EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule, who has so far pushed most for the idea that Macedonia should be set a date for opening membership negotiations with the responsibility to resolve the name issue in the early stage of the negotiations, only a few days before the EU summit praised the Greek memorandum and appealed to Macedonia to take the chance that Athens offered with this move, Nova Makedonija reports.

In his speech delivered at the Wednesday conference “Friends of the EU” on the Western Balkans, he said it was important for the authorities in Skopje not to trust that the solution to the name issue rested in the creativity of the people from the European Commission or that the members of the Council would find a magic solution. As Radio Free Europe reported, he said that a solution was possible only with an open policy toward the neighbors, adding that he closely followed the communication between the Macedonian and Bulgarian authorities.

“I am happy to see that Greece is taking important steps for progress. The memorandum of understanding creates a good foundation for progress and we hope that Skopje is not going to miss the chance” Fule said.