Greek Alternate Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said that Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev kept threatening to resign at the European Council, as a means to pressure the countries into allowing the opening of accession talks./

It’s true that the Skopian side was under a lot of pressure. Throughout all the days of the summit Zaev was threatening that he will resign if the proposal is not accepted. Nobody from the European side did not tell him it would be smart to do so, because the conclusions did not cancel their European course. The next summit will be held in the Balkans, in Zagreb, and the attention should be turned toward the Balkans, Varvitsiotis told a Greek radio station.

The Greek diplomat again confirmed that their position is that Macedonia and Albania should not be decoupled and should open accession talks together, jointly. With this position, Greece is nominally supportive of Macedonia opening its accession talks, as agreed in the Prespa treaty, but at the same time makes Macedonia’s position more difficult as both France, but other EU countries such as the Netherlands, oppose the opening of accession talks with Albania.