Spain has vetoed the draft text of a joint declaration planned for publication during the summit in Sofia, writes Spanish El Pais, Serbian media reports.
As stated, the reason is “not an EU foreign policy”, rather the aim is that “the name and signature of Mariano Rajoy not to be found in the same document, on the same level as the leader of Kosovo”, reports Serbian media.
According to the Spanish daily, this was confirmed by several diplomatic sources, and added that Rajoy would most likely leave Sofia and the summit before the meeting began with the highest representatives of Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, FYROM, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo.
The Spanish prime minister will be present only a day earlier, during a working dinner together with other leaders of EU member states, reports Serbian media, quoting the Spanish newspapers.
Media recalls that Rajoy said earlier that it was troubling that Brussels was simultaneously talking about enlargement and states that were not recognized.
“This worries us,” Rajoy said.
According to Euraktiv, Rajoy said to his Bulgarian counterpart, Boyko Borisov, whose country presides over the EU, that he “will have problems with the Balkan summit in Sofia”, and that he “has threatened not to come because of Kosovo”.
The media reminds that the Spain, at the beginning of the year, has opposed certain determinants in the EU enlargement strategy, because Kosovo was placed on the same level as the former Yugoslav republics, and Albania.
Spain has submitted a letter in the form of a “non-pepper” before adoption of an enlargement strategy in the Western Balkans, in which “it stops” the mentioning of Kosovo in that context, but also the WB6, or “Balkan Six”, because Kosovo was treated as a state.
Kosovo’s independence is not recognized by five EU members – Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia and Romania.
