On Friday evening 19 October, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn hailed the vote of the parliament of the Former Yugoslav Republic of the Macedonia a few hours earlier on the constitutional changes for implementation of the Prespa agreement.
"The parliament took a very important step towards the implementation of the Prespa agreement through the vote launching the constitutional changes procedure", Mogherini and Hahn said. "We now expect the national procedures for the implementation of the agreement to continue without any delays, towards the adoption of the constitutional changes", they added.
The parliament adopted a proposal to change the country's name by 80 votes out of 120, in other words exactly the two third majority required. This text is the first step in a process that requires several votes and could reach an end at the start of 2019 at the earliest. Before the vote, some parliamentarians from the opposition VMRO, who intended to vote in favour of the text, were threatened with sanctions by their party if they voted that way (see EUROPE 121114).
Mogherini and Hahn reiterated that the EU strongly supports the agreement, saying that it took "political courage, leadership and responsibility" from the leaders "to resolve one of the oldest disputes in the region" and that the parliament's vote confirmed this "determination". "This is a truly unique opportunity for decisively moving the country forward on its European Union path as well as for reconciliation in the region", they stated.
Once the change of name is definitively endorsed, the Greek parliament will in turn have to give its opinion on the agreement. The situation around the change of name is tense in Greece too. On Wednesday 17 October, the minister for foreign affairs, Nikos Kotzias, resigned following a difference over this issue with the defence minister, Panos Kammenos, who is opposed to the new name of Macedonia.
On Thursday 18 and Friday 19 October, FYROM moreover conducted official talks at the headquarters of NATO in Brussels with a view to the country's accession to the Alliance. Their discussions focused on the detailed modalities of accession, including on political, military and legal issues. The accession protocol will only be signed when all the constitutional changes have been adopted. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)