ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 32, No. 4 (MK)

September 2020

North Macedonia external relations briefing: The status of the Macedonian-Greek ‘strategic partnership’ 2 years after Prespa Adela Gjorgjioska

1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11.

+36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. [email protected] Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin

Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01

The status of the Macedonian-Greek ‘strategic partnership’ 2 years after Prespa

Over two years have passed since the signing of the Prespa Agreement on June 17th 2018. Its main rationale has been the “settlement of the differences” on the Macedonia name issue. What is less known is that the Agreement also entails “the establishment of a strategic partnership”.1 This provision is elaborated in Part 2 of the Agreement2 subtitled: “Intensification and enrichment of cooperation between the (Macedonian and the Greek) parties”. According to it “the parties agree that their strategic cooperation shall extend to all sectors, such as agriculture, civil protection, defence, economy, energy, environment, industry, infrastructure, investments, political relations, tourism, trade, trans-border cooperation and transport. All these sectors should be incorporated into a comprehensive Action Plan during the course of the development of bilateral relations.”3 The overall implementation of the so-called “strategic partnership” has so far been slow, with somewhat mixed messages being sent in September by Greek and Macedonian officials in terms of the political will needed to translate words into actions and concrete results.

Headed by the Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, a high-level delegation including the Deputy Prime Ministers for Economic (Fatmir Bytyqi) and European Affairs (Nikola Dimitrov), as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani, paid a working visit to Athens on September 15-16. During the visit, Zaev spoke at the 24th Roundtable with the Government of Greece titled “Europe: Reinforcing cohesion in turbulent times”, organized by The Economist.4 As part of his address he noted that ‘in recent years Greece has been the second biggest trade partner and the third biggest investor in North Macedonia”5 He also stressed that trade had increased by 20% in 2019 following the signing of the Prespa Agreement. As part of the two day visit, Zaev also met Cristos Copelouzos, CEO of Copelouzos Group, the founding shareholder of Gastrade S.A., a utility company which develops, exploits, operates and manages natural gas

1“Final Agreement for the Settlement of the Differences as Described in the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 817 (1993) and 845 (1993) and 845 (1993), the Termination of the Interim Accord of 1995, and the Establishment of a Strategic Partnership between the Parties.” 2 https://vlada.mk/sites/default/files/dokumenti/spogodba-en.pdf 3 Part 2, page 8 https://vlada.mk/sites/default/files/dokumenti/spogodba-en.pdf 4https://events.economist.com/events-conferences/emea/24th-roundtable-with-the-government-of- greece/ 5 Zoran Zaev at the 24th Economist Government Roundtable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyspmUzj1qg

1 systems.6 “PM Zaev, accompanied by Deputy PM for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi, expressed N. Macedonia’s interest to take part in the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal near Alexandroupolis (Greece), which would represent a new, independent entry point for natural gas supply of countries in Southeast Europe”, the Government said in a press release. Moreover, it added that “the project creates an opportunity for permanent and stable supply of natural gas for our country, which, at the same time, will become a point from which the gas will then be distributed more widely in the region and in countries that will show interest.”7

Bilateral Meetings In Athens Zaev met with the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, as well as former PM and leader of SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras. According to the brief press release issued by the Prime Minister’s office: “The main topics of the talks between Mitsotakis and Zaev were reportedly on the course of bilateral relations, the European perspective of North Macedonia as well as the development of economic cooperation between the two countries.8 Zaev’s Press Office issued a longer and more enthusiastic press release stating that “Greece remains a strong lobbyist and supporter of our country in the upcoming negotiation process with the European Union, which is to begin with the first intergovernmental conference during the presidency of the Federal Republic of Germany with the Council of the EU.”9 Moreover, in the same press release, it is stated that the two Prime Ministers spoke about “the future cooperation as well as the implementation of the comprehensive Action plan stemming from the Prespa Agreement''.10 Following Zaev’s meeting with Greek President Sakellaropoulou the following release was issued by the Macedonian government: “PM Zaev and President Sakellaropoulou spoke about the potential for widening and deepening economic relations between the two countries, which would be encouraged by the second meeting of the Cooperation Council at the level of governments in Athens to discuss the further implementation of the Action Plan for intensification and enrichment of cooperation between the Hellenic Republic and Northern Macedonia, as

6 https://vlada.mk/node/22489 7 Gastrade is developing the LNG floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) offshore Alexandroupolis, through which the regasified LNG will be transmitted to the markets of Greece and the wider region, including N.Macedonia all the way to Hungary, Moldova and Ukraine. 8 https://primeminister.gr/2020/09/16/24799 9 https://vlada.mk/node/22499 10http://www.presidency.gr/synantisi-me-ton-prothypoyrgo-tis-dimokratias-tis-voreias-makedonias- zoran-zaev/

2 provided for in the Prespa Agreement.11 It could be worth noting that the Action Plan has not been mentioned neither in the Greek PM’s nor in the greek Presidents Press Releases following their meeting with Zaev. At worst this could be an early sign of diminishing or low will on behalf of the current Greek administration to take concrete actions necessary to implement the steps necessary to advance the “strategic partnership” between the two countries.

