Nikola Gruevski

Macedonia’s leader has told the Financial Times that the prospects of a solution to the dispute with Greece have worsened, and international pressure is needed for a breakthrough.

Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski | Photo by: gov.mk
The prospects for a settlement to the long-standing name dispute between Greece and Macedonia are worse than ever, the Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, said in an interview published Wednesday in the British Financial Times.

“It’s much worse than before,” Gruevski said, adding that “the situation could be unblocked if Greece were to come under pressure from countries like the US, Germany and France. But if not, then it won’t be”.

The tone of pessimism comes ahead of a European Council meeting this month, when EU enlargement and Macedonia’s stalled accession process will again be discussed.

Gruevski said both governments had moved forwards when the Socialist, George Papandreou, was Greek Prime Minister, from 2009 to 2011.

But he said that since the Conservative, Antonis Samaras, took office last June, matters had regressed.

Asked about the specific pressure he would like to see applied on Greece, Gruevski said the US and Europe should remind Greece of the 2011 ruling of the International Court of Justice, ICJ.

That year, the ICJ declared that Greece had broken a UN agreement by blocking Macedonia’s membership of NATO since 2008. However, Athens ignored the ruling and has not changed course.

“I’m asking for respect for international law. Otherwise what is the point of the court, and what is the point of international law?” Gruevski asked.

Despite repeated recommendations by the European Commission for a start to EU accession talks with Macedonia, it has not offered a date for talks, or an invitation to join NATO, owing to a Greek blockade related to the dispute over its name.

Greece insists that Macedonia’s name implies territorial claims to its own northern province, also called Macedonia.

In his interview, Gruevski maintained that the government-funded grand revamp of the capital, “Skopje 2014”, which has included the erection of monuments to Alexander the Great, and his father, Philip, is not aimed at provoking Greece.

The Greeks claims both figures as exclusively Hellenic.

The last attempt to float a compromise name proposal for Macedonia was in April when the UN mediator in the dispute, Matthew Nimetz, suggested “Upper Republic of Macedonia”.

This was rejected by Greece even before Macedonia had a chance to respond. Greece insists that any agreed name must be used generally, not just bilaterally between Greece and Macedonia./balkaninsight/