The removal of the term “Macedonian” from the last report of the European Parliament is a result of the aggressive Greek diplomacy and the steps it took especially after the NATO Summit in Bucharest, Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki said. He also added that the Greeks were trying to remove the internationally recognized code MKD and “Macedonian” from all other rulebooks, instructions and other documents. However, he is confident that the time when things could be deleted is gone, Vecer reports.

“Today Macedonia and its people are part of the European family of cultures and there is no politician, a government or a country that can negate them. Some may only like it or not, but the Macedonian language and people are part of the European mosaic of languages and cultures. Therefore I trust the effort of the Greek statesmen is Sisyphean and eventually is not going to pay off,” Minister Milososki said.

The support from certain Bulgarian MEPs for the Greek amendments and stances are not organized politics, according to Minister Milososki, but isolated cases. In his view, most countries of the European Union and a great many MEPs have a sincere and honest wish for Macedonia to take its deserved place in the European family as soon as possible.

Milososki dismissed as speculation the information that an agreement with Greece had been made and would be announced a few months after the elections.

“What we can say is already known to the public. The process at the UN is in progress with Matthew Nimetz’s mediation. Macedonia as always will be actively involved in it. We are not happy that it has taken 20 years. Macedonia is paying the real price of this irrational dispute which I find to be imposed by Greece for no reason. The responsibility that a solution has not yet been found should not be looked for in us considering we have made many concessions. It is rather a result of the lack of pragmatism and a sense of reality of certain Greek politicians. Unfortunately, this has escalated to the point that the issue now represents so great a burden to any Greek politician or any government that rationality is hard to restore,” Minister Milososki explained.

He informed that intensive preparations were underway for the vote of the diaspora and said certain problems were not ruled out.

“This is going to be the first vote and it will not be a surprise if we face certain difficulties yet I hope that with a serious effort from the State Election Commission (DIK) and support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs we can make it possible for the Macedonian citizens abroad to exercise their right to vote for the political option they trust for the first time,” Minister Milososki stressed.

He added that DIK was responsible for the diaspora vote, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was only assisting. DIK is going to require 6,650,000 euros from the Ministry of Finance to organize the early parliamentary elections. According to DIK’s estimates, 1.2 million euros of that amount will be used for organizing the diaspora vote.