These days, the prices of fuel (but also gas) have become a hot topic, but all the price increases that are happening are quite logical for me personally - because all those measures that have been implemented over the past 2 years cost a lot, and now it's probably time for billing. The best way to provoke a chain reaction of price increases is to increase the price of the base energy source, which is of course fuel. After that, everything becomes more expensive, and the state treasury collects more taxes from VAT.

Leaving aside all that @stompix mentioned (and it definitely makes sense), and comparing fuel prices in Europe, it’s hard not to notice the differences. For example, in most EU countries the price for 95 is on average around EUR 1.50, but some countries still have a lower price.

- Bulgaria € 1.14
- Czech Republic € 1.36
- Hungary € 1.31
- Malta € 1.34
- Poland € 1.28
- Romania € 1.23
- Slovenia € 1.28

It seems to me that countries outside the Eurozone still have more control over fuel prices (with some exceptions), while countries within the Eurozone generally have similar prices, although there are exceptions. So I wonder what the reasons are for the differences in prices for the same product - maybe the reason is that some countries have higher oil/fuel stocks in tanks so they are not immediately subject to rising oil prices or is it due to competition in the domestic market for oil products, maybe some other reason?

Here you can see fuel prices in Europe : https://www.tolls.eu/fuel-prices