French motorists have been crossing the border into Spain to fill up their cars, drawn by fuel prices as much as 50 centimes a litre cheaper than in France, according to a report broadcast by French television network TF1.
The two countries share a border that runs largely through the Pyrenees mountains, from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean Sea.
At one Spanish filling station located just 500 metres from the French border, drivers were seen queueing to fill their tanks, the report showed.
TF1 is one of France's largest private broadcasters, and its lunchtime news programme, the JT 13H, is broadcast on Saturdays and Sundays and is among the country's most-watched bulletins.
Fuel tax debate divides France and its neighbours
The question of lowering taxes on fuel has become a central issue in French political debate, but the government has refused to act, citing the country's very difficult budgetary situation, TF1 reported.
France's public finances have been under sustained strain in recent years, with the government seeking to rein in its budget deficit rather than expand it, a backdrop that has repeatedly complicated proposals to cut fuel taxes.
Some of France's European neighbours have taken a different approach. Spain is among the countries that have chosen to cut fuel taxes, producing large gaps in the price per litre on either side of the border, according to the report. That difference, TF1 said, has not gone unnoticed by French drivers, some of whom now travel specifically to Spanish service stations to fill up.
Why fuel prices vary across the European Union
Fuel prices differ widely across the European Union because each member state sets its own excise duties and value added tax on petrol and diesel, on top of the wholesale cost of the fuel itself. Those national tax choices, rather than the price of crude oil, are usually what explain the sharpest differences at the pump between neighbouring countries.
In France, fuel taxation includes a domestic tax on the consumption of energy products, generally known by its French acronym TICPE, as well as standard value added tax, both of which make up a significant share of the price drivers pay at the pump.
Cross-border fuel shopping is a familiar pattern elsewhere in Europe too, with motorists in countries such as Luxembourg, Germany and Poland long known to seek out lower-taxed fuel just over national borders, a habit that tends to intensify whenever domestic prices rise.
The report on the price gap aired as part of TF1's Saturday lunchtime news bulletin on 12 September 2026, under a headline describing the price difference as notable and French motorists as rushing to Spanish pumps with more favourable taxation.
