EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis has said that attacks by Houthi rebels on container ships in the Red Sea are not yet affecting the price of energy or goods in Europe.
But transport costs are rising, Dombrovskis said on Tuesday after an informal meeting of EU trade ministers in Brussels.
The reason is that shipping companies are diverting their ships to Africa's Cape of Good Hope, a longer journey. The Red Sea route is the shortest between Asia and Europe.
Traffic in the Red Sea recently fell by 22% within a month and is likely to continue to decline.
"The broader economic impact, the impact on consumer prices and the EU economy in general will depend greatly on the duration of this crisis," Dombrovskis explained.
It was now important to discuss measures to protect merchant shipping in the Red Sea, the EU trade commissioner added.
Following an EU agreement in principle, a military operation to secure commercial shipping in the Red Sea is to begin next month and help end attacks on ships by the militant Islamist Houthis from Yemen.
The Houthi rebels have been shelling ships in a bid to force an end to Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, which followed the unprecedented massacre by the Islamist Hamas on Israel on October 7.
The EU operation will be independent of the ongoing operation launched by the United States and the United Kingdom, backed by a few other countries, to attack Houthi bases lobbing missiles at merchant ships.
