Nabil Shaath, a member of the Central Committee of Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, is calling on France and other countries in the European Union to immediately recognize the "State of Palestine" and to impose significant sanctions on Israel in order to bring an end to the "occupation".
Speaking at a meeting with a delegation from the European Commission, Shaath said that the Palestinian Authority accepts in principle the recently announced French initiative to coax Israel and the PA back to peace talks through an international peace conference.
In December of 2014, Portugal's parliament  adopted a resolution calling on the government to recognize a Palestinian state, though Portugal's Foreign Minister Rui Machete said after the vote the government "will choose the moment best suited" to recognize the Palestinian state.