The Council of the European Union has accepted the Spanish proposal to hold a peace conference in about six months on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Friday.

Madrid holds the EU Council’s rotating presidency until the end of this year.

In a meeting of the bloc’s 27 governments, Thursday, Spain had pressed for the EU to demand an immediate ceasefire, but the language was opposed by some countries, Sanchez told a news conference in Brussels.

He said that instead, the member states agreed to call for “humanitarian pauses” and the opening of aid corridors for the Gaza civilians, as a way to reach a consensus.

In exchange for the compromise, the bloc accepted Madrid’s peace conference proposal, which includes a renewed push for the two-state solution to the conflict, Sanchez said

In another notable shift triggered by growing protests from the European public against Israeli attacks on civilians in Gaza, French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking after the European Union summit in Brussels, said several European countries are looking to build up an “humanitarian coalition” regarding Gaza and talks were being held with Cyprus and Greece over this.

“Cyprus could serve as a base for humanitarian operations,” Macron said on Friday.

Macron had called in recent days for the creation of  an international coalition against Hamas akin to the international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group. His proposal received few takers.