Final Paper

Course: Common Foreign and Security Policy

Topic: EU Accession Struggle of Macedonia and the Vetoes of Bulgaria and Greece

Student: Professor:

Martin Gurbanov Jaroslaw Janczak

Matriculation No. 67195 ECTS Credits: 6

European University Viadrina

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Content

Introduction

1. Historical Overview from Ancient Macedonia until nowadays

2. The name dispute between FYROM and Greece and the EU Accession Veto

Of Greece

3. The history dispute between FYROM and Bulgaria and the EU accession

veto of Bulgaria

4. Does Macedonia meet the EU the Copenhagen criteria

Conclusion

Bibliography

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Introduction

Today the history and the name issues between The former Yugoslav Republic of

Macedonia (FYROM), Bulgaria and Greece seem to be very important about the future

enlargement and the accession of FYROM in the EU. Chapter 1 will trace back 2500 years of

history and will try to give an answer of the question what is the origin of the problem.

In 2003, during the Thessaloniki European Council summit, FYROM became an official

potential candidate state of the EU. In 20051 the Council decided to give the country a candidate

status. Later in December 20092 Greece vetoed the EU accession negotiation process of The

former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The reason for that was that FYROM uses the same

name as the northern Greek province which is also called Macedonia from ancient times, also

FYROM uses Greek national symbols from ancient time and tries to steal the Greek history and

its heroes, which are explained in chapter 2. Later in 20123 Bulgaria also supported the Greek

position and vetoed FYROM from starting the negotiations. The reason Bulgaria vetoed FYROM

is that they systematically use an ideology of hate towards Bulgaria and also because of some

historical aspects which are explained in chapter 3.

Furthermore, the problems with Greece and Bulgaria are not the only obstacles that

FYROM faces in becoming a member state of the EU. Chapter 4 will focus on the question if the

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has met the Copenhagen criteria (political criteria, the

economic criteria and the ability to take on the obligation of membership).

1 www.ec.europa.eu/, enlargement, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/countries/detailed-country-information/fyrom/index_en.htm, visited on 21.01.2015 2 European Stability Initiative, Gerald Knaus, Macedonia's dispute with Greece, http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=562, visited on 21.01.2015 3 www.euractiv.com/, enlargement, Bulgaria vetoes Macedonia’s EU accession talks, http://www.euractiv.com/enlargement/bulgaria-vetoes-macedonia-eu-acc-news-515809, visited on 21.01.2015

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Chapter One

Historical Overview of Macedonia

This chapter is going to trace back 2500 of history of Ancient Macedonia until now and

prove the real origin of the today’s Republic of Macedonia.

1.1 Ancient period (477BC until 168BC)

Ancient Macedonia was a part of the territory of ancient Greek civilization. During the

antiquity period the Greek civilization was divided in kingdoms (states). For example there were

Athenians, Spartans, Thebians, Macedonians and others. All of the kingdoms were populated

only by Greeks and put together they represented the Greek nation as they spoke Greek language

but with some dialects in the different states also they believed in the same gods. According to

Ancient writes Macedonians weren’t a separate nation, but a state of the ancient Greece.

During the periods 477BC until 168BC each of the states had its hegemony over the other

states. The states were trying to impose their own political system and their laws over the others.

For example the state of Athens (477-431BC) lived under democracy, the state of Sparti (404-

371BC) lived under oligarchy, and the state of Macedonia (338-168BC) was a monarchy. Ancient

Greeks hated monarchy regimes and this way they formed strong hate against the Macedonian

state and his rulers. 4 This led to the famous orator and the most know enemy of Philip II

Demosthenes to state in this speeches that Macedonians are Barbarians (non-Greek) and that

their kind Philip II was a Barbarian.5 During the hegemony of Macedonian kingdom 338-168BC,

Athenians were divided in two groups: supporters of Philip; anti-Macedonian group. During this

period and later the period of Alexander the Great who was a Macedonian king were constant

irritations between the Macedonian kingdom and the other states. Because the Spartans envied

Alexander’s success they fought on the side of Persia.

