By G. Kampourakis
[email protected]
Government sources were optimistic in their assessment that an agreement between Athens and Skopje to finally resolve the obscure – by international standards – but nagging fYRoM “name issue” is forthcoming, and that the scope and substance of the accord will be such that it will force most of the opposition to back it in Parliament.
The same sources, all from within the Tsipras government camp, also pointed a pending meeting in the Prespes Lakes border district between the prime ministers of Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM), the one-time Yugoslav constituent state whose very name has been the center of the dispute between the neighboring southern Balkans countries since the early 1990s. Based on the “optimistic” scenario being circulated by the Greek government, the signing of an agreement, which will then be up for ratification, is a possibility during such a closely watched meeting.
Moreover, Greek government sources also believe that Wednesday’s high-profile intervention by the president of fYRom, Gjorge Ivanov, against the erga omnes (one name for all uses) aspect of any possible agreement will not block the process, given that the Zaev coalition government at this phase needs a Parliament ratification of any “name issue” agreement with a simple majority.
For the poll-trailing Tsipras government in Athens a deal to finally end more than 25 years of impasses in the matter looms as both a fillip to counter low approval ratings and as a bona fide foreign policy success with ramifications beyond the strict Athens-Skopje axis.
For the Zaev government, a resolution would mean eliminating Athens’ objections to NATO membership and the landlocked country’s EU accession course, and, in fact, gaining Greece as a very solid proponent of the country’s Euro-Atlantic prospects.
Nevertheless, beyond the very well-placed press “leaks”, Athens continues to field a very low-key official approach to the issue, replying to the main opposition on Wednesday that “no agreement has yet been finalized”, while repeating that “… a condition for a solution and the inclusion of fYRoM into NATO and the EU is an agreement featuring a composite name with a geographic or time qualifier, erga omnes, something that requires a constitutional revision (in Skopje).”
