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Delphi Economic Forum: Intense focus on Southeastern Europe
DELPHI, Greece - Now in its fourth year, the 2019 Delphi Economic Forum (DEF) has grown into a true Davos-like venue, with groups from...
Analysis
Name Dispute: Nationality tussles highlight Prespes Agreement flaws
If there is an area where the June 2018 Prespes Agreement’s legions of detractors and a reasonable number of its mainstream but unenthusiastic supporters...
Analysis
Name Dispute: North Macedonia’s name change takes hold
Following Greece’s ratification of the NATO Accession Protocol for North Macedonia February 8, over the past week, Europe witnessed a series of implementation steps...
Analysis
Political landscape reshaped after blistering Prespes Agreement ratification battle
While Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras successfully avoided triggering national elections over the painful ratification battle for June’s Prespes Agreement with the newly renamed...
Analysis
Deeply polarised Greece ratifies Prespes Agreement
Greece completed its rushed and contentious ratification procedure for the Prespes Agreement in a vote delayed to January 25, aiming to resolve the Name...
Archive
Tsipras narrowly wins self-imposed confidence vote
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won the closest of confidence challenges late January 16 with 151 votes in favour and 148 against. Although at...
Analysis
Tsipras co-opts Independent Greeks in confidence vote, expected to get North Macedonia seal of approval
All the pieces are now in place for a one-two process that will see the Prespes Agreement, which seeks to resolve the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name...
Analysis
Name Dispute: Prespes ratification issue is front and center
Like the slowly ticking time bomb it actually represents for the Greek political world, the Prespes Agreement ratification procedure rolls almost inexorably towards completion...
Analysis
UN face off over Kosovo army vote
The Kosovo Parliament’s December 14 vote to formally create a military structure triggered the almost-automatic UN Security Council (UNSC) face off December 17 in...
Archive
Kosovo votes to transform civil defence force into formal military structure
The Kosovo Parliament voted almost unanimously on December 14 to begin the process of upgrading the country’s existing NATO/KFOR-trained paramilitary force, the Kosovo Security...
Analysis
Name Dispute: Flaws in Prespes Agreement fuel new Greek firestorm
With the Prespes Agreement ratification steamroller moving almost inexorably forward in Macedonia/FYROM, public attention to the issue in Greece has refocused and the subject...
Archive
Name Dispute: Greece’s odd couple stays the course
The fate of the yet-unratified Prespes Agreement, signed last June as the vehicle for resolving the so-called Name Dispute between Greece and Macedonia/FYROM, was...
Analysis
Name Dispute: Taking stock in Skopje after the disappointing referendum
Shockwaves continue from the low turnout in the referendum in Macedonia/FYROM, which had been hoped to approve June’s Prespes Agreement settling the Name Dispute...
Analysis
Zero hour for Name Dispute
In the run-up to Macedonia/FYROM’s referendum on settling its three-decade-old Name Dispute with neighbouring Greece, the rival parties involved in the vote made impassioned...
Analysis
Name Dispute: Parade of stars to Skopje continues as referendum approaches
A wave of important visitors before the September 30 referendum on the Prespes Agreement -- which aims to settle the Name Dispute between Greece...
Archive
WikiLeaks revelations propel Name Dispute issue back to center stage
The Prespes Agreement - the latest attempt to end the quarter-century-long Name Dispute between Greece and its neighbour FYROM/Macedonia by renaming the latter 'the Republic of North...
Archive
Name Dispute: Furious reaction to Prespes Agreement expands
Strong public and political reactions have continued throughout Greece following the June 17 signature of the Prespes Agreement that was intended to resolve the...
Archive
With the signing over, the long battle for ratifying the Name Dispute agreement begins
Greece’s ruling coalition survived a no-confidence motion on June 16, which was followed the next day with the signature of a bilateral agreement formally...
Archive
Closing a new chapter in the Name Dispute
After nearly 27 years of haggling, the race to the finish line for a formal end to the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute kicked into full...
Archive
The wait is over. Name Dispute agreement comes together
After a delayed set of phone calls June 11 and 12, and a late June 12 intervention by UN Mediator Matthew Nimetz, the prime...
