UN Working on Date for Round of 'Name' Talks

Responding to a journalist's question about whether the long lasting talks have come to a standstill, Nesirky said that there would be a fresh round but he was not precise on any exact date for the meeting, Macedonia’s eReporter news agency said.

Skopje previously announced that it expects a new meeting to be set by UN mediator Matthew Nimetz near the end of this month.

Media and observers see June, which marks the end of the Spanish EU presidency, as an informal deadline for reaching a solution to the spat.

Macedonia might start its EU accession talks before the end of the Spanish presidency, Spain’s Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told media in Skopje on Tuesday. Moratinos noted that his optimism is based on his impression that both sides are working hard to close the open issue.

His optimism prompted local media to speculate that a compromise solution to the spat might be reached soon and that his visit to Macedonia might be an effort to encourage the government to reach a final decision.

Some form of the name “Northern Macedonia”, which Athens has already in principle said it would support, has been mentioned in local media reports. However, while Athens said it would accept this name if it is used for all purposes, Macedonian FM Antonio Milososki yesterday urged the Greek side to restrain from speculating on possible concrete solutions.

“A solution to the spat is possible if there is political will on the Greek side,” Macedonian President Georgi Ivanov said yesterday during his meeting with the Spanish foreign minister.

Skopje and Athens are locked in an almost two decade-long dispute over the use of the name Macedonia. Athens insists that Skopje’s official name, Republic of Macedonia, implies territorial claims on its own northern province, which is also called Macedonia.

In 2008 Greece blocked Macedonia’s NATO accession over the spat and in December last year Macedonia failed to get a start date for its accession talks with the EU because of the unresolved issue.