Spain would be prepared to recognise Kosovo if it clinched a deal with Serbia, Madrid has said, in the first positive signal of its kind since EU-brokered talks resumed.
“Our position is not obstructionist. It is, on the contrary, a constructive one,” the Spanish foreign ministry told EUobserver.
Spain is one of five EU states that do not recognise Kosovo’s independence, alongside Slovakia, Cyprus, Romania, and Greece.
Spain has separatist issues with both the Basque Country and Catalonia, whose leader, Carles Puigdemont, declared the region’s independence last October before fleeing into exile. Spain has since arrested a number of Catalan leaders but the standoff over Catalonia’s future continues.
Official Pristina says Kosovo and Catalonia do not have anything in common and establishing any analogy is senseless.
Kosovo was born from the disintegration of the Yugoslavia Federation, in a bloody process of everyone against everyone but Serbia continues to reject its statehood which is.part of the dialogue between the two countries in Brussels and Washington.
Spain is considered as one of the most ‘dogmatic’ non-recognisers of Kosovo./argumentum.al
