Complaint against Greece

On Monday Skopje lodged a complaint against Greece before the International Court of Justice for blocking the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia's (FYROM) bid to enter Nato. It contends that its neighbour has failed to meet obligations arising from a bilateral agreement signed in 1995. In the daily paper I Kathimerini, renowned journalist Stavros Lygeros criticises Skopje's approach: "It is true that a veto would be in breach of the interim agreement. ... But Greece did not exercise its right of veto because there was no need to. Officially the FYROM has remained outside Nato because that is what Nato decided, and not because of a veto from Greece. There are therefore insufficient grounds for a lawsuit. At a political level this step by Nikola Gruevski [prime minister of FYROM] will cause a breakdown in negotiations over the name [Macedonia]. Neither of the two countries has officially withdrawn from the negotiations but any possibility of reaching an agreement on a treaty has basically been eliminated."

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