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Experienced Greek diplomats argue that the greatest danger for the country lies in questioning the unanimous decision of the Bucharest Summit at NATO level. They say it is not excluded that countries such as Turkey or Slovenia put forward this matter during the meeting of foreign ministers in December. Therefore, the Greek Foreign Ministry has issued an order to adhere to the terminology established in Bucharest. Another objective of Athens is to clarify that the judicial dispute between Greece and Macedonia is only bilateral. In any case, Greece has to avoid the possibility of being isolated, according to the same sources.
 
At European level, the situation is considered to be more easily manageable, despite the position of Commissioner Stefan Fule, responsible for the European Union enlargement, who supports the position of keeping equal distance from Athens and Skopje. The Macedonian country has already sent letters to most of the Member States, requiring commencement of the negotiations for its accession to the European Union before solving the name issue. They refer from Skopje to the dispute between Slovenia and Croatia, when the negotiations on the issue were held in parallel with the negotiations for accessing the European Union.
 
Macedonian sources claim that Nikola Gruevski will use the judgement of the International Court of Justice to take an even harder position against Greece. His recent statements have demonstrated this and a few months ago, his cabinet minister suggested that Greece should leave the Eurozone.

Objective observers stress that the possible conviction of Greece for violation of the Interim Agreement will change the perceptions about the role of the International Court of Justice in the Greek-Turkish relations. If the first attempt to bring to court such matters proves traumatic, it would be quite reasonable to expect doubts to arise about its eventual judgement on defining the continental shelf with Turkey. "A whole generation of politicians, diplomats, and even journalists grew up with the idea that the submission of a claim to the International Court of Justice is the panacea for Greek-Turkish relations. But a possible loss for an issue, which is equivalent to the determination of the shelf, might have huge consequences," said a senior Greek diplomat.