17.01.2014 - 15:38
The Atlantic Council, a Washington DC-based think tank headed by former Utah governor and presidential candidate, Jon Huntsman, Jr, has issued a report warning Europe that it needs to step up to the self-determination debate and prepare a reasoned policy for dealing with countries who seek independence, particularly Catalonia and Scotland.
The report, titled ‘How the Voters of Catalonia May Change Europe’ written by Dr. Paul R. Williams, a Law Professor at American University and Roushani Mansoor, a Law Fellow with the Public International and Policy Group, declares that ‘it will be Europe, in the end, that decides whether Catalonia will be an independent state’.
Dismissing Spain’s legal arguments and attempts to block what it ‘considers an unconstitutional vote’, the report notes that ‘international law neither permits nor prohibits the holding of referenda by aspiring states’ and says that Catalonia will seek international recognition in order to legitimize its position.
The report notes Europe’s checkered past in dealing with previous self-determination questions, including Yugoslavia, Cyprus, and Kosovo, and cautions that without a developed policy, Catalonia’s request for recognition may be ‘dangerous’.
The authors believe that without a solid policy, European countries may not have a united response, leading to ‘a “state” with the euro as its currency, and 7 million people who could wind up retaining their European Union citizenship, while living outside the European Union’.
The Atlantic Council was founded in 1961. It’s international advisory board includes former Spanish PM José María Aznar and Rupert Murdoch, among others, and is headed by Brent Scowcroft, former US National Security Advisor under former US Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush.
