FYROM here to eternity

Is a name a precondition for becoming a member of the EU or NATO? What about a name that is a legal formulation almost like a number, or a negative along the lines of ‘the artist formerly known as Prince’? Will any name do? What about FYROM?

Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain all think that it’s time to stop the nonsense of calling the ‘Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ just that.

At a NATO meeting in Brussels a few days ago they joined forces to argue that if FYROM didn’t get a proper handle, there should be no official invitation to join when NATO holds its summit in Bucharest in April. Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark and Germany watched the showdown from the sidelines, while Latvia, the Netherl-ands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland and the UK had a lively discussion about the weather, mixed in with copious plaudits for Skopje’s excellent technical progress.

They were careful not to refer to the FYR of which this prodigious, acquis-swallowing, city might be the capital. Fin-land, the EU’s Pontius Pilate, went one better. Being neutral - unless and until the Russian Bear wakes up - it was not there to be silent or to talk of the weather.

Is it a coincidence that the south now urgently wants to sort out this long-running issue and the north doesn’t really care one way or the other? Or something deeper, like genuinely caring about cultural diversity and identity?

Historically Macedonia is a region of Greece. It has been reduced in size by historical accidents, among them two world wars and the creation of Yugoslavia, whose dictator Josip Brod Tito saw the creation of the ‘Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’ as a marker for eventual expansion onwards to the Aegean.

Now independent, it is this portion of an ancient Greek region which claims the name Macedonia tout court and is busy, as all new nations do, re-arranging its history. Its latest stroke was the renaming of Skopje airport after Alexander the Great.

Which would all be harmless, except that it carries with it the implication of territorial claims. In Greece the FYROM name issue is so sensitive it brought down a government not so long ago.

Up north they don’t care much what the place is called, or about its history. If you don’t like the history you’ve got, Google up an alternative. Easy. In a globalised world who cares if Austria becomes Bavaria, or vice versa?

Messy quarrels like this impede the progress of what the Triestine writer Claudio Magris called "the great tide of greed which we call modern life". UN Security Council resolution 817 laying down how Greece and not Macedonia should rub along refers only to the Party of the First Part and the Party of the Second Part.

So skål to Skopje of the Second Part and your 2 million people! North and south will eventually work this one out. And sorry if, for the moment, you have to live with a name that sounds like a treatment for bovine stomach flu.

Is a name a precondition for becoming a member of the EU or NATO? What about a name that is a legal formulation almost like a number, or a negative along the lines of ‘the artist formerly known as Prince’? Will any name do? What about FYROM?