"Catalonia, same as Kosovo; but no big powers are behind it"

"Catalonia, same as Kosovo; but no big powers are behind it"

In addition, the Serbian foreign minister and first deputy prime minister also observed "similarities" with "the unilateral act of Pristina" - i.e., with Kosovo, Serbia's southern province, where ethnic Albanians unilaterally declared independence in 2008 - a proclamation that Serbia rejects as a violation of its Constitution, and the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

"Unlike how (some) other countries have reacted to the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo - Serbia adheres to principles, and just the same does not accept any unilateral acts anywhere in the world, including Catalonia. Our position is quite clear," Dacic said late on Friday.

Dacic then added that he "read what European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker has said" - possibly a reference to Juncker's statement reported earlier on Friday - and this Serbian official stressed that he was "astonished by the kind of silence that would rule - if people only spoke about the things they knew something about."

"Juncker spoke about some pressure that Yugoslavia had exerted on Slovenia and Croatia, and that this was the reason Yugoslavia cannot be compared to Spain, and Catalonia. They have uttered so many stupidities these last months. The fact that he (Juncker) holds that job cannot make him right, because he is uttering untruths," Dacic said.

According to the minister, there are similarities between Catalonia and Kosovo on one basic issue - that this is a unilateral move, a unilateral declaration of independence.

"The path of Kosovo and Catalonia is the same, the only problem is that in this case, big powers do not support Catalonia, (while) in the case of Kosovo, the interest was different. It cannot be, that the world is based on whether big powers like us or not - it must be based on international law" - Dacic stressed.