ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the neighbourly relations of Greece, mainly, and Bulgaria to some degree as EU Member States with North Macedonia as an EU candidate country. It reveals the way the EU has been able to tackle the dispute under study, as well as the effect of the EU's institutional practice and policy including the EU's 'good-neighbourliness' principle as peaceful mechanisms of soft power employed for the dispute settlement under review. The chapter also addresses how and if norms of International Law adopted by the EU and the institutional process of the EU have affected and/or have been affected by the bilateral negotiations between Greece and North Macedonia concerning the name dispute. It shows the EU actorness in terms of liberal interdependence of states as a factor influencing in the present case study the interest-based states foreign policy, while the major interest of states remains their survival.
