Matthew Nimetz, the UN-appointed name issue mediator, announced a new round of negotiations between the two negotiators, Zoran Jolevski of Macedonia and Adamantios Vassilakis of Greece, in New York in October. This means that the negotiations between Macedonia and Greece will be unblocked after a long impasse. In this regard, Greek Foreign Minister Avramopoulos reassured mediator Nimetz that in spite of the financial crisis, Greece had the capacity to deal with this issue. Nimetz also said that he was considering visiting the region again to make an assessment of the best timing for the meeting.

“The economic and financial situation in Greece is very serious. It is obvious that the Greek government is working very hard on the crisis and that the crisis is their top priority. Frankly, that is the top priority of the entire world. It is a big issue, yet Minister Avramopoulos reassured me that their government was fully capable of and interested in handling this problem, that there was a government in Greece and that it was capable of dealing with all issues. I don’t think the economic issues in Greece, however hard, should keep them from working on this issue as well and I hope it would be resolved,” Nimetz said.