TIRANA, Oct. 4 – Catalonia’s potential declaration of independence has nothing to do with Kosovo and no parallels should be drawn, Albanian Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Ditmir Bushati said this week.
As in the case with Crimea’s annexation, comparison is unfounded, Bushati said.
“The decision of the International Court of Justice on Kosovo has closed any further discussion from the international law’s perspective,” Bushati said.
Spain’s Catalonia region, which held an independence referendum Sunday amid a violent crackdown by federal police, could declare independence late this week or early next week, according to its leaders. Madrid sees such moves as illegal, and the European Union has said the quarrel is an interior issue of Spain.
Partly due to its own separatist concerns, Spain is one of the few Western countries that has refused to recognized the independence of Kosovo.
However, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused the European Union of using double standards by refusing to accept the Catalan independence referendum while largely welcoming a separate Kosovo.
“We support Spain, it is our friendly country,” said Vucic. “But the European Commission responded in a different way [over Kosovo] and it was against my people and my state.”
Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 has been accepted by a majority of UN member states, Washington and most EU states, but rejected by Belgrade and its allies.
“Kosovo gained independence without even holding a referendum but Catalonia … cannot get anything like that,” Vucic said. “Sometimes, we, the Serbs, are asking ourselves why we should have been the victim of double standards?”
Serbia’s position on Kosovo has been one of the main stumbling blocks in its own bid to join the European Union.
