North Macedonia: This is the name of the northern neighbor according to an agreement with Greece. However, the new government is persistently violating this, criticizes Athens – which could theoretically block EU accession.
Greece has reprimanded the new North Macedonian government for allegedly breaching the contract in the name dispute. According to a report by the news agency AP, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said that North Macedonia must adhere unconditionally to international law, which includes the contract on the country's name concluded with Greece in 2018.
However, the new government is systematically and persistently violating the agreement, which “provides for the use of the name North Macedonia both domestically and internationally”.
Greece could block North Macedonia's accession to the EU. Bulgaria – another of North Macedonia's neighbours – is already doing so because of a dispute over minority rights.
Back and forth in Parliament
Greece and its northern neighbor had been arguing for decades about the name of the former Yugoslav republic, which had become independent in 1991 under the name Macedonia. The government in Athens feared that this country's name could be used to make territorial claims on the northern Greek province of Macedonia. In 2018, the dispute was settled in a treaty under which the Republic of Macedonia renamed itself the Republic of North Macedonia.
Greece then paved the way for North Macedonia to join NATO. After the North Macedonian center-left government that had signed the treaty was voted out of office, the new Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski used the country's old name in parliament on Sunday and called the 2018 treaty “disgraceful”. However, when he was sworn in, he used the country's constitutionally prescribed name, North Macedonia.
When she took office in May, President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova also used the name Macedonia in her oath and said that this was her human right.
