Should the EU Have a Policy on Independence Referenda?

Once upon a time, the EU had a policy: it had designed a complex set of regulations for the Montenegro independence referendum which was carried out, under EU supervision, in 2006. Already in 1991 the EC’s Arbitration Committee on former Yugoslavia had also endorsed an independence referendum as a necessary condition for the EC’s recognition of independence of a given territory.  This paper analyses the EU’s design for the Montenegro’s referendum, starting with the agreement in 2003 between the governments of Serbia and Montenegro. to hold the referendum. The paper will also examine how this design can be linked to the Arbitration Committee opinions on the necessity of independence referenda.

The EU’s referendum design for Montenegro was not used in any other case of independence/secession (e.g. Kosova). Obviously, any attempt to apply such a referendum design to a EU member state, would face a veto of the EU states which oppose independence/secession. Although member states retain the right to exit the EU, the same right to exit their own states appears to be denied to the “peoples of Europe” who are at least nominally the subjects of the EU treaties.  One way to equalize the rights of states and of peoples in Europe would be to design a EU-wide independence referendum procedure based on the earlier Montenegro referendum design.