EU Won't Accept Independent Catalonia

BELGRADE - As Catalonia approaches the date of its final binding referendum on independence from Spain, Manfred Weber, a member of the European Parliament from Germany and a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party, said Europe "cannot accept" Catalan independence.

"Europe cannot accept actions at the margin of the constitution," Weber said in an interview with El Pais.

This year could be a turning point in the question of Catalan independence. A "binding" referendum on the issue has been scheduled for 2017, and tensions surrounding it are growing stronger.

Former Catalan president Artur Mas and two of his cabinet members will face trial in Barcelona, accused of disobeying of Spain's Constitutional Court by staging a 2014 non-binding referendum.

In 2014, the Constitutional Court of Spain ruled that the independence vote was not constitutional....