The Minister of Foreign Affairs,Nikola Dimitrov replied to several questions posted by MPs at the Parliament and he said that Prespa Agreement ties the steps that Macedonia is undertaking towards EU and NATO with what is of interest for Greece in the Agreement.
–Because the NATO membership is tied to the implementation of the Agreement. That is why it is stated that at the same session when the Greek Parliament ratifies the Agreement, it will sign the protocols for Macedonia’s membership into NATO. The key criticism issue dby their opposition are the identity elements, and the key criticism issued by our opposition is the domain of its use. And here lies the essence of the compromise. Regarding the identity amendment, I had an encouraging reaction because anything that has to do with the identity of the Macedonian nation cannot be contradictory to the text in the Agreement that is providing the absolute right to self-identification – said Dimitrov.
He stressed that the former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski was aware of these conditions dictated by Greece and that he was up to date with the process.
-In December 2009, at a television interview he said that Greece was demanding a change of the language for an internal use i.e. to state either new Macedonian or north Macedonian. On the 16th of November 2017, in an interview, he said that Greece doesn’t accept that our language and identity to be translated into English. With the Agreement, the geographic tag will not make us less than what we are today. While we are awaiting for a new chance neither the world nor Europe will wait, nor the Balkans can allow to miss chances – said Dimitro.
The MPs at the Parliament are having a break and the discussion about the constitutional amendments will resume at 15.30.
