SUB ROSA
EXTRACT FROM MY MONOGRAPH ON THE EBRD
The Macedonian Question
Both Macedonia and Lithuania were in our Board constituency. The Danes dealt with Lithuania and we had responsibility for Macedonia. Macedonia had a language problem with its very name. The Greeks objected to it styling itself Macedonia as they had a large adjacent province of that name whose territory was most definitely not up for grabs. The rule was therefore that the new country had to describe itself as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM for short. This seriously irritated the Macedonians who took every opportunity to travel under Macedonia pure and simple. It was a practice at the Annual Meetings for the countries of operation to produce, in consultation with the Bank, a sort of promo report for possible investors, which would be made available to the public at the meeting. At one stage they produced a cover with "FYR" in six point type under which the name "Macedonia" appeared in mega-point bold type. The Irish delegation advised them that this would not run. Another time they stuck up a Macedonia label on the door of their delegation rooms. This caused another flurry until Tony Brown, the Irish Alternate Director, hit on the compromise "The Macedonian Delegation" which proved acceptable to all.
I should mention that the Irish have great empathy with all countries involved in nomenclature disputes. We have our own share of them and we know that what might appear slight differences, or no difference at all, to outsiders can conceal gross insults between the insiders concerned.
The Macedonian question came to a head at Governor level during one of the Annual Meetings. Strictly speaking each country represents itself directly at Governor level. It is only at Board of Directors level that they are grouped into constituencies under a single director. However, as the Macedonians didn't have a physical presence on the Board of Directors and were not resident in London, it would be expected that the other constituency members who knew the ropes would help them out at the Annual Meetings.
That's how I found myself as an intlocutor between the Bank and the Macedonian Governor during one heated spat. The seating of Governors around the table was arranged in alphabetical order and Macedonia was seated under F rather than M. Their Governor threw a freaker and told me that his Prime Minister was very upset and unless this was rectified by the Bank he would deliver his governor's speech from the public gallery rather than from the lectern. He told me this in the the run up to lunchtime and he was due to speak in the early afternoon.
I rightly felt that the only assistance I could be was to make the secretary general aware of this looming catastrophe and hope he could figure out something. I got him on the phone on his way out to lunch and his response was "send me an email". I knew the Macedonians were serious about this and would have no compunction in carrying out their threat. So I emailed everyone in the secretary general's department in the hope that someone with more influence than me would bring him to his senses in time. They must have, as the matter was quickly resolved, with the Macedonians seated under M but the subsequent printed list would classify them under F.
Nevertheless when the Macedonian governor's turn came to make his speech he appeared at the top of the back stairs, flanked by his staff, and they made an entry down the steps and over to the lectern that would have done credit to the winner of an Eisteddfod chair.