Macedonia & Greece: Name Issue

[Niko777]

Secretary Pompeo urged French Foreign Minister Le Drian to support NATO extending an invitation to Macedonia to join, as well as the EU opening accession talks, following the signing of the name agreement between Greece and Macedonia.

Link: https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2018/06/283460.htm

[Gocka]

I hate protests, because it gives people a false sense of accomplishment. A protest by itself, does absolutely nothing. The reason you protest is to show someone somewhere, that your in opposition to them and that you have to numbers behind your cause to do something about it. The part protesters seem to forget is the do something about it stage.

What are you going to do if the people you are protesting don't fear you?

Zaev is in office, the agreement is signed. You could threaten to vote him out, but when, years from now after everything is over? So again, what are you going to do about it? Making your opposition known, doesn't actually change anything.

Generations ago, protests were more of a courtesy warning, that you mean business. Now people seem to think its all you need to do.

Make demands, make a plan, elect a leader, execute the plan, don't just bitch and moan.

The current state of affairs in Macedonia have reached the point where the citizenry would be well within its democratic rights to forcefully remove the countries leadership on the grounds of disregarding the constitution and outright treason.

Unfortunately Macedonia is full of cafe leaders, not real ones. At the end of the day an angry mob is still just an angry mob, it has to coalesce into something more meaningful.

[Tomche Makedonche]

What are you going to do if the people you are protesting don't fear you?

Good question

Generations ago, protests were more of a courtesy warning, that you mean business. Now people seem to think its all you need to do.

And a better observation.

[Risto the Great]

Maybe it is the diaspora's fault. We have treated the severedFyromians like their opinions matter. Maybe we can do more to highlight their pathetic meanderings through life.

Maybe we should fund billboards all around Macedonia. Some headlines based on discussions of late:

- We remember our name.
- We fought for our name when you were going to court to be called FYROM.
- We remember ALL the politicians who sold your country (not just the current one)
- We in the Diaspora give more to Macedonia than your tax system collects.
- We remember Kukush
- We remember our Macedonian brothers and sisters in Egej, Pirin and elsewhere
INSERT A MILLION LINES HERE
- YOU have the power to change this, stop embarrassing Macedonians around the world.

[Risto the Great]

I asked a guy in Portugal what he thinks of the EU. It was a funny answer. He said it was like when your boss gives you a free phone to use. Sounds great, but then he calls you all the time. And there is the EU .... nothing is free.

[kompir]

I asked a guy in Portugal what he thinks of the EU. It was a funny answer. He said it was like when your boss gives you a free phone to use. Sounds great, but then he calls you all the time. And there is the EU .... nothing is free.

Except I used to leave the boss provided phone at work

[molika]

Hello old friends kako sve

[molika]

I haven’t come on in so long

[Risto the Great]

Hi Molika, we're still Macedonians for the time being. Hope you've been well.

[Soldier of Macedon]

Hello old friends kako sve

Hi Molika, nice to see you back here again

[Tomche Makedonche]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-balkans/eu-divided-over-balkan-accession-as-nato-says-macedonia-welcome-idUSKBN1JL0OL

EU divided over Balkan accession as NATO says Macedonia welcome

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union is divided over whether to allow membership talks with Albania and Macedonia as anti-immigration sentiment rises in the bloc, but NATO is ready to welcome Skopje into the Western military alliance.

With broad support for membership talks from other EU governments and the European Commission, Albania and Macedonia hope Europe ministers will agree the go-ahead at a meeting on Tuesday in Luxembourg, which would clear the way for approval by EU government leaders at a summit on Thursday.

However, France and the Netherlands, with support from Denmark, are resisting and may seek further conditions such as more reforms to tackle corruption and organized crime in Albania and Macedonia, EU officials said.

After Macedonia and Greece resolved a decades-old dispute about the former’s name which had blocked the EU membership process, opening talks would mark the clearest step yet in the bloc’s attempts to renew its expansion to the six western Balkan countries after years of neglect for the region.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the U.S.-led alliance was likely to approve membership talks with Macedonia at a summit in July. Albania is already part of NATO and membership has proven to be a platform for joining the EU.

“I expect and I hope that the heads of state and government can agree to start accession talks,” Stoltenberg said as he arrived for a joint EU defense and foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg.

He said the agreement with Greece to change the name from Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to Republic of North Macedonia was “an historic agreement which provides an historic opportunity” for Skopje to join NATO.

French President Emmanuel Macron told the European Parliament in April he could not support EU enlargement without more internal reform of the bloc first, and diplomats say the French position has not changed.

Other diplomats say migration concerns are at the core.

“Reforms are expected before we can open negotiations because we have a high level of requirements,” said a French diplomatic source.

France and the Netherlands sent other EU governments a paper in May saying the lack of judicial reforms, endemic corruption and organized crime were reasons why Albania and Macedonia were not ready for EU membership talks, according to diplomats.

“Their view is that the conditions for opening accession negotiations are not there,” an EU diplomat said.

Two other EU diplomats and two EU officials said Macron’s deeper concern was that opening membership talks with Albania and Macedonia would play into the hands of far-right politicians who are gaining support with populist pledges to stop migration - including from relatively poor eastern European member states of the EU to the more prosperous western member countries.

“Macron feels that this opens a flank to the political right because of the reputation of organized crime in Albania. They don’t want to open this before European elections next year,” said an EU official who asked not to be identified, referring to next May’s vote for the European Parliament.

GERMANY SHIFTS

The EU’s chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker, who visited Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia in March, has warned that the Balkans could face a return to war without any hope of joining the bloc.

The six countries - all of which bar Albania emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia - are considered future members.

Britain’s imminent departure from the EU and Turkey’s stalled membership bid prompted the Commission to propose an intensification of accession talks with the Western Balkans, even if the most advanced aspirants, Serbia and Montenegro, are unlikely to join before 2025 at the earliest.

While Germany shares French concerns about whether talks could start with Albania and Macedonia, Chancellor Angela Merkel has decided to support expansion for geopolitical reasons and to counter growing Russian and Chinese influence in the region.

“France should see the strategic dimension of bringing the Western Balkans closer to EU,” a German government source told Reuters. “We argue that the opening talks are not the closure of accession negotiations.”

[Risto the Great]

It's only fair they tar Macedonia with Albania's criminal brush. The ethnic Albanians of Macedonia are instrumental in deciding Macedonia's future. We are the same criminals as them now. Hope the SeveredFyromians like that Balkan wonderment.

[Niko777]

After giving up its name and identity, Macedonia starts begging with fresh tomatoes for EU Membership

Article: http://www.euronews.com/2018/06/25/f...-eu-membership

[Niko777]

Greek Dancers Form Human Chain in Shape of "Macedonia"

"It was the 1,500 Pontian dancers, though, who formed the map of Macedonia with their bodies in a football field."



Article: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2018...-of-macedonia/

[Spirit]

After giving up its name and identity, Macedonia starts begging with fresh tomatoes for EU Membership

Article: http://www.euronews.com/2018/06/25/f...-eu-membership

I saw this
How pathetic is that “Northern Macedonian” Dimitrov