TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has met with the leaders of Malta, Slovenia and Spain on the margins of the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, which began yesterday and continues today, where they discussed a shared position on Palestinian statehood. 

In a joint statement, Varadkar, Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob and Spanish President Pedro Sánchez said they had shared their views on the situation in Gaza and the Middle East. 

One of the topics of discussion was recognising  Palestinian statehood, which the leaders said they would do “when it can make a positive contribution and the circumstances are right”. 

The Irish Government has come under rolling pressure from opposition parties and pro-Palestinian activists to recognise the State of Palestine but Government leaders have repeatedly said they want to do it alongside other EU states. 

In February, Varadkar said that “a number of EU states acting together to recognise Palestine could enable a more equal negotiation to happen, after the war has ended in Gaza, in around a two state solution”. 

A two-state solution was also discussed by the leaders on the sidelines of the summit. 

“We are agreed that the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability in the region is through implementation of a two-state solution, with Israeli and Palestinian States living side-by-side, in peace and security,” they said. 

Most EU member states do not recognise Palestine, with the exceptions found across Eastern Europe in countries like Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Sweden is the most recent European state to do so.

Western European and Anglosphere countries are outliers on the world stage in this regard. 139 of the UN’s 193 member states recognise Palestine as a state, 72%.