4 http://www.cc.ece.ntua.gr/, The falsification of the history of Macedonia, The Greeks in Antiquity, visited on 16.12.2014. 5 Joseph Roismanand, Ian Worthington, A companion to ancient Macedonia, 2010 Blackwell Publishing, https://www.academia.edu/7281483/IAN_WORTHINGHTON-Ancient_Macedonia

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1.2 The Roman Republic, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire (168BC – 1912)

After the death of Alexander the Great, there were constant civil wars between the

kingdoms and this made it easy for the Roman Republic to conquer them in 168BC and this led

to the end of ancient Greek’s prosperity. After this followed about 2000 years of constant wars

the domination of the Byzantine and the Ottoman empires over Greece until the Independence

day in 01. January 1822. Although Greece gained its independence earlier, the territory of today’s

Macedonia was an object of constant disputed between Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and Serbia6

during the four wars (the First Balkan war, the Second Balkan war, the First World War and the

Second World War).

1.3 The First Balkan war, the Second Balkan war, the First World War and the Second World

War 1912 – 1945

During the First Balkan War Turkey was defeated by the alliance between Bulgaria,

Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro and gave all the Balkan lands back.

During the Second Balkan War there was disagreement between Greece, Bulgaria, and

Serbia, Romania and Montenegro over redistributing the new territories. Bulgaria wanted to take

Macedonia but then Serbia, Greece, Turkey, Romania and Montenegro allied and fought against

Bulgaria. The Second Balkan War ended with the defeat of Bulgaria. Then the territories of

Ancient Macedonia were divided between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria.

After the First Word War Bulgaria gave back to Greece the Eastern Macedonia and today’s

FYROM territories were part of the new republic of Yugoslavia.

During the Second Word War Bulgaria gained back the Eastern and Central Macedonia

and started a process of de-nationalization of the Greece population in this area. During this

period properties were seized and were given to Bulgarians. This led to large scale settlement of

Bulgarian population in the new territories in Macedonia. After the WW2, Bulgaria had to return

the territories of Eastern and Central Macedonia back to Yugoslavia.

6 http://www.cc.ece.ntua.gr/, The falsification of the history of Macedonia, Roman period, Byzantine period, Ottoman occupation, visited on 16.12.2014

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1.4 Tito’s plan for Macedonian nation – This is the plan that created false Macedonian cultural

identity. The reason for this plan is because Bulgaria had strong influence over this region

because too many Bulgarians were living in the Macedonian region, which now it is a part of

Yugoslavia. Tito wanted to create stronger Yugoslavia, so he wanted to remove the pro-Bulgarian

tendencies of that region, so he created a plan for creating a separate identity of a new

Macedonian nation. In order to fabricate a new nation, Tito used the following means: separate

state organization, separate language, independent church, and separate nationality.7

- Separate state organizations – New state institutions were created and they were

called “Macedonian Parliament, Macedonian government.

- Separate language – A Bulgarian language dialect was called the new “Macedonian”

language, where only some letters of the alphabet were replaced. This is the only

language in the world that was created by politicians, not naturally developed.

- Independent Church – Although communists were atheists, in 1964 they allowed the

new “Macedonian” nation to have its own Church.

- Separate nationality - In order to fabricate a new nationality Tito created the

“Institute of National History in Skopje were scholars started writing books, articles,

journals, proving the separate identity of the “Macedonians”, thus they were the main

tool of the propaganda.

1.5 The independence of Republic of Macedonia – After the collapse of the Yugoslavia, Republic

of Macedonia was established in 19918. In 1993 Republic of Macedonia gains recognition by the

UN, but it was recognized under another name – “The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”

(FYROM)9 where it is use in international relations.

Since 1991 there is a conflict between Greece and FYROM about the name and the use of

other Greek national symbols and the stealing the Greek’s heritage.

7 http://www.hri.org/, The "Macedonian Question", visited on 15.01.2015, http://www.hri.org/docs/macque/text2.html 8 http://www.britannica.com/, Macedonia, independence, visited on 15.01.2015, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/354223/Macedonia/284921/Independence 9 RESOLUTION 817 (1993), UN, http://www.hri.org/docs/fyrom/S.RES.817.html, visited on 15.01.2015

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Chapter Two

The name dispute between FYROM and Greece and the EU Accession

Veto of Greece

This chapter will deal with the so called “Macedonian issue” that stops FYROM from EU

accession. Also possible solutions of the problem will be given in this chapter.

