This House believes that the name issue should be a precondition for the Macedonian membership in th

Since 1991, or the declaration of independence from the socialist republic of Yugoslavia, Republic of Macedonia has been in dispute for its right to use that very name with its southern neighbor, Greece. This was due to the shared name of the northern part of Greece and its northern neighbor.

Originating since the time of Philip II of Macedonia and his son, Alexander the great, Macedonia was the name of the nation that conquered and later acknowledged the state-cities of Greece, with which it managed to unite the Greek people in the fight against Asian foes. This somewhat explains the unrelenting stand of Greece in the whole dispute. The great achievements of the formerly mentioned rulers as well as the geographical positioning of their origins however, might explain the Macedonian reasoning behind the unrelenting stance.

In 1995, the two neighboring countries settled a similar dispute: the Macedonian flag. Namely, the original choice of the Macedonian nation was the flag of Philip II’s dynasty, the Vergina sun. Due to the previously named argument, the Macedonian side agreed to settle on the matter by altering the appearance of the sun, but maintaining the motive. This in turn sets a second argument toward the Macedonian reasoning behind the unwillingness to settle.

Let’s turn for a while to the involvement of the EU in this debate. The EU has set benchmarks in order to assure that any new coming state would be able to successfully integrate in the union and by that not pose any, primarily economic, burden  on the member countries.

Having these definitions of certain areas in mind, now it’s time to set up the debate i.e. define the course of argumentation. Clearly this debate should aim to point whether the EU has the right/need to present a strong stand and raise the stakes on the issue, or the bilateral nature of the dispute should remain just that, bilateral. But teams can be unpredictable, so let’s see what they have to say ..