European People's Party won't recognise the legality of secessionist processes

Madrid (CNA).- The European People's Party (EPP) approved this Wednesday during its Statutory Congress in Madrid a joint resolution which establishes that "any form of secessionism or external interference in a Member State is contrary to the very inclusive nature of the Union". The document, promoted by the Spanish People's Party, was approved by simple majority and all 16 MEPs from Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) voted against the resolution. "We support a position which is balanced between autonomies' rights and territories' integrity" stated CSU's spokesman at the EPP meeting, Reinhold Bocklet. "We don't like to be involved in Spain's internal problems" he concluded. Other groups also voted against the resolutions and there were many abstentions, in a Statutory Congress that was attended by 14 Heads of Member States. 

"The European Union is not just an economic community and neither is it merely a cultural and social union, it is also a rule-of-law union", is stated in the text of the resolution promoted by the Spanish People's Party (PP) during the European People's Party (EPP) Statutory Congress in Madrid. It also establishes that "Any self-proclaimed sovereignty process aimed at unilaterally declaring the secession of territories forming part of Member States is beyond the realms of legality and, therefore, will not be recognized as legal by the other Member States". "Public International Law defines the European Union as a political, social and economic project that has always sought union, not division" it is specified in the resolution.

The document emphasises the respect for democracy, the European Treaties and the Rule of Law, which are "the core" of the EU. "The Rule of Law is the bedrock for the singular nature of the democracies on which Europe stands. Nobody is above the law and everybody is equal in the eyes of the law."

Potential new States and their citizens "would automatically be out of the EU"

The document, which is set to define the EPP's global position regarding the secessionist processes in the EU, also forecasts the future of the independent territories: "There is no question, and this has been repeatedly stated by the European Commission as guardian of the Treaties, that, in the event that a territory claims and receives independence from a Member State, it will automatically become a non-EU State". However, it admits that "this potentially new State could request accession to the European Union if it meets the requirements (be European, democratic and respect the Rule of Law); accession that should, as appropriate, be unanimously ratified by the Member States".

The resolution emphasises that "by virtue of Article 20 of the Treaty of the European Union", the citizens of a territory which unilaterally declares its independence "would lose their status as European citizens because the status of European citizen derives from the prior status of citizen of a Member State." If the territory in question were to complete a secession process "that new State would become a non-EU country that, as appropriate, would need to launch a new process of Accession to the European Union in order to re-join; its citizens would lose the rights and obligations they previously enjoyed as belonging to a territory forming part of a Member State."

Bavaria's CSU against the resolution

Members of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), a brother party of German CDU, which supports Chancellor Merkel, voted against the resolution. "We don't like to be involved in Spain's internal problems" stated CSU's spokesman at the EPP meeting, Reinhold Bocklet. "We support a position which is balanced between autonomies' rights and territories' integrity" he added.

Although the PP denied that there were votes against the resolution, the Belgian Humanist Democratic Centre also rejected the proposal. The group commented to the press that they don't support that a potentially new territory could be automatically banned from the EU without negotiation.