By Marja Novak
Greece has toughened its stance in the dispute over Macedonia's name, making it more likely to block its neighbour's European Union membership bid, Macedonia's Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki told Reuters on Monday.
After years of bilateral talks and international mediation, Greece vetoed Macedonia's accession to NATO in 2008 because of its name, saying it implied territorial claims to Greece's northern province of the same name.
Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Slovenia, Milososki said talks with Greece had resumed with "new dynamics" this year and Greece appeared to have toughened its stance since the 2008 NATO summit.
"The only shift was for the worse in their (Greek) attitude. They have toughened their position. We are concerned of a possibility of a second Greek blockade related to our opening EU accession talks," Milososki said.
And Greece's Secretary General for European Affairs, Dimitrios Katsoudas, also at the conference, told Reuters he was not optimistic that the name dispute could be resolved soon.
Macedonia applied to join the EU in 2005 but has yet to start accession talks. The EU's Enlargement Commissioner, Olli Rehn, said in July talks could start within months, but Milososki said this could not be taken for granted.
"I think the more the internal political situation in Greece is shaky, the higher is the risk for the second blockade against Macedonia," he said, speaking in English.
Katsoudas said Greece saw as a provocation Macedonia's recent decisions to name a road after Alexander the Great, an ancient Greek leader from the province of Macedonia, and a stadium in Skopje after Alexander's father Philip the Second.
"I do not see much optimism," he said. Asked if there were concrete signs the issue could be resolved soon he said, "No".
Despite that, Milososki said he hoped that Matthew Nimetz, personal envoy to the United Nations secretary-general, who is mediating between the two countries, will soon come up with a new proposal for a compromise.
"We in Macedonia are ready to walk our mile in order to come to a solution," Milososki said.
"It is worth noting that there has never been a single security incident between Macedonia and Greece, while trade, investment and tourism are improving. Business people are more pragmatic than the government," he said.
