Macedonia wants a reward for stepping up to be the EU’s virtual new southeastern border: a firm date for the launch of talks on EU membership.

Behind the scenes, Skopje is reviving its stillborn bid to join the EU, as well as NATO. Its officials are pushing the case in weekly conference calls with countries further up the Balkan migration route, as well as with visiting EU dignitaries such as European Council President Donald Tusk. In these conversations, the Macedonians emphasize how their nation of 2 million has proved to be a reliable partner for Europe by stopping thousands of migrants from moving north.

For years, Greece has put a firm hold on Macedonia’s bids at the EU and NATO. There’s no date for the start of EU accession talks since Macedonia became a candidate country in 2005. NATO has not extended an official invitation to Skopje since Greece blocked it from being issued at the 2008 Bucharest summit, despite the support of all other NATO states.

As Turkey has used the migration crisis to try to reboot its EU membership bid and unlock billions in additional aid, pending the outcome of this week’s EU summit in Brussels, the Macedonians are focused on opening the door to the EU. “We made it clear in a nice way that Greece needs to be persuaded into lifting its objections to our membership,” said a senior Macedonian official. “We know they’ve had a tough time with the euro crisis and with the refugees, but blocking us from the EU is not part of a solution.”

European frustration with Greece on migration and other matters has not coincidentally increased the number of Macedonia’s friends in Brussels. But multiple hurdles stand in the way of closer relations. Athens says that the former Yugoslav republic’s use of the name Macedonia implies a claim to territory in northern Greece and insists the nation it calls FYROM (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) change its name. Macedonia’s other EU neighbor, Bulgaria, disputes the notion of a Macedonian nation and language. Serbia, an EU aspirant, challenges the autonomy of its Christian Orthodox church.

“Greece’s motivation on blocking the EU accession has not changed,” Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Nikola Popovski said in an interview. “Greece will definitely have the final word, as it is a part of the [bloc] of 28 member states and the country is now focused on its internal political and economic issues as well as migration.”

“In principle, we are supporting the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia entry to the European Union under certain conditions and one of them is the name,” said Kostantinos Koutras, a spokesman for the Greek foreign ministry. “We do not support setting a date [for the start of accession talks] because if you take a look none of those conditions have been met.”

Rational Balkans

Relations with Greece are as bad as ever, if not worse. Macedonia’s decision to shut its southern border stranded thousands of refugees in Greece. On Tuesday, after hundreds of migrants pushed into Macedonia, Skopje accused Athens of encouraging them to illegally cross into the country by offloading them in buses at an unofficial crossing. Macedonia’s President Gjorge Ivanov lashed out at Greece on Wednesday, accusing it of putting the region’s stability at risk. As an EU, NATO and Schengen-zone outsider, his country should not have to “suffer the consequences” of the lack of EU unity, he said.

Macedonia is using this incident to press again for access to the EU’s customs and border service’s databases, which it has sought since the migration crisis began. It says this would enable tighter security checks on migrants heading for Central Europe. Greece has also opposed this step, viewing any cooperation with Macedonia as a backdoor route to closer relations with the EU. Skopje works closely with individual EU countries like Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, who have pressed to close the Balkan route.

'There is no formal link between the EU’s bilateral relation with Macedonia and the migration crisis' — EU official

“Unlike Greece, we have acted as a responsible and rational country in this crisis,” said one senior Macedonian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We don’t want a fight with Greece, but the EU needs to recognize that we can only work responsibly on this if we get access to European institutions to share data and resources.”

Concerns about emerging authoritarianism and political violence hurt Macedonia’s reputation in Brussels in recent years, but Skopje has won over some notable supporters with its hard-line approach to the border.

Last week, the European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution that said Macedonia had acted “as a responsible partner” in coping with the migration crisis. It urged the EU to back its speedy integration into the EU.

“We are losing the Balkans day by day,” said Tamas Meszerics, a Hungarian MEP from the Greens-European Free Alliance, who is critical of the European Commission’s decision to halt further enlargement. The last new member was Croatia, another former Yugoslav republic, which joined the EU in 2013.

“Macedonia has been waiting as a candidate at the EU’s door for too long,” Ivo Vajgl, the Slovenian liberal MEP and the main rapporteur on the resolution in the Parliament, told the plenary session last week. “It’s time for Macedonia to take a step forward in its integration into [the] Euro-Atlantic [community].”

Some Greeks in the Parliament responded with fury. “It’s an insult to call it a viable partner,” Sofia Sakorafa, an independent MEP from Greece, said at the plenary session last week. “Go to Idomeni and see how this viable partner behaves,” referring to the Greek border village, where thousands of migrants have been stranded since Macedonia closed its border.

‘Backsliding in Skopje’

The Commission recommended that the EU begin membership talks with Macedonia in October 2009, but the Council didn’t follow up on the idea. In last November’s so-called progress report on Macedonia, the Commission noted “backsliding in the areas of democracy, rule of law, media freedom, electoral reforms and financial discipline.”

The internal turmoil predates the migration crisis. In February of last year, the Macedonian opposition had begun publishing leaks of what it alleged was an illegal and widespread program of surveillance that targeted opposition and government figures, ambassadors and journalists between 2010 and 2014. Transcripts published so far show government officials plotting to influence election results, court rulings and the media.

A few months later, in May, eight policemen and 10 others were killed in fighting in Kumanovo, an Albanian community not far from Skopje. The incident rekindled fears of ethnic conflict. An Albanian militia fought with Macedonian forces in 2001. A peace deal reached that year obliges Skopje to integrate the Albanian community, a quarter of the country’s population.

An EU official told POLITICO on Wednesday that the EU’s decision to open negotiations depends on Macedonia’s progress toward ending the political crisis, and the bid wouldn’t be reviewed before early elections this summer. “The Commission will assess these commitments after the elections in June,” the official said on condition of anonymity. The Council’s reluctance to open the negotiations with Macedonia is “linked first and foremost to the name issue,” the official said.

“We take into account Macedonia’s role in dealing with migration issues,” she said. “But there is no formal link between the EU’s bilateral relation with Macedonia and the migration crisis, which goes well beyond the borders of the country.”

Notwithstanding objections from EU states about Turkey’s human rights record, the deal on the table this week would give a fresh push to talks on its membership in the bloc in exchange for resettling Syrian refugees and stopping migrants crossing to Greece. In addition, Turkey would also get more EU cash (€3 billion on top of an already pledged €3 billion) and promises to lift visa restrictions for Turks traveling to Europe.

“If Turkey can be rewarded despite rampant violations, why should Macedonia and others continue to be held waiting?” said Judy Dempsey, an analyst with Carnegie Europe.