After the attack in Qatar, EU leaders face years of energy shortages.

After Iran attacked and severely damaged a key natural gas facility in Qatar, the European Union is preparing to face a prolonged energy price shock, which could lead to years of energy supply shortages in Europe.

According to sources, at the summit held in Brussels on Thursday, EU leaders expressed concern over the worsening economic situation and called for a “pause” on strikes against energy facilities amid the US-Iran conflict. During the meeting, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned that the current energy situation is very serious.

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides said in an interview on Friday, “If the situation continues to escalate, all countries will be negatively affected. Without de-escalation, no one can predict how things will unfold, and all sectors of the economy will suffer serious impacts.”

On Thursday, natural gas prices surged to a three-year high. The European Central Bank stated that if energy supplies are disrupted long-term, inflation in the Eurozone could rise to 6.3%, triggering a short-term recession. Data from the European Commission shows that in the past two weeks, energy prices have increased European energy expenditures by €7 billion (about $8.1 billion).

This grim outlook comes at a time when Europe has just begun to address slow economic growth and complex relations with the US and China, with policies largely based on lowering energy prices. Even without the recent price shocks caused by the Iran conflict, Europe’s energy costs are already several times higher than those of competitors.

Thursday’s events serve as a stark reminder of Europe’s high dependence on global markets, and the EU’s limited short-term options for responding to such crises.

Before the EU leaders’ meeting, Eurogroup President Pierre Gramegna told reporters, “The current situation is extremely concerning. We are thoroughly assessing various scenarios, including optimistic and worst-case ones.”

The recent surge in energy prices was triggered by Iran’s missile attack on Ras Laffan Industrial City in Qatar, severely damaging the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, CEO of QatarEnergy, told Reuters that two facilities, accounting for 17% of the country’s LNG exports and with an annual capacity of about 13 million tons, were damaged, and repairs are expected to take 3 to 5 years.