At his first meeting with reporters on assuming the office of Spanish Ambassador to Macedonia, Mr. Ramon Abaroa Carranza said his country supported the idea of the European Commission's assuming a new approach to Macedonia for the purpose of unblocking the country's European integration.

"For the first time ever, there are ideas in the European Commission of assuming a different, more active approach to Macedonia, that is, to the resolution of the name dispute and the country's European integration. I do not know how these ideas could be carried out. What I do know is there are ideas which have not yet been developed in detail," Ambassador Carranza said.

Madrid believes that the name dispute is a bilateral issue that should be resolved within the framework of the UN, while Spain, Mr. Carranza said, supports the European integration of Macedonia even more now that the European Commission has issued its sixth recommendation for opening membership negotiations.