The Portuguese authorities expressed their desire to officially recognize the State of Palestine, but they want to achieve maximum consensus and involve the largest possible number of countries in decision-making among European Union countries.

This was reported by the Portuguese Lusa agency, citing a source in the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who said that Portugal is conducting consultations with various countries in order to achieve “the greatest possible consensus” and involve the largest possible number of countries in decision-making.

According to the source, solving this problem is a “vital issue,” and the position of the country’s government on the issue of recognizing Palestine was announced earlier by Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel, which is consistent with the position of the former Foreign Minister.

The State of Palestine was recognized by 9 member states of the European Union, while 8 other countries took this step in 1988, before joining the European Union (Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia), and Sweden took the same decision in 2014.