Kotzias to visit Ohrid on Thursday

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias beginshis mini Balkan tour and on Tuesday , while on Thursday (April 12) he is to meet FM Nikola Dimitrov in Ohrid.

Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet officially confirmed Kotzias’s tour, but according to media outlets, Kotzias will hold meetings in Belgrade on Wednesday, on Thursday in Ohrid afterwards will visit Pristina and will return to Athens.

Greek media comment that the most critical meeting of all is the one with Dimitrov in Ohrid and that the differences are the same and unchanged, referring to the revision of the Constitution, the erga omnes, i.e. the use of the new name, language and identity, but add that there is still mutual willingness on both sides to reach a solution.

In late Monday’s headline news on Greek televisions, reporters referred to positions of PM Zoran Zaev given in the interview with MIA as well as Kotzias’s interview with the German Der Spiegel magazine.

At the meeting in Ohrid, the two foreign ministers will again discuss open issues in the negotiations in order to move closer to the solution. So far, it is a fact that both sides have reached a complex name that contains the term Macedonia with a geographical qualifier. However, issues such as change in FYROM Constitution, the use of the name to be erga omnes – the new name for overall home and international usage, but also issues as language and identity remain to be discussed, Skai TV reported.

Skai commented that if agreement is not reached on critical dates June 28 – 29 when EU Summit is scheduled and NATO Summit scheduled to be held on July 11-12, both sides are already considering alternative plan for international agreement that will link Macedonia with NATO but without gaining a status of a full-fledged member.

Antenna television commented that Kotzias and Dimitrov will hold fresh meeting with the existing differences but mutual willingness to see whether negotiations can get new momentum in practice.

According to the news portal 247, the negotiations for name dispute have been deepened, for many of the points on the Greek side an agreement has been reached, but “there is still a difference in the major issues concerning erga omnes, the exact qualifier in the name and the change of the Constitution.”