Reuniting Europe

Enlargement unfrozen?

Posted by Georgi Gotev on 15/06/10

We heard several good news concerning enlargement. The Union is to open membership talks with Iceland, it agreed to open the last and most contentious chapters in Croatia’s accession talks, and it unblocked Serbia’s Stabilisation and Association agreement, at last.

The EU also made gestures with regard of two of its less advanced hopefuls, as it is preparing to lift lift the visa barrier for citizens of Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Macedonia has still to find a solution to its ‘name dispute’ with Greece, and Kosovo is awaiting the decision of the International Court of Justice with regard to its status. In the meantime, Turkey appears to be preparing for a visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, seen as a ‘make or break’ milestone.

But as a whole, enlargement appears to stand higher in the EU agenda than it had been over the last couple of years of the Barroso I commission. As I see it, the event that greatly favoured this auspicious atmosphere was the Slovenian referendum on the border dispute with Croatia.

The referendum was narrowly won by 51.5% of the Slovenes who voted. The gloomy mood about Europe’s greatest project ever was changed completely by a handful of people…

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9 Responses to Enlargement unfrozen? »»

Najy

Comment by Najy | 2010/06/16 at 00:45:05

One article : http://eurosuisse.eurosblog.eu/spip.php?article102
Kiro Velkovski

Comment by Kiro Velkovski | 2010/06/16 at 16:20:54

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erga_omnes
Using erga omnes, as Athens does is wrong. Check law textbooks, or consult a lawyer. It is a smokescreen. Name cannot be an obligation or a right towards others.

It means that there will be no solution to this problem. UN might change the shameful provisional reference to Macedonia (Vardar), BUT, we did not accept the reference, we will not accept any other. Accepting another name will be impossible (as in Russia – the other official name is Russian Federation) and years will pass before Macedonia asks ICJ for a legal expertise on this additional conditions for membership… Or maybe it will be done sooner
nik

Comment by nik | 2010/06/17 at 03:58:00

Vardar? This option is rediculous! The river Vardar goes on until the Aegean Sea, in Greek occupied Macedonia, past Solun (Thessaloniki). Give Macedonia all of Vardar then we’ll talk about Vardar!

EU is a racist organisation and Macedonia should abandon it!

Shame on Europe!
Dana

Comment by Dana | 2010/06/17 at 10:24:01

Please note VARDAR is a river that flows through Macedonia (Fyrom) but the river starts in Macedonia (Fyrum) and ends in Thessaloniki (present day Greece) – if the Greeks agree to the name Republic of Macedonia (Vardar) than thay are giving us Thessaloniki too. I am sure this is not what they intent to do, do they?
Christos Eleftheriou

Comment by Christos Eleftheriou | 2010/06/17 at 23:47:44

Macedonian identity belongs exclusively to Greece on cultural and historical terms and it is extremely inappropriate and threatening to Greece to allow an ethnic selfproclaimed “Macedonian”identity at the northern borders of Greece.
Under no circumstances should the international community and the international legal system allow that the principle of self-identification interfere with the cultural and historic identity belonging to another nation for mellenia. No one should be allowed to use a term ethnologically that belongs to another nation culturally and histoically for centuries.
This will be perceived as an obvious attempt to appropriate everything Macedonian
kristina

Comment by kristina | 2010/06/18 at 20:02:15

Macedonia will stay Macedonia. no body can tell us to change our name. it is stupid that it is even being considered. stramota!
Kiro Velkovski

Comment by Kiro Velkovski | 2010/06/19 at 14:55:42

I am Macedonian. Atheist. Straight. Speaking Macedonian language. Do you think that I should be something else? Who gives you that right? Do you tell anyone else what should they be? Christians? Moslem? Gay? Bisexual? Turks? Bulgarians? Speaking Hebrew? Bosnian? Croat? Moldovan?

Who gives that right to anyone to tell anyone else what should he be and how to name its own country, language, nation, stadiums, schools, streets?

BUG OFF.

I am Macedonian.
Christos Eleftheriou

Comment by Christos Eleftheriou | 2010/06/21 at 22:12:32

AS a Macedonian myself my human right of self-identification is violeted by the authorities of the FYROM and other entities with aim to advance their political goals in the region by appropriating our cultural and historic identity,
I would like to remind you of the prophetic words of Secretary of State Edward Stetinius Circular Airgram to US dipliomatic corpus on December 26,
1944: “This Government considers talk of Macedonian “Nation”Macedonian
“Fatherland”or Macedonian national consiousness to be unjustified demagoguery representing no ethnic nor political reality, and sees in its present revival a possible cloak for aggressive intentions against Greece”

That statement was true then, therefore it is true now.
Anastasia

Comment by Anastasia | 2010/06/29 at 18:21:14

Macedonia is an ancient Greek name. Its geographic borders were mainly identified by Philip B’ and Alexander the Great, two unprecedented personalities of ancient Greece. Yes, they gathered many soldiers from these areas, moslty paid for their services. The macedonian kings brought the ancient Greek civilisation to these populations, that they used to live as aggressive tribes, occasionally supporting the most powerful of the broader area.
The state that tries today to be called ‘Macedonia’ owes everything to Greek civilisation, even its relegion, except language (oral, because again the Greeks through Methodius and Cyrilus gave them their first alphabet, as with all slavonic polulations, in order to be able to read the Bible). Their language is mistakenly called ‘macedonian’ (there is no such a language). It is a dialect of Bulgarian language. From a cultural point of view, for the term ‘macedonian’ applies analogically what has said Jacque Lang for Europe: Europe either will be cultural, or it will not be: Macedonia either is with Greece, or there is no such a place. And, thanks to the unchangeable trajectory of history, Macedonia will live for ever.
In a Europe buliding its future all the more upon the diversified cultures of its member – states, such claims are unacceptable, even if there were a lot of mistakes within the Yogoslavian republic during the 20th century.
I propose the name ‘Democratic Republic of Skopje’, although even ‘Skopje’ speaks loudly for the Greek origins of the city (skopje-skopos= guard in Greek). Greek civilisation sparkles in all continents, we have to be magnanimous with all nations, as we are now with the Skopians, through investing huge amounts of money, helping their economy.
In matters of culture and civilisation, stealing others’ identity is not a good passport for future acceptance by the international community. This is something suiting perfectly with the spirit of Alexander the Grate, who supported his remarkable project on the collaboration and mutual respect between nations, irrespective of origin, colour, religion, class etc., that is all what EU says today. Hence, if you cannot be identified with the Greek inheritance, at least comply with the EU remarkable background. RESPECT ALL THE OTHERS’ IDENTITY, IN ORDER TO BE RESPECTED IN TURN.
Anastasia

Georgi Gotev is senior editor of EurActiv more.

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Enlargement unfrozen?

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