Global Geo-political Series: Serbia points to EU double standard over Catalonia referendum

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused the European Union of hypocrisy and double standard over its response to Catalonia referendum where violence triggered by Madrid via police force resulted in 893 injuries. Catalonia’s regional government announced that more than 90 percent of the voters in the referendum voted in favour of a separate state but the European Union didn’t recognize the referendum nor did the Spanish government or its constitutional court. Mr. Vucic asked why the independence of Kosovo from Serbia which together formed Yugoslavia was recognized without a referendum and Catalonia’ is not, “How did you proclaim the secession of Kosovo to be legal, even without a referendum, and how did 22 European Union countries legalize this secession, while destroying European law and the foundations of European law, on which the European policy and EU policy are based?....... The question every citizen of Serbia has for the European Union today is: How come that in the case of Catalonia the referendum on independence is not valid, while in the case of Kosovo secession is allowed even without a referendum". The largely ethnic-Albanian province of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after a war in 1999 which saw the US and its NATO allies intervene on behalf of Albanian rebels against the government of what was then Yugoslavia.

After the annexation of Crimea, Russia also pointed to Kosovo’s independence and accused the United States and the European Union of double standards. Vladimir Putin told Russian parliament in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea, “Our western partners created the Kosovo precedent with their own hands. In a situation absolutely the same as the one in Crimea they recognized Kosovo’s secession from Serbia legitimate while arguing that no permission from a country’s central authority for a unilateral declaration of independence is necessary”.

Catalonia’s regional government has said that it would appeal in international courts over the decision made by its citizens and take up legal action against violence incited by the Spanish government.