In Hollywood, there is an award called the Golden Raspberry or Razzies. The opposite of the much-desired Oscar, the Razzies go to those who have most dishonoured the acting, screenwriting or song-writing profession in the past year.
If European foreign policy had a version of the Razzies, this year’s award would go to Greece for it attempts at destabilising neighbouring Macedonia and countering the EU’s Balkan policy.
Since the break-up of Yugoslavia and the founding of Macedonia, Greece has had an uneasy relationship with its neighbour. At NATO’s Bucharest Summit, Greece vetoed Macedonia’s bid to join the Alliance, because of an unresolved dispute over its name.
The Greek government objects to its neighbour taking the same name as a northern Greek region. It argues, rather absurdly, that the name implies a territorial claim on the region.
Two years of mediation by a UN envoy has achieved little and at a meeting of European leaders, Greece upped the ante by making a resolution of the name-dispute a pre-requisite of Macedonia’s accession to the EU even though Macedonia was granted candidate status years ago.
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