Archive
Name Dispute talks hanging in the balance
Ever since the May 28 Brussels announcement that the foreign ministers of Greece and Macedonia/FYROM had finished their work and had delivered their proposals...
Archive
Name Dispute negotiations: Doing a new tango ahead of the summer summits
Negotiations over the Greece/Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute resumed in New York on May 24-25 following consultations in Washington by Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias earlier...
Archive
Name Dispute negotiations: Zaev’s “Ilinden Gambit” melts down in Athens and Skopje
Within 24 hours of the end of bilateral discussions on the sidelines of the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Sofia late last week, a new...
Archive
Name Dispute negotiations: Getting closer, but is this just a matter of sequencing or is it deeper?
While the negotiations over the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute returned to a faster track after the visit of UN Mediator Matthew Nimetz to Athens May...
Archive
Little progress on Name Dispute after “remedial diplomacy” session called by Matthew Nimetz
Filling a rare week when no bilateral meetings on the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute were scheduled, UN Mediator Matthew Nimetz organised a special meeting in...
Archive
Limited progress reported on Name Dispute at Ohrid meeting
With only three months to go before a critical NATO summit in Bucharest that could potentially approve the admission of new members, the foreign...
Archive
Negotiations on Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute advance in Vienna
Despite intense ongoing diplomatic sparring with Turkey on Greece’s Aegean front, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias was able to keep his March 29-30 Vienna...
Archive
Rebooting the Name Dispute negotiations with a symbolic Skopje visit
The visit of Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias to Skopje March 22-23 was a clear attempt to reboot the dragging 2018 cycle of the...
Archive
US deepens engagement on Europe’s southern flank
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell continued his weeklong trip through Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean visiting Belgrade...
Archive
Turmoil in and around Greece may be switching the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Talks into low gear
The barrage of Greek domestic politics and this week’s almost-clashes with Turkey in the Aegean have combined to get the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute talks...
Archive
Amidst backtracking, a difficult week in the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Talks
While a few positive steps can be listed, real progress over the last week on the Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Dispute is hard to document. To...
Archive
Numbers game deepens over size of Athens rally on Greece-FYROM/Macedonia Name Dispute
The Greek people sent a strong message in Athens on February 4 that many will not countenance the use of a compound name including...
Archive
Greece-Macedonia/FYROM Name Talks: Searching for new momentum after Nimetz Balkan visit
The UN Mediator for the Greece–FYROM/Macedonia Name Dispute, Matthew Nimetz, visited both Athens and Skopje over the January 29-February 1 period. Important issues were discussed...
Archive
Macedonia name dispute: Are the stars aligning for a new U.S. push?
In the shadow of the failed Cyprus talks, another critical regional issue for Greece and the Western Balkans is apparently coming back into sharp...
Archive
US Vice President Pence reaches out to Greek PM Tsipras after Cyprus talks collapse
In a clear attempt to minimize the regional political fallout from the failed Cyprus talks, U.S. Vice President Michael Pence called Greek Prime Minister...
Archive
Concordia's Europe Summit inaugurated in Athens
The inaugural Concordia Europe Summit ran June 6-7 in Athens. Launching the star-studded event, Concordia’s founders, Nicholas Logothetis and Matthew Swift, said Greece...
Archive
Trump unveils his “Hard Power Budget” delineating elements of an American withdrawal from global leadership, if approved
The screaming had already started well before President Trump revealed his proposals for a “Hard Power Budget” March 16, since the main budget outlines...
Archive
For Greece’s PM Tsipras, Another Fruitless Run at the Debt Issue in New York
In serious trouble at home from a series of interconnected scandals and policy blunders, Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras turned to the annual UN...
Archive
Tsipras, the UN and the “American factor”
We have made it a point to emphasize that PM Tsipras September 26-October 1 New York visit focused far less on the business of...
Archive
Greek PM Tsipras does New York. This was a UN visit, right?
Greek PM Tsipras arrived in New York late September 26th, intending to stay until October 2. His main UN General Assembly (UNGA) address is...
Archive
Now that the election is over, Tsipras plans an UNGA visit. New York will again be the place to be…
Admittedly a very busy man these days, Greek PM Tsipras is planning to join the world’s UNGA-70 (70th anniversary of the UN General Assembly)...
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