Greek Bloc of Croatian Negotiations Is Nonsense

Zafeirios Rossidis, media advisor of the Greek Embassy in Zagreb, claims the bloc due to recognising Macedonia does not exist.

ZAGREB, CROATIA - While Croatia is waiting for the solution of the Slovene bloc of its European Union accession negotiations, according to the Slobodna Dalmacija daily, Greece has joined in, unofficial information states.

According to the daily, although the European Commission believes that Croatia`s justice system reforms and the fight against corruption were heading in the same direction, Greece might block this chapter. Dissatisfaction appeared in Greece as Croatia recognised Macedonian national minorities and the Autokefal Macedonian Orthodox Church.

Greece is obstructing Macedonia from accessing NATO, as well as its negotiations with the European Union because of a dispute which has been dragged along since Macedonia came out of former Yugoslav Republic in 1991. Greece opposes the fact that Macedonia uses the same name as its Northern province and accuses its neighbour of seizing symbols of ancient Greek culture.

Still, the Greek Embassy informs us that such speculation is ungrounded.

- Nonsense. Absolute nonsense. Why would Greece do this? Croatia recognised Macedonia before 2005, so there is no problem with that – Zafeirios Rossidis, media advisor of the Greek Embassy in Zagreb told us.

The name dispute was addressed at the United Nations in 2005, when Matthew Nimitz, special UN representative who was named the mediator of the dispute, sent his proposal for the solution of the Greek-Macedonian dispute.