Greek election result could have impact on name dispute – reports - South Eastern Europe

Sat, Feb 11 2012

Greek election result could have impact on name dispute – reports

Tue, Jun 09 2009 13:51 CET

byClive Leviev-Sawyer

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Greek election result could have impact on name dispute – reports

PROTEST: A Macedonian protests in front of parliament in Skopje in March 2009 after the legislature cancelled a debate on changing the country's name.

WELCOME: Montenegro's president Filip Vujanovic, left, welcomes Macedonia's president Gjorge Ivanov before a summit of heads of state from South Eastern Europe on June 4 on the topic of promoting heritage diversity as part of tourism.

George Papandreou, leader of Greek socialist party Pasok.

The reverses suffered by Greek prime minister Costas Karamanlis’s New Democracy party in the country’s European Parliament elections have raised the possibility of early national elections, which in turn could delay negotiations on a solution to the dispute between Athens and Skopje on the use of the name Macedonia, Vreme newspaper said in Skopje.

In the June 7 2009 European Parliament elections, New Democracy lost ground to socialist party Pasok, led by George Papandreou.
Vreme said that if a caretaker government was installed, the name dispute negotiations could be delayed.

On June 9, Greek daily Kathimerini said that Matthew Nimetz, the United Nations mediator in the name dispute, was expected to announce this week when he will next meet with the negotiators for the two sides, sources said yesterday.

Nimetz is expected to contact ambassadors Adamantios Vassilakis and Zoran Jolevski in a bid to get the negotiation process, which has stalled since last year, back on track.

According to a report by Macedonian International News Agency (MINA), Macedonian president Gjorge Ivanov said on June 8 that his country wanted to reach a "reasonable compromise" in the name talks.

"A solution that will not disrupt the Macedonian identity or topple the people's pride," Ivanov said, repeating his earlier statement that any proposed compromise would be put to a referendum.

"The compromise must also be accepted by the population," Ivanov said.

Karamanlis, asked about the name dispute in a June 3 2009 interview with Greece’s ANA-MPA's Net-TV, said: "Our position is clear on this, clear and steadfast. Besides, everyone knows this now, and that is how we reached the two, in my opinion correct, decisions in Bucharest (the Nato summit at which Athens blocked an invitation being sent to Skopje to join the alliance) and later at the European Union.

"A mutually acceptable name, a composite name with a geographical determinant that will make clear the distinction from Greek Macedonia and will be in effect universally, for all uses. We desire good relations with that country. We want to support its choices for (membership in) Europe and the Alliance, but that is the prerequisite, and it is an inviolable condition," Karamanlis said.

At a Pasok campaign rally on June 1 ahead of the European Parliament election, Papandreou ruled out a "double formula" for settling the Macedonia name dispute.