REUTERS

Greek and others European national flags flutter near an euro symbol outside the EU Parliament in Brussels.

Macedonia hailed the ruling by the UN's highest court Monday that Athens had breached obligations to Skopje by blocking its neighbour's admission to NATO in a dispute over the country's name.

“We see this ruling as a positive impulse and we count on cooperation with our Greek neighbour in a spirit of friendship, understanding and mutual respect,” to resolve the long-running name row, President Gjorje Ivanov said.

“For the time being, we do not want to look (at this) through the categories of winners and losers. We need to work together with Greece on our common future and the future of our region,” he added.

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said the ruling would give “a new, positive impulse to move forward and overcome the name dispute”.

“The ruling is not an obstacle, but the opposite, an additional positive momentum to find a solution for the issue that has blocked our Euro-atlantic integrations,” Gruevski said in a public address.

The ICJ ruled that Greece breached its obligations to Macedonia under an interim accord signed in 1995, but did not order Athens to refrain from blocking Skopje's applications to membership of other international organisations in the future.

Greece blocked Macedonia's NATO invitation in 2008, and a year later prevented the EU from starting accession talks with Skopje despite recommendations from the European Commission.

Greece alleges that use of the name Macedonia suggests a territorial claim to the northern Greek province of the same name while Skopje maintains that changing the name would be a denial of its own national identity and language. - Sapa-AFP