Diplomats in Athens were vexed on Monday by the latest proposal by Antonio Milososki, foreign minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), according to which FYROM should be allowed to begin negotiations with officials in Brussels for accession to the European Union while bilateral talks aimed at solving a dispute over the Balkan country’s name continue in parallel.
Milososki said that FYROM’s eventual accession to the EU would subsequently occur under the name agreed upon in ongoing talks with Greece.
Government sources in Athens reacted by calling on Skopje to stop its “political maneuvers” and focus on United Nations-mediated talks aimed at breaking the name deadlock, noting that a settlement must be reached before accession talks can begin.
Milososki’s comments came a few weeks before an anticipated progress report by the European Commission on FYROM’s prospects of accession to the bloc.