Macedonia and NATO

[fyrOM]

look like it could be on

Ivanov: Macedonia in NATO under reference in accordance with the Interim Agreement

http://www.vest.com.mk/?ItemID=A6B52761C004E348B1F658AD47B6E307

Macedonia has achieved all its obligations and deserves membership in NATO, and it made all know and analysts in the state, "President George Ivanov, responding to a question how realistic the initiative of the American Foundation" Heritage ", the administration of President Barack Obama and countries - NATO to pressure Greece to Macedonia to join the alliance at a summit in Lisbon.

[fyrOM]

AMERICAN INSTITUTE AND tells the U.S. administration

Press Macedonia to join NATO

http://www.vest.com.mk/?ItemID=CD500EFA956B2F4A90F4659AB0B719E3

United States to increase pressure and support for Macedonia's entry into NATO at the upcoming summit, which in November will be held in Lisbon, Portugal. This proposal, referred to the administration of President Barack Obama, came through the analysis of the American Institute of Policy "Heritedzh Foundation.
The authors of the analysis, analysts Sally McNamara and Morgan Roach wrote that U.S. support for Macedonia is not enough, and offer a combined pressure from Europe and the U.S. over Greece.
"The administration will have to use its diplomatic channels in Europe, in coordination with U.S. officials in Athens, to increase international pressure on Greece urgent issue to be resolved. Considerable diplomatic pressure would also have to make Europe the Athens, particularly from France and Germany and the United States should call on Berlin and Paris this issue a priority at the summit, "the analysis of Heritedzh Foundation.
According to this analysis, Macedonia has long deserve a place in NATO as it met the criteria for it, and the entrance would give in accordance with the Interim Accord between Macedonia and Greece in 1995, but also to continue negotiations on the name, within the United Nations.

[Prolet]

Austrian Ambassador: Greece Violates International Law

Tuesday, 26 October 2010

It is the sovereign right of every state to choose its own name in line with international law. No country has the right to interfere or ask another sovereign state to use a certain name or change the existing one. Therefore, Macedonia's stance to preserve its name is fully supported by international law, says Harald Kotschy, former Austrian ambassador to Macedonia and expert on Balkan affairs in an interview at a NTV station program.

According to him, Greece clearly violates international law and all principles of good neighborly relations by blocking Macedonia's NATO and EU integration.

"I believe Greek policy towards Macedonia can be compared, in a way, with blackmail", says Kotschy.

He claims the Macedonian diplomacy did not use the possibility to convince other member-states to stop supporting Greece in the name row at the time when everyone was shocked and angry from Greece's cheating over the Euro.

Pertaining to the EU accession, Kotschy says all positive and negative aspects should be taken into account when decision day comes, adding Macedonia should not haste in this regard.

"Maybe one day the EU will realize that Macedonia, due to its geostrategic position, is quite important for them and vice versa. And maybe they 'will beg' to see you as member, under the constitutional name", underlines Kotschy.

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/16716/1/

[Frank]

And we are their hostages

[Risto the Great]

"Maybe one day the EU will realize that Macedonia, due to its geostrategic position, is quite important for them and vice versa. And maybe they 'will beg' to see you as member, under the constitutional name", underlines Kotschy.

I am quite sure of this.
What concerns me is how fast Macedonia will accept the membership, no matter how much of an attack on its sovereignty it must endure.

[Prolet]

Risto, Sam Vaknin made a good point about the EU, he said its good for the long term of our country however it wouldnt give us anything more once we join and in return we're gonna have to start paying for what we are already recieving. He also said that once we're in the EU the Albanians wont be able to smuggle anymore and that they dont want to see law and order in place.

[Dimko-piperkata]

Germany supports Macedonia on its path to NATO

13:42 GMT, October 27, 2010

Germany supported Macedonia on its pat to NATO as we believe that many important steps have been made in that respect. We are interested in finding a compromise to the name issue, as it is somewhat related to the issue of the overall stability of the Balkans, stated the Minister if Defence of the Federal Republic of Germany, Karl Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg, after yesterday's first official visit in Berlin with the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Macedonia, Zoran Konjanovski, held several weeks prior to the NATO summit in Lisbon.

"I have heard about Macedonia’s readiness to find compromise, let us hope that the other side will demonstrated the same readiness," said Guttenberg, underlining that if NATO continues the enlargement with another member that has already completed its homework, that would be a contribution to stability of the region.

Even through Macedonia is on a good path, this path cannot be defined by a single country, the Alliance, constituted of a great number of member countries makes the decision, which is the strength of NATO. Still, Guttenberg asserted that Macedonia has been participation in joint missions abroad for years, and the standing Minister Konjanovski, as he said, is a man who keeps his word and maintains the required criteria.

