Greece fears vote in UN on Macedonia's name

Makfax vesnik:

Athens /25/10/ 13:57 Greece is putting efforts into preventing a fresh wave of recognition of the Macedonia's constitutional name, which might enable Macedonia to work out a vote at UN for canceling of the reference FYR Macedonia, Greek daily Eleftherotypia said in today's edition.

The paper says that Athens and Skopje are currently engaged in intensive lobbying battle on the name, making the final calculations.

The article further says that it wasn't by chance that Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis informed the MPs about Macedonia's efforts to reach the limit of 150 countries that would have recognized its constitutional name.

While Athens claims that 117 countries have made such a move thus far, Skopje says the actual number is 123.

In the Macedonia's claiming is true, than the country needs recognition of as little as five more countries in order to submit a motion to the UN General Assembly for voting on revoking of the decision on the reference the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, adopted by the Security Council in 1993, says Eleftherotypia.

According to the paper, the countries which are likely to recognize Macedonia's constitutional name soon, include EU members Sweden and Denmark, NATO member Norway, South Korea and New Zealand.

"Four out of five permanent members of the UN Security Council - USA, Russia, China and Great Britain have already recognized the constitutional name of Macedonia, and according to diplomatic sources, it is unrealistic to expect that France would impose a veto," the Greek daily says.

"Greece is alarmed and Bakoyannis would surely be in constant touch with its counterparts to prevent any embarrassing development for Greece regarding the name differences," Eleftherotypia concludes.