Macedonia should begin the EU membership negotiations without the precondition of having the name issue resolved. The end of the negotiations for membership of the Union requires consent from all member states so that meanwhile the two countries may continue looking for a solution, Austrian President Heinz Fischer said to his Macedonian counterpart Gjorge Ivanov in Vienna on Monday.

“Greece says that the resolution of the name issue is a condition. However, we trust that in order to set a date for opening negotiations, we should not wait for that. The name issue should be resolved by the time the negotiations end. Those two processes should unfold in parallel and that would be an encouragement in finding a solution,” President Fischer said.

According to the Austrian President, the name issue is a difficult but not an insolvable problem. He also said he was told by President Ivanov some useful historical information about the name, Dnevnik reports.

President Ivanov stressed that the EU should give Macedonia a green light to open membership negotiations by the example of Croatia and Slovenia.

“Greece loses nothing if a date is defined for opening talks. By the time they are over, the problem can be resolved. Setting of a date will be an additional motive to come to a solution,” President Ivanov said at the press conference.