The Role of the European Union in the Name Dispute between Greece and FYR Macedonia

For more than a decade Greece and FYR Macedonia have been in dispute for the use of the name Macedonia. A dispute that, as this article indicates, it has historical, normative and politico-economic aspects. It is also an issue that threatens the European Union (EU) policy in the region of western Balkans. Furthermore, during the period of this dispute, both sides have tried to use the EU for their own means and the EU itself has managed to gain an important influence in both sides. However, this influence has failed to materialise into a final solution. Hence, this article tries to explore the possible reasons of this failure and to depict those aspects of EU policy-making that hinder the EU efficiency in such kind of problems.