Spain could unilaterally recognise Palestinian statehood ‘within weeks’

Spain’s government, led by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D), will decide in the coming weeks whether to recognise Palestine as a state, regardless of whether other EU countries join Madrid in this decision, official sources told Euractiv’s partner EFE on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Sánchez held a series of bilateral meetings in Brussels with other European leaders to analyse the situation in the Middle East, explain Madrid’s position, and coordinate actions.

The same sources said that regardless of whether other EU countries join Spain’s position of recognising Palestinian statehood, the Spanish government has already made a political decision and will proceed with this bold step, as Sánchez said recently, before the end of the current six-month period.

The move, backed by the Spanish parliament in 2014 and, according to many recent surveys, has strong backing amongst the Spanish population, “will be adopted in weeks rather than months,” as the sources told EFE on Thursday.

Recently, Sánchez toured several EU countries to promote the recognition of Palestinian statehood and, on Wednesday, in Brussels, on the margins of the EU-27 summit, the Spanish prime minister met with his counterparts from Malta, Robert Abela, and Luxembourg, Luc Frieden.

With Abela, there was already an agreement on the recognition of Palestine in place, as they ratified the commitment signed by Spain, Malta, Slovenia, and Ireland on 22 March.

However, the agreement did not specify whether they would take the step together or when, as they limited themselves to stressing that it would be done at the appropriate time.

The situation is different with Luxembourg, as there is more internal division on the issue, and the meeting was merely an exchange of views.

Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden are the nine EU member states currently recognising the Palestinian state.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es; José Miguel Blanco | EFE)

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