Macedonians prefer country name to EU membership: survey

The name dispute between Macedonia and Greece has run into another obstacle because most Macedonians said they prefer the country's name to EU membership, a survey published in local media showed on Thursday.

About 95 percent of Macedonians said they would not change the name of Macedonia in exchange for EU membership, a survey by Gallup Balkan Monitor, published in the Macedonian newspaper Morning Herald, finds.

The survey also shows that there are great differences in the positions on the issue between Macedonians and the ethnic minority Albanians, who account for about 20 percent of the country's 2.1 million people.

About 67 percent of the ethnic Albanians said that they would like to change the name of the country if it means Macedonia can get into the EU, because they regard the EU membership as Macedonia's greater priority.

Athens has been opposed to its neighbor being called the "Republic of Macedonia," arguing it implies a territorial claim over a Greek northern province also called Macedonia.

Macedonia's NATO membership was blocked by Greece over the 18-year-long dispute between the two countries in April of last year at a NATO summit in Romania.

During his trip to the two countries at the beginning of this month, UN special envoy Matthew Nimetz has proposed the name "Republic of Northern Macedonia" and is waiting for the governments in Athens and Skopje to consider it.