According to Minister Konjanovski, all the reforms that Macedonia has conducted have made the country ready to become a full-fledged member of NATO even today.

"The same as the Republic of Macedonia is asking for a fair attitude with respect to the NATO membership, we should continue with our fair attitude," underlined the Macedonian Minister or Defence, emphasizing that full-fledged membership in the Alliance is a priority of the Government and the citizens.

As part of the two-day visit of Berlin, Konjanovski had a meeting with the Chair of the German Bundestag Defence Committee, Suzanne Kastner.

On the meetings of the Macedonian delegation, led by Minister Konjanovski, both ministers reaffirmed the friendly and bilateral relations between the two countries, especially the high level of cooperation in the defence issues segment. In that respect, around 140 members of the ARM have been trained in the German Army, and we are preparing for a join engagement as part of the EU BG in the second half of 2012.

http://www.defpro.com/news/details/19136/

why supporting ?
in a few month greece will not exist anymore...we dont need any help anymore...time will fix the problems in our favour

[Soldier of Macedon]

I have heard about Macedonia’s readiness to find compromise

What is the German talking about? What 'compromise' has he heard about? Is this your idea of support, Dimko?

[Bratot]

This remind me of Bitove case.

[Dimko-piperkata]

well, germany has itself bigger problems @home so that they give a shit about our strife with the greece.

[George S.]

the path to nato & eu needs to be with no conditions like the name issue.Greece needs to learn yo accept macedonia as it is.Why should macedonia needs to compromise?

[Frank]

Change the name of your Country and then your very name first
Germany whilst you recognise the ethnic "Sorbs"

[Risto the Great]

NATO Parliamentarians Debate New Balkan Strategies

http://www.defpro.com/news/details/19139/

13:55 GMT, October 27, 2010 Despite the remarkable progress achieved in the Western Balkans, a number of unresolved issues and persistent challenges remain on the path to a full normalisation of the region. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia* continues to contend with the legacy of the 2001 interethnic clashes and the dispute with Greece over the name of the country. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, persistent political blockages have hampered the adoption of key reforms, including constitutional reform, and slowed down the transition away from the mechanism of international supervision established by the Dayton Accords. Meanwhile, Pristina and Belgrade’s competing claims of sovereignty over Kosovo perpetuate an ambiguous situation with particular complications in the North. Faced with these challenges, international strategies in the region have sometimes seemed unable to provide the necessary traction to help resolve remaining issues. Adjusting these strategies and building on a positive trend in the area of regional cooperation can help create new momentum in the region.

These were the main conclusions of the 75th Rose-Roth Seminar which the NATO Parliamentary Assembly held in Skopje, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, on 19-21 October under the theme “South Eastern Europe: Creating New Momentum”. The seminar, co-sponsored by the Assembly of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and the Swiss Ministry of Defence, brought together some 139 participants including 37 members of parliament from NATO and partner countries, government representatives, officials from international organizations, experts and academics.

Ambassador James Pardew, former US negotiator of the Ohrid Framework Agreement for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and former NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Operations, summarized the key challenge facing the region following the bloody conflicts of the 1990s: “a great political experiment in national identity is taking place which could change South Eastern Europe fundamentally”, he explained. “That experiment is the implementation of the concept that the rights of citizenship are defined by where the individual lives and not by his or her ethnicity [….] the success or failure of this experiment may well determine whether the region can break from its divisive past”. This challenge was a key underlying theme for the three case studies discussed in the two and half days of the seminar.

Speakers and participants recognised the major progress achieved by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in building multiethnic institutions through the implementation of the 2001 Ohrid Framework Agreement. However, as emphasized by Simone Filippini, Ambassador of the Netherlands in Skopje, while the letter of Ohrid has been implemented, “the spirit of Ohrid” is still missing, a spirit that “involves widespread and sincere acceptance among all ethnicities and their leaders of reconciliation between ethnicities, as well as an understanding that Ohrid was meant not to divide but to reunite”. Speakers stressed how the prospect of EU integration has played a fundamental role in changing perceptions of Ohrid as favouring the Albanian population exclusively, and in combating ethnic nationalist tendencies.

