On Tuesday, however, he elaborated on his gratitude for the Macedonian government by suggesting a list of six more prominent Bulgarian rulers that should get a monument in Skopje like Tsar Samuil, who ruled the First Bulgarian Empire as the Tsar of the Bulgarians in 997 AD-1014 AD from his capital in Ohrid, in today's
FYROM.
"I wish to assure you that I, as well as the leaders of the parties and political movements supporting my candidacy, stand beside Greece and we lend their support to any decisions that Greece's political leadership should make on the issue of
Fyrom's name," Papadopoulos' letter read.
Following the ninth meeting of the Stabilisation and Association Council with the
FYROM, on 24 July, the EU - represented by Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule and Cyrpus Minister of Foreign Affairs Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis - reviewed the key developments since the previous such meeting in January related to the fulfilment of the political and economic criteria and the country's state of play concerning alignment with the EU acquis, as well as the implementation of the stabilisation and association agreement (SAA) that was finalised in 2001.
In his words, the real goal of the
FYROM government is a different one.
The participants in the eight meeting of the Stabilisation and Association Council between the EU and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (
FYROM), held on 23 January, discussed the recent progress made by Skopje towards meeting the EU membership criteria.
A good illustration of this is the situation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (
FYROM), where for over 20 years the rulers have been holding the population hostage to an endless and pointless name dispute with Greece.