A letter sent to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso by the prime minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), seeking support for a supposed “Macedonian minority” in Greece, has irritated EC officials who are likely to dodge the issue in a response to Nikola Gruevski to be issued tonight, sources in Brussels have told Kathimerini.

According to diplomatic sources, a letter from Brussels will explain that the EC does not have the competency to respond to Gruevski’s appeal. High-ranking EC officials, such as Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and Jacques Barrot, who is responsible for internal affairs, are said to have refused to oversee a response to the letter.

The letter, expected to bear Barroso’s signature, will probably include a reference to a paragraph from an EC report that refers to the importance of Athens and Skopje “maintaining good-neighborly relations, which includes agreeing on a mutually acceptable solution on the name issue.”