“Macedonia” – what’s in a name?
The long-standing “name dispute between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia/Republic of Macedonia currently represents a major block in the Euro-Atlantic integration process of south-eastern Europe. The effective veto by Athens of Skopje’s bid to join NATO in April 2008 and the apparent impasse in the UN-sponsored negotiations on finding a name that will be acceptable to all parties are calling into serious question the ability of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia/Republic of Macedonia to move forward with its European Union candidacy.
As the December summit of EU leaders approaches, official Skopje is hoping for a date for the start of accession talks, four years after achieving candidate status. Whether or not this comes about will depend to a large extent on progress towards resolution of the name issue and also on the strategy adopted by the Greek government towards its northern neighbour, which may or may not change depending on the outcome of the parliamentary elections taking pace on 4th October 2009.
ISD is here publishing a report originally commissioned by EastWest Institute’s (EWI) Regional and Transfrontier Co-operation (RTFC) programme in late 2008. Since the beginning of 2009 the same RTFC team has been working under ISD and includes staff who worked directly on Greece-former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia cross-border co-operation activities under EWI, specifically on the Prespa-Ohrid Euroregion. The report touches not only upon the issues behind the name dispute itself but on its negative effect on regional and cross-border co-operation in the region, particularly in the period since April 2008.
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The Institute for Stability and Development is an international think tank whose goal is to help vulnerable border regions and other communities affected by conflict or political, religious or ethnic tension to achieve lasting stability and promote sustainable development.
The
Institute for
Stability and Development organizes a conference (27-29
October 2010, Kosice-Uzhgorod) on cross-border co-operation on the
Eastern borders of the
European Union. The main goal of the conference is to create an annual
forum
allowing for an interactive dialogue on cross-border co-operation and
experience sharing in the European Neighborhood area that would bring
together
practitioners, policy makers and researchers working at local, regional
and
European levels.
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ISD Organizes Cross-Border Schools Event in Presevo, Serbia
While ISD is very much a policy-oriented organization, specializing in research and advocacy on themes of concern to the communities with whom we work, we also seek to support local initiatives aimed at promoting cross-border understanding and the forging of connections between different communities. This in turn allows us to be more in touch with grassroots public opinion than would otherwise be the case, and to use the knowledge we gain to inform our policy work.
One such local initiative is the “GPKT” Education Committee, which brings together schools (students, teachers and parents) from an ethnically mixed group of schools in Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia in joint events ranging from cultural visits to English language camps. One such event was a cross-border schools art competion held in Presevo on 30 September and supported by ISD.
Read more about the event here. |
