however was rejected in December 2013 by the majority of the Macedonian Parliament, which is run by the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party. 2014 negotiations In February 2014, the European Parliament passed a resolution stating that according to the parliament's assessment, the Copenhagen criteria have been fulfilled sufficiently for the country to start its negotiations for EU accession, and called for the Council of the European Union to confirm the date for start of accession negotiations straight away, as bilateral disputes must not be an obstacle for the start of talks - although they must be solved before the accession process. [ 169 ] However, it remains to be seen whether or not the Council decides to agree with the parliament's opinion, at its next meeting in June 2014. The UN mediator, Matthew Nimetz , also invited for a new round of "name dispute" negotiations to begin on 26 March 2014. The invitation has been accepted by both the Greek and Macedonian authorities. According to Nimetz, the two countries had managed at the latest stranded talks in October 2013, to reach consensus of adding a "geographic term" to the disputed "Republic of Macedonia" name, to be used internationally as the new official country name. Nimetz stressed however, that substantial disagreement still existed in regards of "where the geographic term should be placed", but hoped a new round of negotiations could end with a mutually agreed name. [ 170 ] According to the newspaper coverage of the previous 2013-negotiations, Macedonia had favored using