Macedonia

Accession to the European Union and NATO remains the top priority of Macedonian Foreign Policy. So far these ambitions have mainly been stalled by the still unresolved name dispute with Greece. Greece opposes the name “Macedonia” because of fears about territorial claims towards its province of the same name. As a consequence Macedonia became a member of the United Nations under the name “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” (FYROM). Bilateral talks to solve the name dispute so far remained unsuccessful. Austria hopes that a sustainable solution can be found by dialogue, based on mutual understanding.

Macedonia was awarded EU-candidate status in December 2005. Since then, Skopje waits for a concrete date to start accession negotiations. Since 19 December 2009 citizens of Macedonia can travel to the European Union without visa.