Macedonia Appoints New ‘Name’ Negotiator

The office of the Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov has announced that Naumovski is being appointed Macedonia's chief negotiator in the long-standing dispute with Greece over its name.

The move comes after the previous representative, Zoran Jolevski, recently took the post of defence minister.

The old and new negotiators met on Wednesday at a joint meeting with the President at which “the new representative in the talks on the name difference was informed about recent activities within the framework of the UN-sponsored process,” the presidential office said in a press release.

Naumovski, 34, was Vice Prime Minister in charge of European Affairs from 2009 to 2012 under Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

Since 2005, he has worked at the Faculty for International Relations, Politics and European Studies at the New York University in Skopje.

Former ambassador to NATO Nano Ruzin said he doubted the appointment of a new negotiator would bring any new impetus to the stalled talks, describing his function as strictly formal.

"Our negotiator is usually more of a good listener to government directives, not a strong instigator who searches for a solution to the problem,” Ruzin told Radio Free Europe.

The last round of UN-sponsored name talks took place in April in New York. The UN mediator in the dispute, Matthew Nimetz, conceded that no significant progress was made.

Nimetz said it was time for both sides to “seriously” reconsider ways to resolve the bilateral dispute, having in mind “the situation in the world and safety concerns”.

Nimetz has said that he plans to visit Macedonia and Greece in July for another round of talks. No date for his planned visit has been revealed as...