On January 6, members of the Government of Kosovo began the celebration, which Spain began to celebrate on social networks. Accept Kosovo passports These were the first public news of the change of heart of the Spanish Government, which had refused to accept them seven months earlier. Serbian media began calling the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to confirm the news reported by El Periódico de Cataluña from the Prensa Ibérica group, which is the same publishing company as this newspaper. The document, published in the European Commission’s Office for Migration and Home Affairs, confirmed that Spain recognized the documents.
Serbian Manager He asked for an explanation from Spanish diplomacy After a development that took them by surprise, this newspaper learned from sources familiar with the bilateral situation. According to the same sources, the statements made satisfied Belgrade. After all, they point out that there are not many “friendly” countries in the country, like Spain, that do not recognize Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence in 2008.
Contacted by this newspaper, the Serbian Embassy in Spain and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belgrade did not want to make a statement on the issue.
People’s Party He criticized the decision’s lack of transparencyHe contrasted this with the dullness of the move into Western Sahara to please Morocco. And he requested the presence of Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares to explain whether this was a concession to the Government’s pro-independence partners who favored recognition of Kosovo.
Problems in the Schengen area
Pedro Sánchez’s administration argues that Spain cannot be left alone in the European Union, as four other countries that do not recognize Kosovo (Slovakia, Greece, Romania and Cyprus) have made a similar decision. He emphasizes that accepting this travel procedure is a matter of utmost practicality and that it in no way implies recognition of the independence of the region, which Serbia continues to consider as a unilaterally separated territory.
Sources consulted suggest that the decision eliminates a difficult problem to solve. What should the Police do if a Kosovo citizen enters the EU Schengen area with his passport and moves to Spain with the same travel document? Fire him? To where? Technically, he did not have a valid travel document until the change of duty. Even if it were accepted at the land borders or airports of Germany or France, it had no value in Spain.
Kosovo Drinking and Driving
After the war between Kosovo and Serbia (from February 1998 to June 1999), the region officially became an autonomous province of Serbia administered by the UN. In 2008, the Kosovo parliament unilaterally declared independence after ten years of de facto self-government.
The Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero refused to recognize the new country, although many of its partners, from the United States to France and Germany, did. The managers of Mariano Rajoy and Pedro Sánchez did not change their positions. Nobody wants to make a recognition that could set a precedent for the Catalan independence movement.
In total, 102 of 193 United Nations countries recognized the country’s independence; the last one is Israel, in 2020.
Albares’ view
The move caused concerns in the opposition due to the indirect relationship between the recognition of Kosovo and the Catalan question, especially after the unilateral declaration and the adoption of the amnesty law for Catalans who took part in the 1 October referendum.
PP demanded that the Minister of Foreign Affairs appear before the Congress of Deputies. Popular ones are wondering whether this change of position took place because “he was pressured or conditioned by Spain’s coalition partners to break the stance he has maintained since 2008”, according to documents collected by Europa Press, which asked to be included in the hearing.
The PP criticizes that “once again”, as with the support for Morocco’s Western Sahara plan, the Sánchez Government has changed its traditional position and that the Spaniards have had to learn about this through the media and social networks by “revealing their contempt for the Parliament.”
Spanish exception
In April 2023, the European Commission announced the “Visa liberalization agreement for Kosovo”. Accordingly, EU countries allowed approximately two million Kosovo citizens to travel to the EU without a visa for a maximum of 90 days in 180-day periods.
Kosovo is a potential candidate for EU membership and the European Commission has confirmed that the country meets the criteria in the visa-free road map. Kosovars are the only citizens of the Western Balkan region. They still haven’t been able to enjoy visa-free travel For short stays in the Schengen area.
The EU later made an exception for Spain and announced that Spain would be the only country in the Schengen area that did not apply the exemption. Later, during his visit to Berlin on 21 April, José Manuel Albares explained this exception: “Spain has a policy of not recognizing Kosovo and Causes passports not to be recognized Kosovars, whom we constantly apply. “In our case, we do not recognize passports,” he said when asked about the situation of Greece and Slovakia, countries that do not, but accept Kosovo travel documents.
Position change
What has changed since then? “My statement described a situation that was true at the time […] Seven months have passed since then and Spain needs to adapt like other unrecognized states“, the minister told El Periódico de España of the Prensa Ibérica group during an interview last Friday. “That’s why we started accepting Kosovo passports.”
The Minister points to this as the underlying reason why the Kosovo issue does not fit into the Western Balkans. “This region participates in the European Union summits together with the Western Balkans. We can’t pretend it doesn’t exist. However This does not mean that we recognize their sovereignty.“As stated in the legal advice of Spain and all states that do not recognize the European Union.”
Albares denies this is a first step towards some kind of official recognition or normalization. He accuses the People’s Party of spreading fake news on this issue: “I would ask the People’s Party to stop publishing a hoax that it knows is fake.” “Once again, neither Kosovo nor its sovereignty is recognized,” he concludes, but recalls that Spain “will never obstruct the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina or the rapprochement between Pristina and the European Union.”