The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers authorized this past Tuesday the signing of the agreement between the Governments of Spain and Russia on the mutual recognition of studies, qualifications and academic degrees.
The current agreement between Madrid and Moscow on equivalence and mutual recognition of academic certificates and degrees was signed on October 26, 1990, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) still existed.
Therefore, the 1990 agreement will be repealed as of the date of entry into force of this new agreement, which has been agreed upon by the educational authorities of both countries after a long negotiation process whose main objective was to establish flexible mechanisms for the mutual recognition of studies, qualifications and academic degrees.
The 1990 agreement was signed in Madrid by the then Spanish and Soviet Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Francisco Fernández Ordóñez and Eduard Shevernadze (President of Georgia between 1995 and 2003). That treaty entered into force on May 23, 1991, seven months before the disappearance of the USSR as a subject of international law. The Russian Federation announced in January 1992, in a note verbale addressed to all diplomatic representations in Moscow and to the Secretary General of the United Nations, that it would continue to “exercise the rights and fulfill the commitments deriving from the international treaties signed by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”.
The new agreement authorized this week, whose duration will be five years – after which it will be tacitly extended for equal periods – will enter into force on the date of the last written notification in which the parties inform each other, through diplomatic channels, of the completion of the necessary internal legal procedures. From the point of view of economic impact, this agreement does not entail any increase in public expenditure.
