The renewed name issue negotiations and the potential for dispute resolution of the ICJ Judgment

Abstract

The paper makes an assessment of the Republic of Macedonia’s efforts to become a member of the European Union and NATO in the context of the name issue with the neighboring Greece. The European Union’s involvement in tackling the name issue between one of its member states – Greece and the Republic of Macedonia has been highly ineffective. Although, the EU has gained numerous mechanisms for conflict prevention and conflict resolution within its Common Foreign and Security Policy and within the Enlargement Policy, the Union has been unsuccessful in the process of solving this dispute and consequently in the process of bringing the fragile Balkan country closer to its membership. Moreover, NATO’s membership for R. Macedonia has been burdened with an additional criterion in 2008 – resolving the name issue, due to the opposition from one of its member states. The authors argue that in the case when the dispute involves one of the international organizations’ member states, due to the lack of unity among its members, it is extremely difficult to find a fair settlement that properly weights the interest of both parties. This obstacle has been continuously present both in EU and in NATO, even after the ICJ delivered its judgment on the breach of the Interim Accord of 1995, finding the Greek opposition to the Macedonian membership in international organizations unlawful.