CATALONIA,
KOSOVO AND LEGAL FRAUD
It would be pretty easy and even preferable
writing about ISIS and attacks to some civilian objectives last weeks. I
absolutely doom them as well as support offensive and useful means rather than
diplomatic means in order to defeat jihadist terrorism. We are in war, a real
war, as president Hollande said last Monday before the French Parliament.
However, I will focus my weekly analysis on
another issue that is also important from the international and European scope,
in which I have a qualified opinion owing to my nationality: Catalonia and its
supposed independence. I will analyze it from a comparative field and I will
look at the common points to Kosovo so as lots of Catalonians are launching
argument on reference to that Balkan country.
International community has seen along the
last weeks how the Spanish region is trying to leave the country using illegal
means and calling for a diplomatic riot against its democratic institutions. This
arena has turned into a struggle where legal, social and symbolic arguments are
been using to preserve Spanish unity or Catalonian unfounded movement. Why
Kosovo matters in this issue? Catalonian reactionary movement try to connect
its situation to the one still happening in the Balkans. The comparison is also
fruitful due to this week readings.
Spain is divided in 17 self-governed
regions, like federal states, which are under the national law, and executive, legislative
and judiciary branches thanks to the principle of hierarchy. Catalonia is one
of these regions and it is currently hindering that principle observed at the
constitution. From the social and legal frameworks, this movement is illusory
and historically wrong. Catalonia has never existed as an independent territory,
Catalonia has never ruled by its own laws, Catalonia has never been occupied by
Spain, and Catalonia has not used legal means to reach its objectives.
Is the independence possible? Yes, it is,
but only in line with the Constitution and laws. The Spanish Constitution said
under its article 1 “National sovereignty belongs to the Spanish people from
whom emanate the powers of the state.” Under this article, a hypothetical
independence is only allowed if the whole country decides it, neither
Catalonians can do it by its isolationist nor laws enacted by Catalonian Parliament
are binding in the whole territory. As they know, their demands are illegal by
its terms, they usually appeal sentimental reasons. Despite its own language
and culture, those facts do not turn Catalonia into an exceptional case. Within
our territory, each region defers itself to other ones, no region is equal to
the other.
One of the arbitrary solutions tried by its
bizarre government is unilateral independence as Kosovo did in 2008. Are both
cases the same? Could Catalonia has Kosovo as a mirror in which look at itself?
Bearing in mind both cases, the situations
have several differences which made insane and incoherent see both cases as the
same. Kosovo is an example of unilateral independence under self-determination
law. The right to self-determination was formed to colonial situations. This
was established by Resolution 1514 of December 14, 1960 of the General Assembly
of the United Nations. This Resolution defines what is a colonial village,
which is based on people who have not yet attained self-government and also
lives in a territory which is geographically separated from the country that
administer it.
It is the same law that Catalonia wants to
invoke. Catalonia is unable to vow that rule just for one reason, it is not an oppressed
region. Resolution 2625 of the UN establishes that under the right of
self-determination, any action that is aimed to undermine the territorial
integrity of a sovereign State, provided that area of the state is endowed with
a government representing the whole, with the exception of discrimination on
race, creed or color. Along decades, Kosovars
suffered genocide due to the policies pursued by Serbia. These facts justified
its unilateral independence although it is not recognized by the international
community as a whole. Did this situation happen in Catalonia? Absolutely not.
To conclude, which would be the
consequences if the independence comes true? First of all, Catalonia would be
out of the European Union. Then they should create new institutions and design its
political branches from the vacuum. From the economic field, Catalonia has an
unaffordable debt which is only fought back with Spanish aid. Catalonia by its
own is not able to pay its creditors and Catalonia would go bankrupt.
Ignacio Moreno Lucenilla
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