Two days after the Greek Parliament voted trust in the new Greek government, Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger and his Slovak counterpart Miroslav Lajcak visited Macedonia and said that the name issue should be separated from the start of Macedonia’s EU membership negotiations and that the name issue has to be resolved before the membership negotiations are over, Nova Makedonija reports.

This option for Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic integration has long been talked about as an agenda that Macedonia diplomats are pushing for. However, since recently it has the support of two high-ranking European politicians. This option is considered auspicious for Macedonia considering it is expected to be a notable impetus to the process of European integration and the name issue resolution. Estimates are that such an outcome would boost trust between Skopje and Athens, which has constantly been eroded since the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008.