PM puts onus on Skopje

Says Greece wants talks on name but could veto EU bid as well

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis repeated yesterday his invitation to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to resume talks but added that if the two countries could not settle their name dispute, Athens is prepared to block Skopje’s bid to join the European Union as well as NATO.

Speaking at the end of the NATO summit in Bucharest, Karamanlis continued where he left off in his public address on Thursday night, by insisting that the use of Greece’s veto to stop FYROM joining NATO was not the end of the matter.

“We want to support the Euro-Atlantic and European course of FYROM but the name issue has to be settled,” he said at a press conference. “We have covered our fair share of ground, now the other side has to move too.”

When asked about the possibility of Greece using its veto to halt FYROM’s bid to join the EU, Karamanlis replied: “We will see when the time comes.”

The prime minister said that Greece wanted to continue negotiations with Skopje under the auspices of the United Nations and made it clear that Athens has a very clear idea of what it wants from the talks.

“Our position is clear – a straightforward, composite name erga omnes (toward all).”

Karamanlis added that it was a “useful tool” for Greece that NATO agreed that the name dispute had to be resolved before FYROM could make another bid to join the alliance, thereby making the issue more than just a bilateral squabble.

“I never felt isolated and I think that as of yesterday, the understanding of our position has widened,” he added.

There was no response yesterday from Skopje to Karamanlis’s offer to resume talks. Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos predicted that it would take some time for “emotional reaction” in FYROM to settle down.

The media in the neighboring country identified Greece as the culprit for FYROM failing to progress in its bid to join NATO and at least two Greek businessmen in Skopje claimed their property was damaged following Athens’s use of the veto.

Meanwhile, Karamanlis revealed that Greece has turned down a request to send more troops to Afghanistan as part of the NATO effort there. But he added that Greece would try and help more in the reconstruction effort.