Macedonia eyes EU accession as it submits reform report
Macedonia will be in focus in Brussels today when the European Parliament receives a report on the country’s recommended reforms, which will determine potential EU membership talks.
While the report itself is unlikely to be a game-changer, recently elected PM Zoran Zaev has injected new life into the initiative with the hopes of restarting accession negotiations. Zaev hopes to implement policies to safeguard judicial independence and realise sustainable economic growth “by autumn” he said after meeting with EU officials on Monday. But the reforms aren’t Macedonia’s main obstacle to joining the bloc.
Before it can hope to join the EU, the country will need to resolve its longstanding naming dispute with Greece. As a gesture to Athens, Macedonia says it’s willing to adopt an interim name, which will reference “Upper Macedonia”.
While not included in any EU reform report, if Skopje can work out a deal with its southern neighbour, it will remove the biggest obstacle to joining the European community.
There will be zero integration into Europe and NATO without an all encompassing a de antiquization platform. Airports, Stadiums, Highways, Flags, School curriculum, television programs, Skopje 2014, statues and the list goes on. There will be zero compromise by the Greeks. Their history is not negotiable. FYROMS Slavic roots need to be acknowledged. Dalchev used to pass death sentences to those who claimed that Alexanders blood ran in their veins. Zaev needs to do the same. Sadly i don’t thing that the DUI will be any easier to deal with than the VMRO. Greece, Bulgaria and to a lesser extent Albania are the victims here. Its those nations that have had their history stolen. This stupid assertion that a bilateral conflict with Greece should not curb membership is ridiculous. Its certainly not a bilateral conflict. When a nations steals Greek history its at conflict with the world. Every academic internationally has a problem with FYROM. Ancient Macedonia lies in Greece. Every single Ancient Macedonian inscription is Greek. If FYROM wants exclusivity to the name and the history they will need to change the official language to Greek. Slavs with a Slavic language cannot claim the history for they do not speak Greek. Kindly leave our history alone and celebrate your own. Zero tolerance from this Greek.
How delusional are you?
The history of the current Greek state and nation starts in 1822.
No modern nation has a direct connection to the ancient nations. The ancients weren’t even nations, but tribes and tribal coalitions.
Dumb, radical-nationalist, delusional greeks like you are the reason Greece is a laughing stock of the world!
It all started with the uneducated goat herder writing poetry about his village. Georgi Pulevski claimed that he was a direct descendent of Alexander the Great. I tend to think he was a descendent of Alexander the Goat. Like Ljubčo Georgievski he had an about face and claimed to be Bulgarian. In fact he stated he regretted not being able to execute the unification of Bulgaria and Ottoman Macedonia. Antiquization was replaced by a pan Slavic united Bulgaria. Georgi Pulevski went from being a goat herder to a stonemason to a founder of Macedonism to a Bulgaphile upon his death. Goergievski and Pulevski are similar in this regard. They both renounced their new found religion and came to their senses. With the death of the uneducated stonemason the Bulgarians of Vardar Macedonia were cured until the unimaginable happened – TITO. A half caste Croat/Slovene redefines the Bulgarians of Vardar Banovina as Macedonians. The Diaspora left their little villages with a suitcase and a story. Tito’s story. Just when it couldn’t get any worse Todov and his deluded intellectuals addicted to Pulevski poetry brainwash their population. FYROM is born. Gruevski is the second coming of Pulevski.
The ethnic Bulgarian will always be the ethnic Bulgarian. The ethnic Greek will always be an ethnic Greek. Language defines both of us. The Antiquization story is flawed. This why FYROM today has failed. Let’s not nation build on an uneducated stonemason. Read his work as a literary piece rather than a historical piece. Be proud of your Bulgarian ethnicity and don’t allow historical distortions. You are what you speak and the FYROMIAN Slavs speak Bulgarian.
Dear “Alex”,
The analogies and hsitory lessonf os Greek hating bigots that ridiculously claim obvious Slavs are “ethnic” Macedonians are worthless.
You lost the historical and moral argument the second the frauds in Skopje turned into “ancient Macedonians”. Doesn’t take rocket science to see giant Alexander statues.. and accompanying irredentism bigot.
We are getting tired of Bulgarian speaking Slavs of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia claiming antiquity and Greek history. We are getting tired of seeing grotesque Italian reproduction statues erected in this pit of a place. We are getting tired of these Slavs parading illegal flags with Greek symbols around their country. We are getting tired of reading Antiquization propaganda coming out of the deluded uneducated diaspora of Australia. We are getting tired of these Slavs stealing Bulgarian history. We are getting tired of these Slavs stealing Albanian history. we are getting tired of these Slavs stealing Serbian history. We are getting tired of seeing United Macedonian maps. We are getting tired of FYROM. The world is getting tired of FYROM. Mother Theresa. Samuel. Alexander. Phillip. Plato. Dalchev. Gruev. Thieves. False foundations have been set. Abandoned they felt by Bulgaria in 1913. Legitimacy they felt from Tito when he cut the umbilical cord from Bulgaria and gave them a identity. Legitimacy they craved in 1991 on the 8th of September when they were finally made independent.
Macedonia is a region not an ethnicity. The word is Greek. As such only a Greek can call themselves a Macedonian if he or she so pleases to do so. A Bulgarian speaking Slav cannot. Slaveni from the Byzantine Empire via the Bulgarian empire via the Ottoman empire via the Serbian empire via Yugoslavia do not become descendants of Ancient Macedonians. They remain Slaveni. They speak Slavic because they are Slavic. No link to antiquity either via history or science. This is what we are all tired of. No FYROM Slav politician is welcome in Greece until they change their name, flag, school curriculum, airport name, highway names, football stadium names, destroy their Greek statues and start educating and rehabilitating their population. Oh, I forgot. Antiquization that has been used by these deluded ultra nationalists is as bad as Scientology and believing in Martians.
Zaev, Gruevski, Crvenkovski,Šekerinska,Bučkovski, Dimitriev, Kostov, Georgievski, Ivanov, Andov, Klimovski, you can all stay home. All of you have had ample time to come up with an appropriate name and all have failed. All of you have attempted to hang on to our history with your distortions and rhetoric.
what you want to be called and what you are different. Greece will not compromise its beautiful nation and exceptional history for a nation of lost souls. When you are the most influential nation on earth and believe us when we say that Greece is, you do not negotiate your history.
We gave you alphabet. We gave you democracy. We gave you religion. We gave you humanism. We gave you Alexander the Great. Instead of saying thank you Greece for giving us so much you assume a thieving position and try and snatch a story. A story that is a myth.
Its not the Republic of Macedonia. It’s the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. It’s not Macedonian. Its Ethnic Bulgarian. Ethnic Albanian. Ethnic Vlach. Ethnic Turk. Ethnic Serb. Ethnic Roma. This is what it is.
As much as I loathe Golden Dawn, the person Dimitrov should be negotiating with on the name issue is Ilias Kasidiaris. He would be a match for any one of these historically deluded Slavs. No compromise. No concessions. No tolerance. A name that befits your nation is required. Stay in Bitola you uneducated farm animals.