Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured yesterday that the recognition of the Kosovo passport by Spain only responds to a decision of the EU and does not imply a change in the traditional position of the Spanish Government against the unilateral declaration of independence of the former Serbian province.
“Spain’s position has not changed. Spain still does not recognize Kosovo and its sovereignty” because “it does not recognize unilateral declarations of independence,” declared the minister during a visit to the town of Herencia in La Mancha.
Despite this, according to Albares, Spain has made the decision to recognize Kosovo’s passport as a member of the Schengen Area, “as do all states that do not recognize Kosovo within the European Union.” According to the minister, other countries in the world have also recognized “those ordinary passports without this implying recognition of Kosovo as a State.
Last April, the European Parliament approved the visa exemption for Kosovars with ordinary passports, whose entry into force was scheduled for January 1 of this year. Around that same time, Albares himself announced that Spain would not apply the elimination of short-stay visas for Kosovo citizens, despite the support of the EU, because Spain “does not recognize Kosovo and does not recognize Kosovo passports.”
However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed this past Sunday that Spain has finally accepted, as of January 1, the validity of Kosovo’s ordinary passport after the former Serbian province joined the visa-free regime in the Schengen area on that date.
Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed its independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008. More than 110 United Nations countries have already recognized Kosovo as a State, including 22 countries in the European Union. Spain, which is among the five EU states that do not recognize Kosovo (along with Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia and Romania), has assured that it will only grant recognition when Serbia and Kosovo reach an agreement. Spain has defended this position from the first moment to avoid the repercussions that the acceptance of a unilateral declaration of independence could have on the Catalan dispute.
