A highly expected draft bill containing the Prespa agreement was tabled in Parliament over the weekend, with political party representatives to convene on Monday at noon to discuss the schedule for debate of the landmark accord and the date for a ratification vote.
According to reports by the state-run news agency, the draft bill will first come up for debate at a relevant defense and foreign affairs committee on Monday afternoon, while a vote is expected on Friday.
In a related development, the foreign minister of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM), Nikola Dimitrov, was quoted by the Turkish news agency Anadolu on Saturday as saying that the agreement is “too significant to fail”.
He statements came during an official visit to Ankara.
Among others, he called the process to iron out an agreement with the Greek side as historic, noting that “Macedonia (fYRoM) has lost a generation waiting (for Euro-Atlantic integration), due to the issue over the name.”
Dimitrov used the stand-alone “Macedonia”, the “constitutional” name of the country, and the one opposed by Greece, which recognizes the country as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM), the provisional name with which the one-time Yugoslav constituent state is also recognized by the UN, EU and NATO.
If ratified by Greece’s parliament, the country’s name, for use in all instances, will be the “Republic of North Macedonia”.
