Greece Could Accept 'Northern Macedonia'

In a comment carried by the Athens weekly "Real News" on Sunday, Droutsas said that the possible name "North Macedonia" falls within the framework of a solution that Athens desires, Greek ANA/MPA news agency informed. Other news outlets reported that Droustas referred to the "Republic of Northern Macedonia".
 
Should Macedonian authorities reject this proposal, "it will be up to them to explain to their people why the country's European perspective has been withheld," Droutsas said on the same occasion, as quoted by Macedonian MIA news agency.

Droutsas recently expressed the same stance on the name issue for Greek Sky TV.

Skopje and Athens are locked in a nearly two decade long spat over the use of the name Macedonia. Greece, a member of NATO and the EU, conditions its neighbour’s entry into these organisations on a resolution to the dispute.

Athens insists that Skopje’s official name, Republic of Macedonia, implies territorial claims against its own northern province, which is also called Macedonia. Skopje, for its part, is concerned that a name change could threaten the identity of the country.

The prime ministers of the two countries, Macedonia’s Nikola Gruevski and Greece’s George Papandreou, met briefly at the end of last month in Brussels but nothing solid came from their parley. They met for the third time since Papandreou took office last autumn.

According to a bilateral UN treaty, both sides are committed to resuming the UN sponsored name talks. The talks are expected to continue sometime this month.