Fuel and lubricant prices for personal transport across the EU were 20.7% higher in May 2026 than a year earlier.
The increase followed year-on-year rises of 12.9% in March 2026 and 20.8% in April, compared with the same months in 2025, Eurostat said.
Prices had generally been falling up to February 2026 in the EU average and most member states.
All EU countries recorded higher fuel and lubricant prices in May 2026 compared with May 2025.
The biggest increases were in Bulgaria (33.9%), Luxembourg (32.2%), Lithuania (30.8%) and Romania (30.4%), while the smallest rise was in Hungary (3.5%).
In the rest of the bloc, annual increases ranged from 12.7% in Poland to 29.2% in France.
Diesel down month on month, petrol up slightly
Diesel prices across the EU were 29.0% higher in May 2026 than a year earlier, while petrol prices were up 16.2% over the same period, Eurostat said.
Compared with April 2026, diesel prices fell by 5.8% across the EU, while petrol prices edged up by 0.8%.
Diesel prices increased between April and May only in Romania (1.6%) and fell everywhere else, with the largest drops in Germany (11.9%), Greece (8.5%), Estonia (8.4%) and Ireland (8.1%).
For petrol, 23 EU countries recorded price increases from April to May, ranging from 6.9% in Italy to 0.1% in Croatia and Hungary, while Germany (5.6%), Ireland (2.0%) and Sweden (0.7%) saw decreases.
