If the name dispute with Greece is not resolved soon, the talks most probably will be frozen at least one year, President Branko Crvenkovski assessed following yesterday’s meeting with representatives of the Macedonian emigrant organizations in the Macedonian Culture Center in New York, the media report.

“If the dispute is not resolved in the next few weeks, when new talks are expected to be held with UN mediator Matthew Nimetz, there will be a year-long pause due to the elections in Macedonia and Greece, as well as the change of the U.S. Administration. In this year we will not receive an invitation for accession to NATO or a date for start of the negotiations for membership in the EU,” Crvenkovski assessed.

He stressed that it is not true that only Macedonia is in a hurry to resolve the name dispute, as Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said following the meeting with Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki in Paris last week.