As stated in the previous chapter the today’s Macedonian nation and history was

fabricated by the communistic leader of Yugoslavia Tito. It seems that 49 years of brainwashing

is enough to inculcate to around 2 million people that they were a separate nation with its own

language, and cultural identity. Unfortunately the Macedonian propaganda continued even after

the collapse of the Yugoslavia and the establishment of independent Republic of Macedonia in

1991. The new government of FYROM decided not fix the problem but it actually continued to

elaborate it even more and thus risking its relations with the neighbouring countries (Bulgaria

and Greece). Greece immediately objected the name “Republic of Macedonia” because the

Greek Northern Province is also called Macedonia. Since then 1991 until 1995 Greece imposed

trading embargo10. Today, because of this dispute Greece blocks FYROM’s accession in the EU as

well in NATO.

The dispute between FYROM and Greece has three aspects – name issue, national

symbols (mainly the national flag), and historical heritage claims of FYROM over Greece.

1. The Name Issue – This problems goes back form 1991 when the newly formed republic

decided to name itself “Republic of Macedonia”. According to Greece, Macedonia was an

ancient Greek Kingdom – “Macedon” and currently the name of the Greek Northern

Province. Thus its use is offensive and it usurps the Greek culture and heritage11. Also

today’s borders of FYROM include only 10 % of the ancient Macedonia and the rest of the

10 European Stability Initiative, Gerald Knaus, Macedonia's dispute with Greece, http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=562 visited on 15.01.2015 11 European Stability Initiative, Gerald Knaus, Macedonia's dispute with Greece, http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=562 visited on 15.01.2015

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territory lays on the province called Vardarska Banovina. Also the population is mainly

Slavic. Hence, FYROM doesn’t have any legitimate reasons the call itself Republic of

Macedonia12.

2. National Symbols – In 1991 FYROM started using Vergina Sun as its national flag and

again this symbol was exclusively Greek because it was a symbol found in the ancient

Macedonian kings and also it was a designated by the Greek parliament as a national

symbol13. Later FYROM stepped back and changed the flag but it still has the idea of the

Vergina sun, just it is not completely the same.

Another Greek national symbol that was used was the White tower of Thessaloniki as a

symbol on one of the FYROM’s banknotes. Later it was removed.14

3. Historical heritage – Today in every school in FYROM is thought that Alexander the Great

is a FYROM’s national hero and that he was not Greek but a king of a completely different

nation, the Macedonian nation, which of course is not true, as stated in chapter 1,

because there are undisputed proves that Alexander the Great was totally Greek.

Why are these countries trapped in a deadlock? - The main problem is the lack of trust.

Because if Republic of Macedonia decides to change its name and this opens the door the

accession negotiations to continue again, this does not guarantee its actual EU accession. From

the other side Greece will not prematurely agree to let FYROM starts the EU accession

negotiations again, without changing its name first. What is the solution of the problem? – The

solution is FYROM to add a single paragraph to its constitution and stating something like that:

"From the day the Republic of Macedonia joins the European Union, the international name of

the country will be XYZ (acceptable name could be “Vardarska Republica”.15

12 www.greece.org, History of the FYROM’s name dispute, The FYROM’s Illegitimate Claim to the Name Macedonia, http://www.greece.org/themis/macedonia/historengl.htm#creation, visited on 15.01.2015 13 European Stability Initiative, Gerald Knaus, Macedonia's dispute with Greece, http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=562 visited on 15.01.2015 14 http://www.greece.org/, Macedonia, Bill Gatzoulis, http://www.greece.org/themis/macedonia/article3.htm, visited on 16.01.2015 15 European Stability Initiative, Breaking the Macedonian deadlock before the end of 2012, http://www.esiweb.org/pdf/Breaking%20the%20Macedonian%20deadlock%20-%20ESI%20proposal%20November%202012.pdf, visited on 16.01.2015

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Although FYROM removed the paragraph of its constitution that stated that FYROM must

take care of all its citizens in Greece and in Bulgaria. The Greek government considers as

provocative act and a claim on the Greek territories. Later the FYROM government replaced that

paragraph with: “The Republic of Macedonia has no territorial pretensions towards any

neighbouring state”.16 This solution seems to be the most acceptable for the both sides.

Chapter Three

The history dispute between FYROM and Bulgaria and the EU

accession veto of Bulgaria

This chapter will describe the reasons of the Bulgaria’s veto and the attempts of FYROM

to steal the Bulgarian history and its unneighbourly relations with Bulgaria.

The main aspects of the problems of Bulgaria with FYROM is that FYROM shamelessly

copies and distorts the Bulgarian history and anti-Bulgarian campaign in the media. As a whole

FYROM violates the norms of good neighbourliness and this is reason why Bulgaria vetoed

FYROM into further EU accession negations.

