The name issue is one of the topics that Serbian President Boris Tadic was scheduled to discuss with his Macedonian counterpart Gjorge Ivanov in Skopje Wednesday, only a few days after tabling the same issue with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and President Carolos Papoulias in Athens, Vreme reports. Therefore President Tadic’s visit to Skopje was immediately interpreted in the political circles as his attempt to impose himself as a mediator between Macedonia and Greece. This possibility was announced by Tadic himself in January this year when he said that Serbia wished to be part of the resolution of the dispute and offered a kind of mediation to which Macedonian President Ivanov replied that any help was welcomed.
President Ivanov’s Office neither confirmed nor denied Wednesday the announcement of Tadic’s possible mediation, explaining that this was a working visit that has long been planned and whose main talking point would be the bilateral relations between the two countries. However, the announcement issued to the media immediately afterward stated that the two presidents would also talk about the Macedonia-Greece name issue. Therefore, it is said that Tadic may again convey to Ivanov Serbia’s willingness to help the two countries reach a compromise more easily.
At the meeting, as it was announced, the two officials should have also discussed the coming meeting between the presidents of Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania in Prizren, as well as the relations between the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church and the integration of the countries of the region into the European Union. The Serbian authorities have said a few times so far that they expect to be granted the status of a candidate member state soon and the EU officials to praise Serbia’s progress at the coming summit of the Union.
The expectations of the Macedonian leadership before the EU meeting on 17 June when a decision should be taken whether Macedonia should be set a date for opening accession talks are much smaller than those of the Serbian authorities.
