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Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is exploring the possibility of convening a council with the leaders of the three parties involved in the government in connection with tomorrow's announcement of the decision of the International Court of Justice in Hague on the appeal of Macedonia against Greece.

The Greek Prime Minister is aware of the details of the decision, which as it appears from the evaluations to date, will be in favour of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The case is related to the issue of the violation by Greece of the Interim Agreement for veto imposed by Greece over Macedonia's membership in the Alliance during the summit of NATO in Bucharest in April 2008.

Regarding the second problem of the Macedonian state, which affects the future position of Athens on Macedonia's membership in NATO, the European Union and other international organizations, it seems that the Court will avoid taking sides, following the "50-50" logic .

Since next week two key meetings are expected (the meeting of the General Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday and the meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of NATO on December 7^th and 8^th, again in the Belgian capital), during which issues regarding the expansion and perhaps the Macedonian problem will be discussed, complex political manoeuvres will be required. Furthermore, tomorrow the U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will arrive in Athens and he is also expected to discuss the Macedonian issue during his meetings with the President of the Republic Carlos Papoulias, the Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the leaders of PASOK and New Democracy.

Distant positions

The progress on the issues in general will not be easy, because distant positions have already been formed on the issue regarding the name. The Greek Prime Minister Papademos has already discussed the matter with the leader of PASOK George Papandreou at a meeting on Friday, and tête-a-tête meeting with the leader of New Democracy Antonis Samaras is also expected. A long meeting was also held on Friday with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Stavros Dimas.

The PASOK leader had mentioned that perhaps the new government will also have to decide on the "hot" problem related to Macedonia. The president of New Democracy on the other hand preferred to remain silent and avoided any comment, although his stable position on the matter is known and remains unchanged. As for George Karadzaferis, he was more than clear a few days ago when he said that if a solution was found involving a complex name of the republic, he would leave the government of Papademos.

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is expected to adopt a counter position so as to take advantage of the problem from a political point of view. In recent days in Macedonia there was a deliberate informing of journalists and complete silence has been requested until the decision is announced.

Possible problems

According to information, the Greek Prime Minister believes that if there are disagreements within the government, they may allow third parties to raise the issue. Furthermore Papademos must respond to the letter which was sent to him a few days ago by Nikola Gruevski, through which he asked him to help Macedonia start negotiations for its membership in the European Union.

Moreover, the possibility that countries like Britain and Sweden, which in the past have caused problems for Greece on the matters of the expansion, return to the Macedonian issue during tomorrow's General Affairs Council, cannot be excluded. Something similar might also happen within NATO, where member states like Turkey, may challenge the unanimous decision taken in Bucharest at the meeting of NATO ministers on 7-8^th of December.