(Media have also reported that security issues have also found their place on the agenda with Athens reportedly having succeeded to “extract assurances from Zaev that Skopje will follow the EU approach to Turkey’s recent provocative activities in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean”.12)

Two weeks after the PM’s delegation to Athens, another official Government delegation from Skopje paid a work visit to Athens. Fatmir Bytyqi, Deputy Prime Minister on economic issues and Kreshnik Bekteshi, Minister of Economy, attended the roundtable on “Regional energetic security and cooperation”. As reported in the official Government press release, the meeting was organised by the Association of Industries of Northern Greece, and it was also attended by US State Secretary Mike Pompeo, as well as the Greek Minister for Minister for the Environment and Energy, Kostis Hatzidakis. It has also been reported that the macedonian delegation also held meetings with Greek companies.

The Parliamentary Ratification of Agreements on Bilateral Cooperation Three memorandums which stem from part 2 of the Prespa Agreement on the “Intensification and enrichment of cooperation between the (Macedonian and the Greek) parties” were reportedly delivered to the Greek Parliament on the 14th and 15th of September. They include: 1) Memorandum of cooperation on the Acceleration of the Integration Process of the Republic of North Macedonia into the European Union; 2) Memorandum of Understanding concerning the establishment of a Steering Committee for Economic Cooperation. 3) Technical Arrangement between the Ministries of Defence of the two countries on the Air Policing in Skopje FIR (LWSS).

The first two of the memorandums were signed by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs in April 2019 in Skopje as part of the first official visit by a Greek PM to the country,13 whilst

11 https://vlada.mk/node/22498 12 https://www.neweurope.eu/article/short-greece-vacation-for-two-balkan-leaders/ 13 https://balkaninsight.com/2019/04/02/north-macedonia-greece-pms-embrace-closer-relationship/

3 the third was signed five months later by the Ministry of Defence.14 They have all now been presented to the Greek Parliament as bills by the respective Greek Ministries and will need to pass the necessary procedures in order to be ratified. The bill on the EU perspective of North Macedonia has been signed by the Ministers of Finance, Foreign and Internal Affairs of Greece as well as the Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs. The bill on the establishment of a Steering Committee for Economic Cooperation has been signed by the Greek Minister of Finance, Development and Investments and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. (According to it, the Committee will include 18 members, 9 from each country, which will be announced 30 days after the law’s entry into force. Its aim will be to create closer relations between the economic chambers of the two countries.) The bill on Air Policing has been signed by the Greek Ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs, Security and Justice.

At the end of September, Greek opposition party SYRIZA issued a statement commenting on a government session stating that “around 40 New Democracy MPs do not allow Mitsotakis to bring the bills to a vote in Parliament, threatening to vote against”. Earlier, on the 24th of September Parliament speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas reported that the ratification of the bilateral agreements stemming from the Prespa agreement had been put on hold. “There is nothing urgent…I have been given the impression that their ratification is not a priority,” Tasoulas told reporters asking when the government would be presenting the agreements to lawmakers for ratification. Both of these processes

The ratification of the agreements is important for laying out the trajectory for future Greek-Macedonian relations. In addition to it however, the adoption of a comprehensive Action Plan (as set out in the Prespa Agreement) will also be crucial for the operationalization of key pledges and ideas into workable action plans. Both these processes will depend on the political will in both countries and particularly on the political will of the current Government in Greece. In the absence of political obstacles, the advancement of bilateral relations will also be conditioned by the allocation of appropriate human and administrative resources by the states to stimulate bilateral cooperation, the need for which is all the more urgent and necessary in the context and aftermath of Covid 19. Nonetheless before the bilateral cooperation between the two can countries can truly be upgraded to the level of ‘strategic partnership’ concrete actions and results will need to be observed in areas such as agriculture, economy, energy, environment,

14https://athens.mfa.gov.mk/en/page/90/bilateral-relations-between-the-republic-of-north-macedonia- and-greece

4 industry, infrastructure, investments, political relations, tourism, trade, trans-border cooperation and transport.

5