UN / NORTH MACEDONIA NIMETZ

STORY: UN / NORTH MACEDONIA NIMETZ
TRT: 1:48
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 27 FEBRUARY 2019, NEW YORK CITY

SHOTLIST:

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, UNHQ exterior

27 FEBRUARY 2019, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, press room
3. Med shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Nimetz, Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Talks between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
“The agreement dealt with the name. It dealt with the adjective. It dealt with the language, controversial issues between the two states. It’s not easy for a lot of people to understand why there should be such difficulty over a name, but it had to do with identity and historical issues, and it got resolved. I think most of the credit goes to the two Prime Ministers who determined that this is something that ought to get resolved, and they would take the responsibility to do it.”
5. Med shot, journalist asking question
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Nimetz, Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Talks between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
“I think that one of the critical things is keeping the process going. So, in the 24 years that we have been working on this Macedonian name issue, there were years where no progress could be made, and it looked pretty grim. But, I think what we tried to do was keep the process going. We always had meetings. We always had the two representatives from both countries. We kept giving proposals, looking for openings, talking to people, listening to their concerns, and so when the right configuration came it was much easier to move forward.”
7. Wide shot, press room

STORYLINE:

The top UN official dealing with the Macedonian name issue Matthew Nimetz said, “It’s not easy for a lot of people to understand why there should be such difficulty over a name, but it had to do with identity and historical issues, and it got resolved.”

Nimetz was named the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Talks between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia some 20 years ago, possibly making him the longest serving envoy in UN history. The name issue was put on the Security Council’s agenda in 1993 when the former Yugoslav republic declared itself the Republic of Macedonia, which was considered provocative to Greece.

The two parties reached an agreement last June in which the country would be known as the Republic of North Macedonia. The agreement was in turn ratified by both countries and entered into force a few weeks ago.

Nimetz said the agreement dealt with the name, the adjective, the language, and other “controversial issues between the two states.” He said most of the “credit goes to the two Prime Ministers who determined that this is something that ought to get resolved, and they would take the responsibility to do it.”

Asked on him advice to resolve other protracted conflicts, the Envoy said “one of the critical things is keeping the process going.” He said in the years the UN had worked on the “Macedonian name issue, there were years where no progress could be made, and it looked pretty grim; but, I think what we tried to do was keep the process going.” He added, “We always had meetings; we always had the two representatives from both countries; we kept giving proposals, looking for openings, talking to people, listening to their concerns, and so when the right configuration came it was much easier to move forward.”

Nimetz said the UN system does good in these kind of situations adding that if a problem cannot be solved then it should be managed. He noted that a stalemate in a conflict where people are going about their normal lives was better than an all-out war.