Keep pedaling
My friends in Macedonia will expect me this morning to share their fury at the European Council, which yesterday once again postponed a decision on when accession talks with Skopje can begin. Spyros Sophos* wrote to colleagues and friends:
the Brussels outcome is shortsighted and disgraceful. It has the potential to undermine the stability of Macedonia and to reward the forces of nationalism and hatred in all the countries and communities involved.
He is right.
But I am not going to join the chorus denouncing the European Union, which ironically collected its Nobel Peace Prize this week. Instead, I am going to ask, what is this all about? what can be done to solve the problem?
It is about identity more than anything else. Macedonians claim to be distinct: to have their own language, culture and history. Bulgaria, one of the two countries blocking an EU consensus to open accession talks, has a problem with this. Sofia wants Skopje to acknowledge the common history, culture and language of the two now separate countries.
Greece, the other country blocking an EU consesnsus, has a different identity problem. It claims that Macedonia has no right to use an unqualified appelation that belongs to Greece, historically, culturally and linguistically. It also fears, or some in Athens say they fear, Macedonian claims to Greek territory. While I have seen no evidence for that claim, it is certainly true that Skopje would like Greece to acknowledge the existence of a Macedonian minority within Greece. That is not the only minority Athens refuses to acknowledge, as it claims its citizens are Greek, tout court. No hyphens in the land of Alexander.
For this American (unhyphenated by the way), all this is pretty indigestible and hard to take seriously when there is death and destruction in Syria, a satellite launch by North Korea, constitutional chaos in Egypt, progress towards nuclear weapons in Iran, a stalled Middle East peace process and several dozen other current problems that seem far more important. But that is precisely the point: however intractable Balkans identity problems may be today, they are not deadly to large numbers of people, as they were in the past. The EU is maddeningly slow and ponderous, but it has also managed to dampen the fighting spirits that generated war and slaughter only a decade or two ago.
The charm may not last. The bicycle analogy is pertinent: only forward motion keeps the Balkans from falling over into violence. The EU’s non-decision will generate nationalist passions inside Macedonia, strain relations with its large Albanian minority and further exacerbate relations with Bulgaria and Greece. If you ignore people because they don’t resort to violence, they might just learn the wrong lesson.
To continue to merit its Nobel Peace Prize, the EU needs to get beyond the current stalemate. I hope it can do that in six months time, when Macedonia comes up for consideration once again. The necessary instrument is lying close at hand: the Interim Accord that Athens and Skopje agreed in 1995 should allow Skopje to enter NATO as “the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and to begin EU accession negotiations with that name. This is acceptable to Skopje and is not, it seems to me, offensive to either Bulgaria or Greece, which the International Court of Justice has found in violation of the accord.
Please, EU, keep pedaling to prevent the Balkans bicycle from falling over. The time for a definitive solution will come with Skopje’s accession.
*Apologies to Spyros Sophos: in the first posting, I mistakenly attributed this quote to someone else.
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