The status quo resulting  from Macedonia’s stalled aspirations to join the EU and NATO is utterly detrimental not only for the country but for the entire region and the enlargement process, the subcommittee for Europe and Eurasia of the Foreign Policy Committee of the US Congress is said to have warned, Nova Makedonija reports.

In the debate focusing on the situation in Balkans, the subcommittee raised concerns that the status quo works in the interest of no one – neither Greece, nor Macedonia and neither Europe nor the USA. Experts assess that this situation works in favor of certain circles, to whom stability of the country and the region is not an interest. There are also those who believe that the status quo benefits most extremist groups, such as hard-line Islamists. According to connoisseurs, not resolving the dispute and impeding Macedonia’s membership of NATO and the EU weakens the South Wing of the Alliance. Experts emphasize that the extremist circles take advantage of the region, weakened by the stalled European integration process, for projecting their own interests.

Therefore the participants in the debate on the Balkans at the subcommittee of the US Congress once again expressed support for the resolution of the name issue.