The adjective “Macedonian” will be reinstated in this year’s report of the European Commission on Macedonia’s progress, as Macedonia stands an excellent chance to be set a date for opening accession talks with the EU at the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the EU in December. If Greece decides to keep Macedonia from being set the date again, it may be isolated, high-ranking sources from the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Nova Makedonija.

The adjective “Macedonian” has been left out from the EC report that evaluates the country’s progress in meeting European criteria and that is usually released in October for a few years in a row, as the Macedonian authorities have continuously insisted that the European diplomats should start using the adjective again. In addition to the reactions from almost the entire Government, last year Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Teuta Arifi personally urged EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule to make sure that “Macedonian” is used again in the report. Also, President Gjorge Ivanov said during the celebration of Ilinden on 2 August this year that he would no longer accept reports concerning Macedonia that do not contain its identity qualifier.