1. Coping and distorting the Bulgarian history – There are many example of how the FYROM

historians try to manipulate the history in their favour in order to continue with the

Macedonian propaganda. To name a few their historians claim that the saints and

enlighters Kirill and Methodii, that wrote our alphabet are Macedonians; Bulgarian tsar

Samoil was Macedonian tsar; Gotse Delchev and Iane Sandanski were described as

Macedonian revolutionists; the Bulgarian author Nikola Vaptsarov was declared as the

founder of the Macedonian literature and many more. The Bulgarian history is backed by

documents that prove this. On the other hand the international community still hasn’t

recognized the FYROM’s statement about their history. Nevertheless in the school of

16 The Constitution of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

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FYROM these false history is still thought and the Bulgarians are represented as the

biggest enemy of FYROM17.

2. Anti-Bulgarian campaign in FYROM - The media in FYROM is well known as its hate

speech and anti-Bulgarian propaganda. An example for this will be the case where

FYROM’s media claims that the Bulgarian language was a mix of Russian and

“Macedonian” language18. Another example is an article in the FYROM newspaper

“Vecher” that Todor Petrov claims that there are not Bulgarian living in Bulgaria, only

Turks and Roma people. The article claims that there are not Bulgarians without

Macedonian roots19.

Although Bulgaria was the first country in the World to recognize the Republic of

Macedonia, it didn’t recognize the nation and its language. It seems that Bulgaria will keep

blocking FYROM from accessing the EU until they start acting like a good neighbour and stop

the ani-Bulgarian campaign and propaganda. The problem with the coping of the history from

Bulgaria is more complex than the name issue with Greece. The reason for this is that there

are some acceptable variations of the name for FYROM, but erasing all these years of

falsification of its history and admitting they were lying is even more harder to accept.

Bulgaria as well as Greece use their status of a country that can say the last word about

accepting FYROM in the EU, they will want to use this leverage and force FYROM to admit

some historical facts and to step back.

17 Георги Кадев, Отношенията Между България И Република Македония – Проблеми И Противоречия, no data. 18 www.haskovo.net/, Побеснели македонски медии: В България пишат на македоно-руски, published 05-09-

2012, http://www.haskovo.net/news/111268/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B8_%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8_%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%B8_%D0%92_%D0%91%D1%8A%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%BF%D0%B8%D1%88%D0%B0%D1%82_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%BE-%D1%80%D1%83%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8, visited on 16.01.2015 19 www.19min.bg/, Македонски медии: В България няма българи, http://19min.bg/news/8/39357.html, visited 16.01.2015

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Chapter Four

Does the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia meet the Copenhagen criteria

In this chapter the three main criteria for EU accession will be examined: the political criteria, the

economic criteria and the ability to take on the obligation of membership.

Currently the EU accession process is at an impasse. The reason for this are the vetoes of

Bulgaria and Greece. Also the government failed to sustain key issues reform. Let’s now examine

each of the criteria separately in order to gain a better idea of the progress in the Former Yugoslav

Republic of Macedonia.

1. The Political Criteria20 – this criteria has 3 main categories which will be examined in detail:

democracy and the rule of law, human rights and the protection of minorities, regional issues

and international obligations.

1.1. Democracy and the rule of law – The most serious issues which have been reported from

the EU progress report are the freedom of expression in the media as well as personal,

control of the government of public institutions and the media, quality of the justice and

its independence from the government.

1.1.1. Government - The recently elected government has set some main priorities for

the 2014-2018. The main priorities are: increasing economic growth, EU and NATO

integration, fighting corruption and organized crime. Although it straggles because

of its multi-ethnic character.

1.1.2. Public Administration – The main concern here is the politicisation of the

administration and the independence of the institutions and their transparency.

However, currently there is a public administration reform since 2010. Its main aims

are to increase the quality, to become more transparent and efficient. It also has an

20 European Commission, The Former Yugoslav Republic Progress Report, October, 2014, http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-the-former-yugoslav-republic-of-macedonia-progress-report_en.pdf, visited on 17.01.2015

12

e-government development taking place. Overall the administration need

improvements.

1.1.3. Fight against corruption – Since 2009 there are hundreds of corruption cases and

since 2004 there are 30 high – level corruption cases that are currently being

investigated. The main problems here are the weakness of human and financial

resources, inter-agency communication needs improvements and IT connectivity

between courts. Overall this is very serious issue that exists in many areas.

