EU Foreign Policy High Representative Federica Mogherini this week chose the European Parliamnet venue to apologize for her mixup earlier this month, where she called the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) simply “Macedonia”, stand alone.

The name of the one-time Yugoslav constituent state continues to be a diplomatic “thorn” in the southern Balkans, as successive Greek governments have underlined in no uncertain terms that the large province of Macedonia, in northern Greece, and the land that more closely approximates historical and geographical Macedonia, is different than what emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia. Official Greek foreign policy maintains that fYRoM add a geographic determinant before the name “Macedonia” to distinguish it from the neighboring province of Macedonia, the largest in Greece.

However, that compromise has been rejected by the nationalist VMRO government dominating political life in Skopje over recent years.

As the Italian politician explained, the mistake was due fatigue and … “jet lag.”