Macedonia 'Should Play Better than French Footballers'

Speaking on Thursday at the joint press conference with his host, Macedonia’s Vice Prime Minister in charge of European affairs, Vasko Naumovski, Lellouche said that his country would like to see Macedonia join the European family.

“The ball is in your court. Try to play better than the French football team,” Lellouche said, referring to the scandals that marred his country’s team at the recent World Cup in South Africa.

The French official reiterated that in order for the Macedonian EU and NATO bids to be unlocked, a solution to the Athens-Skopje name dispute needs to be found as soon as possible.

“We are looking forward to a settlement between [Macedonian PM Nikola] Gruevski and [Greek PM George] Papandreou. We are here to assist and move the process forward. The sooner a solution is reached, the better it will be for all,” Lellouche said.

Athens and Skopje are locked in a long lasting dispute over the use of the name Macedonia. Athens has blocked Skopje’s entry into NATO and its progress towards EU accession pending a resolution to the row. Greece claims that the country's formal name, the Republic of Macedonia, implies territorial claims against Greece's northern province of Macedonia.

After several missed opportunities in the past two years observers now see the November NATO summit as an informal deadline for solving the spat.

Lellouche said that the country has still homework to do on its path to full accession and that in that regard it should speed up the pace of reforms that would ensure rule of law, an independent judiciary, effective police, and a more intense fight against corruption.

“The Macedonian government remains committed to the fulfillment of the priorities from the European agenda regardless of whether the country formally starts EU accession talks this year or next,” Macedonia’s Naumovski said.

At the following afternoon meeting the French diplomat met Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. The two also talked about the poor economic cooperation between the two countries, local media reported.

Lellouche also met the head of Macedonia’s main opposition party, Branko Crvenkovski of the Social Democrats.

After his stay in Macedonia Lellouche heads to neighbouring Kosovo.