However, “the attractiveness of the EU model is lost today”, Stevo Pendarovski, Assistant Professor at University American College Skopje, argued. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s path to the EU and to NATO continues to be hampered by its dispute with Greece over the name issue, a dispute that also resonates internally and has created new divides both within the ethnic Macedonian political class, and between Macedonian and Albanian leaders in the country. As one speaker put it, “negotiations about the name are not really about the name”; other key issues include the scope of the use of the name and, most importantly, underlying identity issues. Given the sensitivity of the latter, speakers and participants were generally sceptical that a resolution of this dispute was forthcoming.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the general elections held on 3 October, although they brought new actors to power, did not fundamentally change underlying dynamics. Political blockages along ethnic lines have delayed the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration and created obstacles even in those areas of clear success, such as defence reform. Thus, the failure to resolve the issue of immovable defence property has prevented the activation of Bosnia and Herzegovina ’s Membership Action Plan with NATO. Speakers deplored the lack of an EU policy on Bosnia and Herzegovina, and challenged the widespread belief that constitutional reform will solve political blockages and that a package deal would be the best solution. Instead, they called for a gradual progressive approach, focusing on those areas where consensus and progress is achievable.

In Kosovo, the security situation was assessed as calm in most areas, granting a progressive reduction of the KFOR presence, with a further decrease expected shortly from 10,000 to 5,500 troops. However, all speakers stressed that the situation in the North, where Pristina’s authority is extremely limited, remained the key problem. The prospect of new talks between Belgrade and Pristina was seen as the only way out of the current conundrum, but what these talks could be expected to achieve was unclear. The political crisis in Kosovo and the prospect of elections added another layer of complication. Speakers all noted that failure of the dialogue risked fostering nationalistic projects of redrawing borders, be it through a partition of the North of Kosovo, a land swap between Northern Kosovo and the Albanian-majority parts of South Serbia, or even the creation of a Greater Albania. However, speakers and participants generally dismissed such calls to reopen the question of current borders as extremely dangerous strategies.

Turning to the question of international strategies in the region, speakers generally agreed that there was no need for radically new approaches. Putting into question current strategies would send a wrong signal to countries of the region, which need to see integration as a credible prospect. There was broad consensus that in NATO’s specific area of responsibility – defence reform –, impressive progress had been achieved. The accession of Albania and Croatia and the contribution of armed forces of the region to NATO operations demonstrated that the Western Balkans countries had become contributors of security. NATO therefore did not need a new strategy for the region. The adoption of NATO’s new Strategic Concept in Lisbon was expected to create a new momentum for the Alliance, which would also reinvigorate nations’ efforts to qualify for membership.

Participants agreed that the EU provided deeper and broader incentives for reform than NATO in the Western Balkans. However, the EU’s adoption of enlargement as a stand-alone foreign policy in the Western Balkans was seen as having reached its limits. The combined impact of enlargement fatigue, the global financial and economic crisis and the debate over the Union ’s absorption capacity had led to a “carrot crisis in the EU”, as put by Dusan Reljic, Senior Researcher at the German Institute for International Affairs. The EU’s approach was also hampered by a disconnect between goals and instruments.

Speakers and participants thus stressed the importance for EU and NATO member states to speak with one voice in their relations with countries of the region. Greater synergies should also be sought between the EU and NATO at the strategic level as well as in specific practical areas.

Seminar participants also called on the EU to augment its overarching enlargement strategy with policies that would be tailor-made to the specific challenges faced by each country. The promise of membership without a clear roadmap and specific benchmarks was not enough. Promoting local ownership of reforms, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, was also considered essential.

A greater focus on economic development rather than mere assistance aimed at preserving stability was mentioned as another important priority. This could also include opening the EU’s doors more widely to labour migrants from the region, one speaker suggested.

Finally, speakers agreed that regional cooperation provided a key source of new momentum in the Western Balkans. A new wave of normalisation and reconciliation, the mushrooming of practical initiatives and a growing regional ownership of cooperation mechanisms, had brought about positive dynamics which could help complete the transformation of the region.

Looking back at the past 20 years, Jovan Teokarevic, Professor at Belgrade University, concluded that after a decade of conflict and another decade of normalisation, it was now time to move to “a decade of consolidation of positive changes, which should end with the accession of the entire region to Euro-Atlantic institutions”. This would complete the region’s path “from war to stabilisation to the European mainstream”.

Company or Organisation Portrait:
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is the inter-parliamentary organisation of legislators from the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance as well as 14 associate members. The Assembly provides a critical forum for international parliamentary dialogue on an array of security, political and economic matters. Its principal objective is to foster mutual understanding among Alliance parliamentarians of the key security challenges facing the transatlantic partnership. Assembly discussions and debates make an important contribution to the development of the consensus that must underpin Alliance policies.

[Risto the Great]

“That experiment is the implementation of the concept that the rights of citizenship are defined by where the individual lives and not by his or her ethnicity

I see the Balkans are the new testing ground for theories of a few bureaucrats .
Can anyone explain how the Ohrid agreement can be reconciled to the statement above? Especially given that it is entirely about rights to a minority ethnicity!

[Bratot]

I will let him put his experiment up his...

It's becoming more obvious that since the creation of SFRJ we are one big experiment, together with the whole region.