The MPs of the Macedonian People’s Assembly by a majority of votes endorsed the proposal of the government to start amending the Constitution to change the name of the country, Reuters reports.
The name of the country will change to ‘North Macedonia’, the text of the preamble, guarantees of the immutability of borders and sovereignty of neighboring countries will also be changed.
On September 30, the country held a referendum, where the residents had to decide whether they support the agreement with Greece. Due to low voter turnout, he was declared invalid.
Earlier, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, stated that Macedonia would be invited to the negotiations on the membership in NATO right after the question of the renaming of the state is finally settled. Stoltenberg said that the recent agreement on the renaming of the country into the North Macedonia with Greece and the end of a long-term conflict was “a historic agreement, which provides a historic opportunity” for Skopje to join NATO.
Since Yugoslavia’s dissolution in the early 1990s, Macedonia is having arguments with Greece concerning its name. In Greece, the neighbor state is called Skopje (the name of Macedonia’s capital) or the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia.
Macedonia’s Parliament adopted a resolution on joining NATO in 1993, but the state is still at the level of the talks with the Alliance. Greece was blocking Macedonia’s talks with EU and NATO due to the argument in terms of the name.
