The EU and Dispute Settlement: The Case of the Macedonian Name Issue

Abstract

The Prespa Agreement concluded between (North) Macedonia and Greece in June 2018 is hailed as a major success for the European Union’s (EU) policy of promoting conflict resolution through in the Balkans and beyond. At the same time, in the case of the so-called Macedonian name dispute, the EU hindered compromise as membership in the bloc provided Athens with asymmetric leverage over Skopje. The article argues that the European institutions made a positive contribution by empowering opposition to state capture in Macedonia, helping resolve a domestic political crisis between 2015 and 2017, and facilitating the transfer of power to a government willing to compromise with Greece. Even if the Prespa Agreement resulted from a bargain between Athens and Skopje, intervention in Macedonian politics by the EU, the United States, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) played a critical role in passing the constitutional changes agreed in the deal. The article examines the name dispute from the perspective of the literature on the EU as an agent of conflict transformation, arguing that European integration’s “enabling impact” is key to understanding and explaining the genesis of the Prespa Agreement. It also contends that the EU faced a dilemma between the pursuit of stability and the promotion of the rule of law and accountability, often prioritising the former over the latter.