Skopje Pushes EU on Integration Talks

Nikola Gruevski's comments came after he held talks in Brussels with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele on Thursday.

“Macedonia has been making efforts for solving the problem, but Greece may not be planning such an outcome for a long period and this possibility should be addressed”, Macedonia’s state news agency, MIA, reported Gruevski as saying.

Gruevski reportedly informed Fuele of Macedonia’s reform progress aimed at meeting the criteria for getting a positive report from the European Commission this autumn.

The country has to improve political dialogue and pass several key laws in parliament, according to EU stipulations.

Gruevski’s visit to Brussels came just one week after Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov also met high EU officials in a bid to persuade them his country was doing whatever it could to get the desired positive EC report and solve the name dispute with Greece.

Last year, the EC recommended the start of the accession talks but, in December, Greece used the principle of solidarity to block the start of negotiations, pending a solution for the bilateral name dispute.

All EU member states must vote positively in order for the talks to begin.

Macedonia and Greece are locked in a 19-year-old dispute over the use of the name Macedonia.

Athens insists that Skopje’s official name, the Republic of Macedonia, implies territorial claims over its own northern province of Macedonia.

In 2008, the problem also halted Macedonia’s NATO accession, as Greece used the same principle to block its neighbour.

Talks have been held at the UN since the mid-1990s aimed at overcoming the issue, but to little effect.

More negotiations on the issue are expected later this month at the UN General Assembly in New York, where delegates from both countries are to meet UN name mediator Matthew Nimetz and possibly hold joint meetings.