Swedish FM discounts Greek EU veto on Macedonia

SKOPJE (AFP) -- Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Friday he did not expect a Greek veto on Macedonia's bid to join the European Union because of an 18-year-old name dispute between Athens and Skopje.

“I don't think things are going in that direction,” Bildt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said at a press conference during a visit to Macedonia.

On Thursday he met Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki, the government said in a statement earlier, adding that a “name issue dispute” was on the agenda along with reforms needed for Skopje's integration into the EU.

State news agency MIA also reported that Bildt came to “discuss a way of avoiding a possible Greek veto on the beginning of accession talks with Brussels.”

Greece, which has been opposing international recognition of its northern neighbor under the name Macedonia since the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, already blocked Skopje's membership of NATO last year.

Athens considers the name Macedonia part of its Greek heritage because a northern Greek province has the same name and has also threatened to block Skopje's accession to the EU unless the name dispute is settled.

United Nations-led negotiations on the issue have also proved fruitless.

Gruevski later Friday met his Greek counterpart George Papandreou, but reported no breakthrough.

“There has not been any progress on the question of the name but these sort of meetings are useful as they boost relations between the two countries,” he said after the meeting on the sidelines of a regional environmental summit in northern Greece.

For his part, Papandreou said he had the political will to try and find a solution and the EU was going to support the efforts.

The EU granted Macedonia candidate status in 2005 and last month proposed to open membership negotiations with Skopje, without specifying when they would begin. Macedonia hopes for them to start by the end of the year.

On November 4 Macedonian President George Ivanov invited his Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias to make a first official visit for talks to resolve the row.

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