Macedonia rebuked over ‘hate speech’

The European Parliament has urged Macedonia to solve the ‘name dispute’ with Greece, warning the small country against a resurgence of “hate speech” in its media with respect to neighbouring countries.

The European Parliament report, adopted on April 23 with 601 votes in favour and 52 against (30 abstentions), represents a victory for Greece. Indeed, the text calls on “both sides to seize the opportunity to resume negotiations immediately […] so that the issue does not continue to represent an obstacle to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s membership of international organisations”. 

This is much stronger than the initial draft by rapporteur Erik Meijer, which simply stated that the name dispute should not represent an obstacle to Macedonia joining international organisations. 

But, on 10 April, the European Parliament had failed to vote on the report as it was, due to Greek MEPs’ insistence on deleting this sentence, which amounted to declaring that Athens should not block Macedonia’s accession to international organisations. 

The only political group to side with Skopje were the Greens/EFA, but they only gathered 55 votes compared to 605 as the majority of MEPs considered that Macedonia should first find an agreement with Greece over its name. The Greens also lost their fight against an amendment warning against the resurgence of “hate speech” against neighbouring countries in the Macedonian media by 82 votes to 576. 

Following the setback at the NATO summit in Bucharest in early April, when Macedonia did not obtain an invitation to join the Alliance due to the unresolved “name dispute” with Greece, the Macedonian press depicted its neighbour in a style reminiscent of the Cold War (EURACTIV 04/04/08). Moreover, the Macedonian press traditionally projects a very negative image of Bulgaria – again reminiscent of Tito’s Yugoslavia, when Belgrade had a hostile policy towards Bulgaria. The amendment warning against “hate speech” was introduced by Bulgarian MEP Nickolay Mladenov (EPP-ED) and supported by his compatriot Evgeni Kirilov (PES). 

Macedonia has repeatedly offended Greece by appropriating parts of Ancient Greek history. The recent naming of Skopje’s airport “Alexander the Great” provoked the anger of Athens, while Bulgaria has reacted on numerous occasions when large sections of its medieval and recent history were “adapted” for Macedonian textbooks. 

This is why the Parliament report calls on the government of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia “to establish joint committees on education and history with neighbouring EU member states with a view to reviewing possible discrepancies and misinterpretations of history that may cause disagreements, and urges the authorities to promote the joint celebration of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’s common cultural and historic heritage with its neighbours”. 

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