EU laws also known as the 'Spanish protocol' are likely to complicate reported efforts by ex-Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont to seek asylum in Belgium.
Despite some exceptions, the Spanish protocol bars EU nationals from obtaining international protection in another member state.
Madrid had introduced the text into the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997 to stop Basque separatists from seeking asylum in Belgium.
The move appears prescient given Puigdemont's Belgian lawyer Paul Bekae...
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Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.