Spain, Malta, Slovenia and Ireland announced today that they are ready to recognize Palestine as a state

per Lusa, March 22, 2024

PUB

Spain, Malta, Slovenia and Ireland announced today that they are ready to recognize the State of Palestine and insisted that an “immediate ceasefire” is necessary, going further than the European Council.

“We discussed our readiness to jointly recognize Palestine”, says a joint statement from the prime ministers of the four countries, to which Lusa had access. In a press conference following the meeting of heads of state and government, the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, avoided setting deadlines, ensuring that this group of countries will have to “evaluate carefully” when to take the step towards recognizing Palestine and that the assessment will be made “as some of the elements are renewed” of the crisis triggered after the attacks by the Islamist movement Hamas against Israel, on October 7th.

It is now a matter of “political assessment” and taking into account when it is time to recognize the Palestinian state “to help the peace process, to help put an end to violence and establish a lasting peace with mutual recognition”, he said.

“This is the moment when we have to decide, when we contribute to a solution”, summarized the Spanish Prime Minister.
The tightening of the EU’s common position to call for “an immediate humanitarian pause that leads to a lasting ceasefire” puts the European bloc in a “position of greater legitimacy” for different member states to take the initiative, said Sánchez .

In this sense, he added that this decision must be a “decisive” episode in resolving the crisis.
The President of the Government stressed that there must be “mutual recognition”, assuming that the Arab countries that do not yet recognize Israel do so, and the same “of the West in relation to the Palestinian State”.

Sánchez highlighted that more than 130 countries in the world already recognize Palestine, so it is essentially a Western and “especially European Union” issue.
Currently, nine EU Member States recognize Palestine: Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia took the step in 1988, before joining the EU, while Sweden did so alone in 2014, fulfilling a electoral promise of the Social Democrats.

For Portugal, the recognition of the State of Palestine “is something that must happen”, but in coordination with “some close partners” and at a “moment with consequences for peace”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho, told Lusa. last November.

In December 2014, the Portuguese parliament approved, with the votes of the PSD, PS and CDS-PP, a draft resolution of the then majority that supported the Government led by Pedro Passos Coelho and the socialist bench, urging the executive to “recognize, in coordination with the European Union, the State of Palestine as an independent and sovereign State, in accordance with the principles established by international law”.