AlHijjah 24, 1433, Nov 9, 2012, SPA -- The former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia could open accession talks with the European Union next year without resolving its decades-old dispute with Greece over its name, Reuters quoted the EU's enlargement chief as saying on Friday. Greece has blocked the launch of negotiations because the former republic calls itself "Macedonia" -- a name Athens says is a territorial appropriation of the name of its northern Greek province -- and because it claims a legacy to Alexander the Great. EU Commissioner Stefan Fule told Reuters in an interview, however, that positive signs from the two capitals indicated that a resolution of the name dispute could now come after the start of talks and not be a precondition for them starting. Keeping the tiny Balkan state indefinitely in the waiting room risks further stoking dangerous ethnic tensions between its majority Slav population and its Albanian minority, he added. "We strongly believe that it is the early stage of the negotiation process which could create the necessary momentum for not only addressing but solving this problem," he said. "And we also say quite clearly that if this would not be the case, we could guarantee ... that not solving the issue at an early stage would result in slowing down and eventually holding up the negotiation process," Fule added. The Czech commissioner linked an upsurge in ethnic clashes in Macedonia this year to a continued lack of progress in Skopje's bids to join the EU and NATO because of the name issue. "I think it (the violence) is a result of the stalemate in the Euro-Atlantic process," he said. Ethnic violence brought Macedonia to the brink of civil war in 2001 and a decade later tensions persist, fueled by poverty and the slow pace of integration with Europe. At least a quarter of Macedonia's 2 million people are ethnic Albanians. In his interview, Fule also dismissed criticism that Croatia would not be ready to join the EU on schedule. -- SPA
