The energy crisis in Europe is becoming increasingly worse. More and more people are protesting the high fuel prices; businesses that depend a lot of fuel have had enough. All throughout Europe, fishermen and truck drivers are protesting.

Although it’s reasonably calm in the Netherlands for now, the same cannot be said for the rest of Europe, especially not for Germany (as reported yesterday) and Spain.

Tens of thousands of Spanish fishermen gathered in Madrid, Spain’s capital, yesterday to protest the fuel prices and the government. In what was quite a positive protest, they decided to hand out free fish to spectators.

The giving away of fish was meant as a symbolic gesture; the fishermen said that ‘the combination of low prices for fish and rising fuel prices, means fishermen are practically giving away their catches.’ Fuel prices have, seemingly, soured by 320% in the last five years. As a result many fishermen ‘can no longer afford to take out their boats.’

Spain wasn’t the only country in which fishermen gave voice to their anger and worries; all across Europe other fishermen followed suit. Especially in Portugal many of them went out on the streets to protest. But Belgium (Brussels) and Italy (12,000 fishermen) joined the international protest against high fuel prices as well.

French fishermen have been protesting for two weeks already.

Fishermen aren’t the only ones protesting; truck drivers, cab drivers, and farmers have started protesting throughout Europe in recent weeks as well.

As Katrin Bennhold explains for Business Day, the situations in Europe and the US are similar… yet different. Both have to pay more for fuel, and both feel the results of this in their pocketbooks, but Europeans are used to high fuel prices (unlike Americans). As a result, many Europeans had already adapted (somewhat): the most popular cars here are cars that use little fuel per kilometer. We also often travel to work with several colleagues in one car in an attempt to save money.

But one can only adapt for so long and in so far; at a certain moment, one cannot do things much differently anymore. In the end, one will always need to travel, one will always need to work… and one will always use energy for other purposes.

The result? People are worried… and angry:

Now the surge in the price of oil has many Europeans asking how much leaner they can become. Indeed, protests broke out across the Continent this week when irate port workers clashed with riot police in Marseille and truck drivers stopped traffic in London to demand government fuel rebates.

On Thursday, the protests spread to truck drivers in the Netherlands and French farmers blocked the entrance to oil depots.

Less audible, but no less angry, are French nurses fretting about the cost of using their cars to make home visits, Italian travel agents worried about fuelling tour buses and families from Madrid to Moscow who are leaving their cars at home or reducing spending in other areas.

European governments, already under pressure from slowing economic growth and falling tax revenue, are increasingly concerned that the anger could grow. On Tuesday, faced with furious truck drivers, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France called for the European Union to cap fuel taxes – a proposal immediately rejected by other countries that count on the income to bolster their budgets.

The problem in Europe is that the upsurge has come faster and harder than in previous cycles. The cost of a litre of unleaded petrol in Britain has risen 17 per cent in 12 months, 15 per cent in Austria and 8 per cent in France.

So what are our politicians doing?

 The political response has not been encouraging so far. The French President Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed a Europe-wide cap on fuel VAT. Labour MPs, desperate to hang on to their seats beyond the next election, are demanding a suspension of the planned 2p rise in fuel duty and the new, more environmentally progressive, vehicle excise duties.

And our Government, despite Mr Brown’s grasp of the scale of the problem, has resorted to impotent posturing: demanding that Opec, the oil-producing cartel, increase production and handing out permits for more oil drilling in Britain’s inexorably declining North Sea fields. Meanwhile, the main thrust of yesterday’s “fuel poverty” alleviation proposals was to continue subsidising home heating.

As the article at the Independent puts it:

Subsidies and tax cuts will only put off the pain that needs to be endured if we are to reconfigure our economies to run on renewable energy. Governments around the world ought to be explaining to their citizens that the era of cheap fuel is over. The present spike might (indeed probably will) subside, but global demand will not fall back significantly, nor will pressures on supply. Put simply, the world’s oil is running low just as more countries desire it.

This means we need to begin the long overdue task of breaking our reliance on the power source of fossil fuels. Governments and businesses need to invest heavily in sustainable energy sources, such as wind turbines, solar and wave power. And there must be a concerted effort from all of us to conserve energy. The transition must be carefully and sensitively managed, of course. In terms of domestic heating costs, this means governments (especially those in colder nations) heavily subsidising home insulation, energy conservation and micro-generation schemes. And some developing world governments with high food prices (one of the consequences of higher energy costs) will need help from richer countries to ensure that their people do not starve.

Quite right (although I do believe that the government should most certainly cut taxes on fuel a bit; it’s so high in Europe, it equals theft). The governments should educated their population, and we should – all together – work on a project which would enable us to become less dependent on fossil fuels and, as a result, on Middle Eastern countries.

Sadly, we have not yet had this discussion in Europe, or at least not in the Netherlands. In America, energy independence (or, this is more likely; less dependent on fossil fuels and other countries), etc. has been part of the political debate for months already. Everybody knows about it, everybody has an opinion about it.

In Europe that is not the case. As usual, our politicians are not leading but following, and the people are not looking forward more than three days at a time.