Macedonia hopes to solve name issue in Croatian way

SKOPJE (Xinhua) -- Macedonia hopes to settle its name dispute with Greece through direct meetings between Athens and Skopje with international arbitration using the recent Croatian model, the Macedonian foreign minister said.

Antonio Milososki made this remark after his meeting with the Spanish members of European Parliament, Francisco Jose Millan Mon and Jose Ignacio Salafranca, Macedonian state news agency MIA reported.

“We would like to find a constructive way and mechanism for dialogue with Greece. We would not mind direct contacts, focused on concrete things that bring the two countries closer,” Milososkistated.

He referred to the manner in which Slovenia and Croatia earlier this year managed to bypass their spat over their mutual sea border and in so doing unlocked Zagreb's EU accession talks previously blocked by Ljubljana.

After months of negotiations, Slovenia and Croatia last week signed an agreement whereby an international arbitration team will settle the disagreement over the sea and land border between the two countries.

The two countries have agreed that the ruling would be binding to them both.

Macedonia on the other hand was blocked last year by Greece from entering NATO, due to the 18-year-long “name” row. Athens is opposed to its northern neighbor being called Macedonia, saying it implies territorial claims toward Greece's own northern province of the same name.

Athens, who is also an EU member state, has threatened to block its smaller neighbor from getting a date for its EU accession during the December EU council. All 27 EU states should vote unanimously for a date to be extended to Skopje.

The two countries have so far been fruitlessly trying to settle their dispute through the UN brokered talks. UN mediator Natthew Nimetz has set a fresh round of solution-seeking talks for 16th this month.

NATO said that Macedonia could enter the Alliance as soon as it settles the name spat. The EU stresses that this is a bilateral dispute that has to be settled between the two countries.

Last year Macedonia lodged a lawsuit against Greece at the Hague-based International Court of Justice over the NATO blockade.

Macedonia's EU and NATO accession will be possible only after the country reaches a solution with Greece on the name issue, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday in Berlin.

Recently in Brussels Papandreou had an informal acquaintance meeting with Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, which local media sees as a sign of political ice breaking. The two sides have not had a high-level meeting for almost four years.

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