In my current game, my Southern White opponent chose to Recognize Independence, but did not take the -30 NM hit from it. Looking at the event, it clearly states that this is part of the cost, but doesn't seem to have been applied. I do notice that the cost is now included in the SetActor command rather than a straight morale adjustment, and I wonder if that's the issue. There is also a cost of -15 EP, which is tough to come by in this game - my theory is that my opponent didn't have 15 EP, and therefore couldn't pay the "cost" of the event, so it didn't deduct anything - but activated anyway.
He did take the morale hit for activating the Balts later, and that command syntax looks the same as the Recognize Independence - which further leads me to think it's the "cost" issue.
Another regular opponent of mine has reported the same issue in his game. Could one of the devs take a look at this?