Greece name row blow to Macedonia EU bid
(BRUSSELS) - EU nations pushed back a decision on opening membership talks with Macedonia on Tuesday, amid persistent Greek opposition to the name of the ex-Yugoslav republic.
After talks between European foreign ministers on Monday, the 27 EU nations agreed a compromise text that would leave a decision on opening talks to the first half of 2010, when the Spanish will hold the rotating EU presidency.
Originally the question was to have been discussed next March, but Greece was unwilling to fix a date.
Athens argues that setting a date would not help bilateral negotiations on the name issue.
Greece has opposed international recognition of its northern neighbour under the name Macedonia since the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991.
Athens considers the name Macedonia part of its Greek heritage because a northern Greek province has the same name. It already blocked Skopje's membership of NATO last year.
United Nations-led negotiations on the issue have proved fruitless.
"Everyone's getting quite sensitive to Greece's concerns," an EU diplomat said.
"Multilaterally we refer to FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia), bilaterally one talks about Macedonia."
Last week EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn doubted the foreign ministers would be able to set a date.
"Starting membership negotiations requires a recommendation from the commission but also acceptance from all member countries and one can expect that at the moment those prerequisites do not exist," Rehn told reporters in Helsinki.
The text agreed by the ministers recognised "progress made in a number of important areas" by Macedonia, even though more reforms were needed.
However the statement stressed that "maintaining neighbourly relations, including a negotiated and mutually acceptable solution on the name issue, under the auspices of the UN, remains essential."
Macedonia has been an official EU candidate nation since December 2005 but has not yet begun any of the detailed negotiations required prior to membership.
The European Commission called in October for those talks to begin.
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