The New Democracy party of outgoing Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis came out ahead in the Greek parliamentary elections on 21 May with 40.79% of the vote, ahead of Alexis Tsipras' radical left SYRIZA (20.07%), the Panhellenic Socialist Movement-Movement for Change (PASOK-KINAL, 11.46%) and 41 seats, and the Communist Party (7.23%). With 146 seats out of 300 in parliament, New Democracy does not have a majority, and a new election could be held by early July at the latest.

Europe has changed... This is what the "Schuman Report on Europe, the State of the Union 2023" shows, as it analyses the profound changes that have occurred in Europe, accelerated by the shock of the war in Ukraine. This 17th edition published by Marie B. includes 19 contributions from eminent personalities, 30 original maps and a complete set of commented statistics. The book is available in French in print and digital format, and in English in digital format. Order your copy now!

On 16 May, Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic announced that international suppliers had responded to the first joint request for 11.6 billion cubic metres of gas and were ready to supply a total volume of over 13.4 billion cubic metres. A second tender is expected to be launched in June and three more will follow before the end of the year.

The Council confirmed on 22 May that the next European Parliament elections will take place from 6 to 9 June 2024. Parliament President Roberta Metsola called on European citizens to participate in "Europe's biggest democratic exercise".

Eurozone finance ministers met on 15 May in Brussels. They discussed the challenges facing businesses and how to move forward with the capital markets union. They also discussed the recent G7 meeting, the banking union and the state of play of the digital euro project.

The EU and India held the first meeting of the Trade and Technology Council launched in February in Brussels on 16 May. The two partners committed to seeking cooperation on artificial intelligence and coordinating their policies on semiconductors. Enhanced EU-India cooperation is also expected around green or clean energy technologies and resilience of value chains.

On 17 May, the Court of Justice ruled that where a trader fails to inform the consumer of his right of withdrawal and the latter exercises it after the performance of an off-premises service contract, the consumer is exempt from any obligation to pay for the services provided in performance of that contract. A German court had referred a dispute to the Court concerning payment for the renovation of a private individual's electrical installation.

In the first 4 months of 2023, the number of illegal border crossings through the central Mediterranean into the European Union quadrupled compared to the first 4 months of 2022, according to estimates published on 15 May by Frontex. In total, across all borders, around 80,000 illegal border crossings were counted, almost 30% more than the previous year.

On 8 and 16 May, the IMF and OECD published their economic outlook for Germany. The two institutions note the resilience of the economy in 2022 despite rising energy prices. They forecast zero growth in 2023 and then 1% to 2% between 2024 and 2026. The OECD believes that a return to strong and sustainable growth will require targeted investments and reforms to accelerate the green and digital transformation of the economy. According to the IMF, the short-term priority is to support disinflation with a tightening of fiscal policy in 2023.

On 22 May, former EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel reached an agreement between her party, GERB (centre-right), and the pro-European coalition uniting the parties "Let's continue the change" and "Democratic Bulgaria", to form a government in Bulgaria. According to the agreement, which is expected to last 18 months, the government will be led for the first 9 months by Nikolai Denkov, representative of the coalition, and then by Mariya Gabriel for the following 9 months. Gabriel resigned on 15 May from her position as European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. Her responsibilities are divided between Margrethe Vestager for innovation and research, and Margaritis Schinas for education, culture and youth

On 16 May, 16 Member States (Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Italy) met in Paris and signed a joint declaration in favour of a European action plan to develop nuclear cooperation. It estimates that by 2050 nuclear energy could provide up to 150 GW of electricity through the continued operation of existing facilities and the construction of 30 to 45 new reactors.

On 22 May, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined the Meta Group €1.2 billion for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The US group had transferred personal data of millions of European Facebook users to the US without sufficiently protecting them from US data surveillance practices. Meta must transfer Facebook's European user data stored since 2020 back to the EU, until a new agreement on data flows between the EU and the US has been reached.

On 17 May, the Commission presented a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing a framework for regulatory cooperation in the field of financial services with the UK. This MoU now needs to be formally approved by the Council, to be signed by the Commission on behalf of the Union. It must also be signed by the UK.

On 15 May, Slovak President Zuzana Caputova appointed a caretaker government of 14 ministers headed by Ludovit Odor, former deputy governor of the Central Bank. The previous government led by Eduard Heger resigned on 7 May. Ludovit Odor said he will ensure that the state functions properly until the parliamentary elections on 30 September.

On 15 May, the Council approved the signing of an agreement with Montenegro to carry out joint border management operations with the European Border Guard and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). The Parliament must now approve the agreement before the Council can finalise it.

On 17 May, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that Russia had announced that it would continue its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative for another 60 days. He added that some issues remained unresolved and that representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN would continue discussions. He also called for a comprehensive agreement between the three countries to improve, develop and expand the Initiative.

The Council of Europe announced on 17 May at the summit of its member heads of state and government in Reykjavik the establishment of a register of damage caused by the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Forty-four Member States have announced that they will participate in the register, which will be established for an initial period of 3 years.

According to a Eurostat estimate published on 17 May, inflation in the euro area was 7% in April 2023, compared with 6.9% in March, an increase of 0.1 percentage points. In the European Union, it was 8.1% in April compared to 8.3% in March, a decrease of 0.2 points.

On 16 May, the Commission presented the second annual report on the situation in the Schengen area. The report recalls several important changes in 2022 and 2023. Since March 2022, a new Schengen Council convenes the ministers of the Schengen area. The entry of Croatia on 1 January 2023 is the first enlargement in 10 years. Finally, in March 2023, the Commission introduced the first European border management strategy.

From 25 to 28 May, the 6th annual Lisbon Contemporary Art Fair will be held. For the occasion, 86 galleries and nearly 470 artists from 23 countries will exhibit their creations in various fields.

From 19 to 21 May, the G7 heads of state met in Hiroshima, with the leaders of India, Brazil, Indonesia and Ukraine also in attendance. The G7 reaffirmed the need to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation processes, as well as a global strategy to fight for global energy and food security. It announced up to $600 billion for quality infrastructure through the Global Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GIIP). The leaders warned China against certain practices of economic coercion and interference in the affairs of other countries.