Naumovski said confidentiality was needed in order to secure good conditions for the 'name dispute' talks between Skopje and Athens, which are being mediated by Matthew Nimetz, a US ambassador, on behalf of the UN.
Vasko Naumovski, a 29 year-old, was appointed deputy prime minister recently after holding the position of assistant professor of international law and policy at the New York University of Skopje. He spoke to EurActiv on the sidelines of a conference organised by the European Policy Centre (EPC), a Brussels-based think-tank.
The 18-year-long name dispute has prevented the small nation from joining NATO (EurActiv 02/04/08) and advancing on its path to EU integration (EurActiv 04/04/08).
Nevertheless, the top Macedonian official professed optimism.
"We are hoping that in the forthcoming weeks we will be able to make further progress, although progress has been made compared to some years ago. We remain in negotiations for finding a solution, not for continuing negotiating forever," he said.
Naumovski dodged the question of whether the new Greek government coalition with the socialists from PASOK (EurActiv 05/10/09) would provide new opportunities for compromise on the name dispute. He also avoided saying whether the essence of the problem was that Athens would not accept Macedonia's proposal that there should be one name for internal use in Macedonia, and another one for its international relations.
Asked about a recently published 'Macedonian Encyclopaedia' which has irked Greece, as well as Bulgaria, Kosovo and Albania and even the UK and the US over its historic interpretations (EurActiv 13/10/09), Naumovski stressed that it was a project of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which is not a governmental institution. The project did not damage the country's EU bid, he considers.
Naumovski said the government "felt sorry" that Macedonian citizens of Albanian ethnicity had been insulted by some of the contents of the encyclopaedia, which described them as "settlers" who came to the country in the 16th century. In the encyclopaedia, Albanians were described as 'Shiptari' or 'Planinci', which has derogatory connotations. But he avoiding answering when asked whether the government "feels sorry" about possible offences to other nations.
As for the recent decision by the European Commission to recommend opening EU accession negotiations with Macedonia, Naumovski said he could not prejudge whether the December EU Council would give the green light to start the negotiations. He insisted, however, that this recommendation had been made thanks to the results the Macedonian government had achieved and benchmarks that were fully met.
Vasko Naumovski was speaking to Georgi Gotev.
