Brussels did not provide convincing explanation, and I do not see how membership to the EU could influence international assessment of the declaration of independence, stated Serbian Academic and International Law Professor, Tibor Vardi to Politika daily.
The parallel between Catalonia and Kosovo is not simple, but it is also not without grounds, said Vardi, commenting on the stance of the European Commission saying Catalonia and Kosovo are incomparable, because Spain is an EU member state.
If the citizens of Quebec of Scotland would opt for independence through referendum, that would be one option allowed by the Constitutions. The Constitutions of Spain and Serbia do not recognize such possibility, and this is where cases of Catalonia and Kosovo are identical.
The fact that Spain (and for now Catalonia) is within the EU is not relevant when it comes to the declaration of independence. Being a member of the EU, has, of course, many legal consequences, but I do not see how membership to the EU could influence international assessment of the declaration of independence, Vardi further said.
Asked to comment on the latest stance of Brussels, that the EU in teh case of Spain would follow “Prodi Doctrine” stipulating that the EU does not involve in internal constitutional matters of its members, while in case of Kosovo, the Ministerial Council conclusions from 17 March 2008, said that Kosovo is “a sui generis case,” Tibor Vardi said it is not a convincing explanation.
“It is beyond any doubt, that in some matters the EU has authorities that apply to the entire union, while in some other cases the EU lets member states to make their own decisions, but basically authorities of the member states are wider than those of the union.
The issue of Catalonia is of crucial political significance for the EU. Does EU have legal instruments in some way to try to influence the outcome of the decision of Catalonia? Most probably it does not have them. But, even to a lesser extent it has them when it comes to Kosovo case. There is of course political influence that cannot be ignored”.
Vardi further added that in issues of political and strategic importance, sadly the international law does not have a primary role.
Asked to comment on so-called remedial secessions, when the entity has the right to self-determination, if there were massive violations of human rights, Vardi said it should be more precisely defined what does massive violation of human rights mean.
However, the question remains if that principle is also consistently applied. For example, in the last decades, there was much more brutality and sufferings in Kurdistan, but he does not see that world powers would support the referendum and independence of Kurdistan because of that.
Vardi also added that Kosovo secession was not based on legal but rather on political basis, more respective on relations of power. The most probably it will be the same in Catalonia.
In a separate statement to Politika, Tibor Vardi said that following the referendum in Catalonia, he expects slightly higher prudence when it comes to further recognitions of Kosovo, but does not expect countries would re-consider their decisions to recognize Kosovo.
However, due to parallel with Catalonia, there would be more understanding of Serbia’s position, Politika daily reported.
