, an ambitious high-speed rail project linking Poland and the Baltics faces a decade-long delay as capitals prioritize fixing existing infrastructure amid Russian security concerns. Maintaining the Green Deal targets on combustion engines and increasing corporate fleet electrification could save the EU €24bn in oil imports compared to the Commission's December proposal, according to Transport & Environment analysis.