Palestine, the EU’s slow progress towards state recognition

Brussels – Eleven out of 27. This is the tally of the European Union member states that have come out in favour of recognising Palestine as a state. Numbers that give the dimension of the complexity of the Arab-Israeli question, which, almost 80 years later—that is, since 1948, when the international community decided to create Israel—continues to divide. 

For the European Union, the issue of the recognition of the Palestinian state is practically new. It is true that seven of the 11 member states that now recognise Palestine already did so in 1988, but at that time, they were all non-European countries. The first EU member state as such to break this taboo was Sweden, which in 2013 became the eighth country to openly side with the Palestinians, and the first from within the twelve-star club. 

Today’s announcements made by France and Malta to join the list project the EU into a new dimension, one of division, certainly, but with a reversing trend: in September 2025, when Malta and France will make their decision official, the EU states recognising Palestine will become 13 out of 27. One more political step and Palestine will gain the support of the majority of EU member states.

Recognition of the Palestinian state in the EU, the evolution

• – 1988: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary (7)
• – 2013: Sweden (8) 
• – 2024: Spain, Slovenia, Ireland (11)
• – 2025: France and Malta (13)