1.1.4. Fight against organised crime – The government is cooperating with Eurojust and

Europol. Also there were some successful operations against the organized crime

where drug trifling rounds have been cut. This problem still remains very serious and

one police action against it doesn’t help much, it need more efforts and deep

reforms.

1.2. Human rights and the protection of minorities – There are some serious issues that must

be corrected. Issues like freedom of expression, indirect state control of the media,

government advertisement and government-favourable media outlets, the

independence and the reporting media and the accordance and the objective

information is very often put on question, the main reason for this are the poor

journalistic ethics. The Law on Prevention and Protection against Discrimination must be

reformed immediately, because it doesn’t prohibit sexual orientation discrimination. The

Roma population is being discriminated mainly in the area of employment.

1.3. Regional issues and international obligations – Fortunately there are not current cases

in Hague. There are 2074 refugees in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, mainly

Roma people from Kosovo. These refugees live in poverty. There are good, developing

and improving relations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia,

Serbia, Kosovo, Turkey and Croatia. These relations are based mainly on bilateral

relations or agreements on mutual protection of classified information, sharing

diplomatic and consular services, an agreement with Kosovo for the opening of a new

joint border crossing point at Belanovce-Stančik and foreign direct investments from

Turkey. However, the relations with Bulgaria remain difficult because of history and the

relations with Greece are also difficult because of the name issue and the historical and

cultural arguments.

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2. Economic Criteria21

Although the economic situation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

remains considerably stable, there is a lot more to demand and there are urgent needs of

reforms in order to reach a functioning market economy. The unemployment is very big

problem, especially among the young people. The government has undertaken some

actions against the unemployment but they are unsatisfactory. Even more, because the

employment is very tiddly connected with the business environment which is in a bad

condition this deteriorates the situation even more. The main problems of the business

are: obtaining permits, slow market exit procedures, access to finance, better alignment

of workers skills and the labour demands. The finance stability as a whole has been

reserved and the foreign direct investments have increased, but the fiscal discipline and

the government spendings have worsen. Also the government needs to take actions to

stabilise debt levels.

3. Ability to take on the obligations of membership22

This criteria includes 33 acquis chapters and they analyse the ability of the

country’s administrative capacity to implement the acquis. There are some fields that the

government is very advanced like: internal market, capital movements, postal services

and company law. The country is well advanced as well with its visa policy preparations,

external borders, Schengen area, police cooperation and competition policy. Also good

progress was made in the area of information society and media, the Food and Veterinary

policy made a considerable progress by implementing applicable laws. However, there is

a lot more to be done in order to satisfy all the requirements, the most problematic fields

are: regional policy, environment and climate change, social policy and education, public

internal financial control and enterprise and industrial policy.

21 European Commission, The Former Yugoslav Republic Progress Report, October, 2014, http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-the-former-yugoslav-republic-of-macedonia-progress-report_en.pdf, visited on 17.01.2015 22 European Commission, The Former Yugoslav Republic Progress Report, October, 2014, http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key_documents/2014/20141008-the-former-yugoslav-republic-of-macedonia-progress-report_en.pdf, visited on 17.01.2015

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Conclusion

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia faces three main problems that hold it back from

EU accession. The problems are: History dispute and bad neighbourly relations with Bulgaria; the

“name issue” with Greece; struggle to meet the Copenhagen accession criteria.

The problems with Bulgaria can you solved considerably easy just by diplomacy. The ani-

Bulgarian in the Macedonian media campaign must stop and they have to recognize the Bulgarian

history.

The “name issue” with Greece will be very complex to resolve, because Macedonia will

need not only diplomacy but political will and support by the people to make the necessary steps

to change its name by constitutional changes. Only then Greece will be willing to start the EU

negotiations process again. Although this problem is not impossible to resolve, it is very complex

issue and it will need a lot of time and affords.

Although the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia made some progress towards

meeting some of the Copenhagen criteria and it is well advanced with its visa policy preparations,

external borders, Schengen area, police cooperation and competition policy. Also good progress

was made in the area of information society and media, but it also faces serious problems to

meet other very important Copenhagen criteria. The main problems are: freedom of expression,

independence of the institutions, corruption, organized crime, human rights and discrimination

problems and weak economy. These issues also could be solved by political will and patience

because they are serious and they require a lot of time.

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