In 2013 the Swedish Parliament upgraded the status of the Palestinian representative office in the country to full embassy status. On 3 October 2014, new Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven used his inaugural address in parliament to announce that Sweden would recognise the state of Palestine. The official decision to do so was made on 30 October, making Sweden the first EU member state outside of the former communist bloc to recognise the state of Palestine. Most of the EU's 27 member states have refrained from recognising Palestinian statehood and those that do—such as Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia—did so before accession. In February 2015, Mahmoud Abbas visited Sweden to open the new embassy. Sweden’s Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven said "According to our view, Palestine is from now on a state."