Kosovo Independence Fueling Nationalist Movements in EU

The Basque Country straddles France and Spain

Pakistan's Daily Times sees the European Union as a catalyst to European separatist movements and believes that if Kosovo declares independence from Serbia after Monday's UN-set deadline for reaching a settlement, a "powerful precedent will be set for separatist movements across Europe" -- from Spain to Scotland.

The Daily Times reports:

There is a real risk that the quasi-dogma of the intangibility of borders which has existed since the end of the Second World War will fall," French political scientist Jean-Yves Camus of the Paris-based IRIS institute told AFP.

"This would benefit movements which seek to rewrite the map of Europe based on ethnic, linguistic or cultural criteria," added Camus, a specialist on separatist movements in Europe. Kosovo's ethnic majority leaders are widely expected to unilaterally declare independence from Serbia in early 2008 but have vowed not to do so without US and European Union approval. "In the West, this solution will set off separatists in Europe. Look at Scotland, Catalonia, the Basque Country," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published in the French newspaper Le Figaro earlier this year.

As in other separatist regions of Europe like Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium, and northern Italy, supporters said Catalonia deserved extra powers because it makes a bigger contribution to the economy.

For many nationalists, membership in the 27-nation European Union has only served to make separation seem more viable. The emergence of similar lifestyles and English as a common language in Europe, combined with the disappearance of borders and the lack of democratic legitimacy of EU bodies, had fuelled "the development of micro distinctive identities," said Camus.