The support from Macedonia's public and opposition forces is crucial for securing country's accession to the European Union and NATO amid protests over the republic's name change, required for the membership, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said on Thursday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th September, 2018) The support from Macedonia's public and opposition forces is crucial for securing country's accession to the European Union and NATO amid protests over the republic's name change, required for the membership, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said on Thursday.
In June, Macedonia and Greece signed an accord on renaming the former Yugoslav republic to the Republic of North Macedonia. The deal resolved the decades-long dispute between Athens and Skopje over the use of "Macedonia," which is also the name of a region in Greece. The Macedonian parliament ratified the deal on name change in July, paving the way for the September 30 referendum on the country's NATO and EU membership. The possibility of accession was earlier impossible due to the naming dispute.
"As Prime Minister, I promise that we are doing everything we can to reach the EU's standards. We know the recommendations and they are our priorities. We also know that we still have a long way to go, but your warm welcome gives us strong motivation to continue our reform agenda," Zaev said in his address to the European Parliament, as quoted in the parliament's statement.
The name change agreement triggered a number of protests in Greece and Macedonia. On Sunday, a rally with 6,000 people in attendance in the Greek city of Thessaloniki has left 15 police officers injured.
