--- title: Sweden Becomes First E.U. Member to Recognize the State of Palestine description: The decision, which has drawn the ire of Israel, comes unexpectedly early canonical: https://time.com/3547418/sweden-becomes-the-first-e-u-member-to-recognize-the-state-of-palestine/ author: Per Liljas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-30T06:09:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:06:30.955Z article:section: World og:title: Sweden Becomes First E.U. Member to Recognize the State of Palestine og:description: The decision, which has drawn the ire of Israel, comes unexpectedly early og:url: https://time.com/3547418/sweden-becomes-the-first-e-u-member-to-recognize-the-state-of-palestine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sweden Becomes First E.U. Member to Recognize the State of Palestine twitter:description: The decision, which has drawn the ire of Israel, comes unexpectedly early twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Sweden Becomes the First E.U. Member to Recognize a Palestinian State by [Per Liljas](/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Oct 30, 2014 6:09 AM CUT by [Per Liljas](/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Oct 30, 2014 6:09 AM CUT The Swedish government [became](http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.623505 "undefined") the first E.U. member to officially recognize a Palestinian state on Thursday. Newly elected Prime Minister Stefan Lofven first announced the move at his swearing-in ceremony on Oct. 3, but he was not expected to follow through so soon, _Haaretz_ reports. “Some will claim that today’s decision comes too early. I’m rather afraid it’s too late,” [writes](http://www.dn.se/debatt/darfor-erkanner-sverige-i-dag-staten-palestina/ "undefined") Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom in the Swedish daily _Dagens Nyheter_. “The past year, we’ve seen how the peace negotiations once again have halted, how decisions on new settlements on occupied Palestinian land have obstructed a two-state solution and how violence has returned to Gaza.” Wallstrom writes that the recognition aims to support moderate forces among the Palestinians, make future negotiations more equal and give young Palestinians hope of a peaceful solution to the conflict. Israel has publicly protested the move, which some [believe](http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Israel-protests-Swedens-intent-to-recognize-Palestine-378161 "undefined") is feeding unrealistic Palestinian expectations of working out a resolution with the international community but without involving Israel, writes the Jerusalem _Post._ A total of 134 other countries recognized Palestine before Sweden. Hungary, Poland and Slovakia all did so before joining the E.U. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3547418/sweden-becomes-the-first-e-u-member-to-recognize-the-state-of-palestine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3547418/sweden-becomes-the-first-e-u-member-to-recognize-the-state-of-palestine/"},"headline":"Sweden Becomes the First E.U. Member to Recognize a Palestinian State","datePublished":"2014-10-30T06:09:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:06:30.955Z","description":"The decision, which has drawn the ire of Israel, comes unexpectedly early","url":"https://time.com/3547418/sweden-becomes-the-first-e-u-member-to-recognize-the-state-of-palestine/","keywords":["sweden","Israel","Gaza and the West Bank"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Per Liljas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/per-liljas/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/sweden/","name":"sweden"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3547418/sweden-becomes-the-first-e-u-member-to-recognize-the-state-of-palestine/","name":"Sweden Becomes the First E.U. Member to Recognize a Palestinian State"}}]}] ```