Greek shadow foreign minister Georgios Koumoutsakos accused the European countries of hypocrisy after a number of them rejected Macedonia’s request to open EU accession talks, after previously pushing both Macedonia and Greece to sign the Prespa treaty.

Koumoutsakos comes from the New Democracy party which, like the conservative opposition in Macedonia, was against the Prespa treaty. Greece was not opposed to the opening of the accession talks for the first time in 10 years, but now other countries, most prominently France, said No.

The European Union pressured Greece to reach this compromise, which is harmful in our opinion and in the opinion of the majority of the Greek people, and now that it was reached, there will be no move forward in the integration process, Koumoutsakos observed.

He said that he is against lifting the expectations of the Balkan countries, to avoid anger down the road, which, he said, can lead to nationalism. Koumoutsakos said that New Democracy will be bound by the Prespa treaty, and that walking away from it will bring the country into a worse position, as it is likely that Macedonia will join NATO before New Democracy can be in position to annul the treaty. He added that Greece will keep its right to block Macedonia’s EU accession.