On September 11 2008, United Nations special envoy on the name issue between Greece and Macedonia Matthew Nimetz is scheduled to have a new round of talks with the representatives of the two states in New York, and some new proposals to solve the row are expected to be made.
Nimetz will first have a joint meeting with Greek negotiator Adamantios Vassilakis and Macedonian counterpart Nikola Dimitrov, accompanied by Martin Protoger, chief of staff Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski, after which he will hold separate meetings with the two parties, the press service of the United Nations announced in a statement.
According to website Balkan Insight, media in both Greece and Macedonia have speculated that Nimetz would come up with some new proposals.
On September 9, Macedonian president Branko Crvenkovski, prime minister Gruevski, foreign minister Antonio Milososki and negotiator Dimitrov held a regular co-ordination meeting on the name row to discuss the forthcoming new round of talks, Crvenkovski's press service announced. During the meeting, they exchanged information about the current developments related to the dispute and reaffirmed that Macedonia would continue to actively participate in the process, with its top priority being the recognition of the identity and dignity of the Macedonian nation.
Greek daily Kathimerini, however, quoted spokesperson of the Greek foreign ministry Giorgos Koumoutsakos as saying that the current situation of the name row negotiations does not justify any optimism.
The name dispute between the two Balkan neighbours focuses on Greek demands that Macedonia change its name since it coincides with that of the northern Greek province. According to Athens, this implies Skopje's territorial claims towards Greece.
The climax of the name issue came in April 2008, when Greece vetoed Macedonia getting invited to join Nato at a summit of the military alliance in Bucharest. Since then, ties between the two have been exacerbated and now Athens is threatening to block the launch of the official accession talks of Skopje with the European Union.
Recently, Gruevski tried to add a number of other issues to the bilateral negotiations, such as the Greek recognition of the Macedonian minority in Greece and of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, but his strivings were cooled by Nimetz and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who said that the only topic of talks for the time being should be the name.
In August, Nimetz held talks with the Greek and Macedonian officials both in New York and on local ground, but no progress was made.
