Spanish prime minister takes part in Kosovo summit, but seeks to remove symbols

Sánchez will travel to Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, on Tuesday to participate in a meeting of the leaders of the European Union prior to the summit that all will hold tomorrow with Western Balkan representatives. This summit is a recurring meeting that last year was held in videoconferencing because of pandemic. The last time he was called personally in 2018, then Spain's president, Mariano Rajoy, did not attend because of Kosovo's participation. At that summit, Kosovo's state symbols were avoided, and this is what will happen again in Ljubljana following Spain's demands for this, writes Catalonia's headquarters newspaper.

Hence, there will be no flags or symbols of any country, and the common signs posted at the table taken by each of the participants will reflect their names, but without specifying any position such as the president or prime minister. Along with Spain, four other EU countries do not recognise Kosovo, specifically Greece, Romania, Cyprus and Slovakia, writes Spanish newspapers.

Even though Spain does not recognise Kosovo as a state, it supports dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. Spain supports EU enlargement with Western Balkan countries.

But the Spanish government explains that this week's summit has not been called to talk about this prospect of membership, but about European Union relations with these states.

At the dinner of EU leaders that will precede the summit with the Balkans, there will be an informal exchange of views on various issues, and some issues that are part of the agenda of the European Council meeting will be discussed on October 21st and 22nd.

The forecast is that they primarily address the international role of the European Union and, in this context, deal with issues such as the situation in Afghanistan, relations with China or tensions between France and the United States. But Sánchez, according to sources quoted, also wants to be treated with high energy prices.