Brussels, 30/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 29 January Antonio Milososki, the leader of the foreign affairs committee of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Parliament, welcomed “the initiative of European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Füle to hold a trilateral meeting between Greece, the Republic of Macedonia and the EU” so as to discuss the issue of the FRYOM name - an issue which is blocking the opening of the country's accession negotiations. During a conference on the Western Balkans at the European Parliament, Milososki said that this meeting could take place at ministerial level and that each of the parties could delegate experts to be able to tackle the most essential aspects and find the best possible way out for both FYROM and Greece. “The Republic of Macedonia would not be opposed to the EU acting in the relationship between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia so as to make positive progress”, he added, while the leader of the OSCE parliamentary assembly, Riccardo Migliori, considered it was “unthinkable” that the EU “might not manage to resolve the problem of the denomination of FYROM”.
On 30 January, Füle's spokesperson did not confirm the information to EUROPE and he said that it was a bilateral issue. He repeated that the EU wants a negotiated and mutually acceptable solution to be found as quickly as possible to the name issue, under the auspices of the UN. During the conference the previous day, Füle had said that it was not about bringing these issues to the level of the EU where they could “explode” like mines, in the middle of the accession process.
Regulating the banking problem between Croatia and Slovenia. With regard to the bilateral issue between Croatia and Slovenia on the Ljubljanska banka (see EUROPE 10705), Füle said he hoped that an acceptable result would be found for the parties. “A bilateral issue must not hinder our integration”, said the vice-president of the Croatian Democratic Union HDZ, Dubravka Suica. Hoping that Slovenia will ratify Croatia's accession treaty quickly, she added that she is convinced that the bank issue can be solved swiftly.
Füle added that the European Commission was very likely to adopt the latest progress report on Croatia in the second half of March, and that its tone was likely to be “positive”. “Croatia is on track on the ten points that were highlighted in the last report. I am very optimistic and I am hopeful that the report will be positive”, he said (our translation throughout). (CG/transl.fl)