European industrial energy prices fell year on year in the first half of 2026, Eurostat reported on November 4. The average gas price for non-household consumers in the EU was 0.06 euros per kilowatt hour, up 1.8 percent from the second half of 2025 but down 6.7 percent from the same period of 2025. The figures cover consumers using between 10,000 and 100,000 gigajoules a year.
The fall was broad. Gas prices dropped in 24 of the 25 EU countries with available data, with the largest decreases in Belgium and France, both down 13.1 percent, followed by Lithuania at 12.5 percent, Hungary at 11.6 percent and Bulgaria at 10.8 percent. Sweden was the only country to record an increase, up 3.1 percent, and it also had the highest price at 0.11 euros per kilowatt hour, against 0.04 euros in Bulgaria and Belgium. Taxes made up 17.5 percent of the overall gas price in the first half of 2026, up from 15.9 percent in the second half of 2025.
Electricity moved the same way. The average non-household electricity price was 0.18 euros per kilowatt hour, down 2.0 percent from the second half of 2025 and down 5.4 percent from the first half of 2025, for consumers using between 500 and 2,000 megawatt hours a year. Prices fell in 19 EU countries, led by Luxembourg at 23.8 percent, Czechia at 11.9 percent and Greece at 11.8 percent, while eight countries saw increases, the largest in Sweden at 18.8 percent and Finland at 18.7 percent. Ireland had the highest electricity price at 0.27 euros per kilowatt hour and Finland the lowest at 0.09 euros.
The two releases together describe an industrial energy market still deflating from its crisis levels, with the relief unevenly shared. The widest gaps are national rather than European: a Swedish gas user paid close to three times the Bulgarian or Belgian price, and an Irish electricity user paid three times the Finnish price, in the same half year and the same single market.