Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou put off the meeting with his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski set for Thursday. According to the announcement from the Greek prime minister’s office, Papandreou was too busy; first were the meetings of the Socialist International that took longer than planned, and then came the meeting of the European Council, at which the economic situation in the EU member states and the recovery measures were discussed. But while the Greek prime minister hesitates whether to meet Gruevski, the Macedonian prime minister had two important diplomatic days in the European capital, Nova Makedonija reports.
After meeting the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, Prime Minister Gruevski met Thursday with NATO Secretary General Andres Fogh Rasmussen, EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who is regarded as a close friend of Macedonia’s, and six MEPs. Also, before meeting Papandreou Friday, Gruevski is scheduled to meet Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule and Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban as future Chairman of the union as of January 1.
“It was pointed out at the meetings that Macedonia’s two top priorities were the reforms for European integration and the resolution of the name issue. Prime Minister Gruevski expressed at the meetings the readiness for seeking out a mutually acceptable solution under UN auspices, a solution that would be acceptable to both parties and to the people of both countries,” the government office said.
The government office sees the reinforced diplomatic activity of the prime minister as well as of Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Vasko Naumovski and Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki over the past three days with the highest European and NATO authorities only ten days before the report of the EC and the NATO summit set for 19-20 November as an exceptional opportunity for Macedonia to directly state its positions concerning its Euro-Atlantic integration. All meetings took place at the Macedonian officials’ initiative, but the European officials showed for the first time such great openness to meet their Macedonian counterparts, Nova Makedonija reports.
Although the prime minister’s office neither confirms nor denies, what Gruevski is most probably pointing out to his colleagues is that Macedonia desires that the European integration and the membership of the Alliance take place under the reference of FYROM in parallel with the talks with the southern neighbor over the name issue.
“Anyhow, all meetings that took place in Brussels are useful for the Republic of Macedonia but miracles should not be expected because the way decisions are taken in the EU is known,” former ambassador Risto Nikovski comments.
European diplomatic sources comment that meetings are desirable, yet official Skopje has to be aware of Athens’s position in the European Union and NATO, and the standings of the MEPs.
Some of them say that the busy diplomatic agenda with European and NATO officials means also an additional pressure on the part of the Union on both parties with the aim of resolving the name issue as soon as possible.
