Zoran Zaev

Mitsotakis has said that if he is elected Prime Minister he will honour the agreement but that he will work to improve certain provisions in their implementation.

Zaev revealed that Greek companies have already promised to invest “over 500mn euros” in the energy sector in North Macedonia, as well as in the sectors of agriculture and cement.

In a debate with opposition VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski, Zaev also noted that Tsipras had initially accepted the name Republic of Ilinden Macedonia.

Zaev said that he negotiated with Greece without the ethnic identity of Macedonians who speak Macedonian and have their own tradition and history being disputed.

Moscow recently threatened to veto the Prespa Agreement at the UN, though Security Council approval is not required for the accord to take effect.

The agreement comes into effect upon ratification by the Greek Parliament, which is expected within the month.

'The Greeks had a difficult time over the last years and I am especially pleased that Greece transcended the problems,' said Merkel

As for Russia’s intense objections to FYROM being admitted to Nato, Zaev said that the agreement is not directed against any other country and that its sole aim is to ensure peace and stability.

The prime minister has said that right after ratification of the Prespa Accord, the government will table in Parliament the Protocol on FYROM’s admission to Nato, which the legislatures of all of the Alliance’s member-states must approve.

“As President of Bulgaria, I do not agree with the name ‘Northern Macedonia’. There is no such country. That name cannot be adopted. We cannot accept that there is a ‘Macedonian language’," said Rumen (Radev.

The Greek PM underlined that if there any references in the FYROM Constitution that will leave room for future irredentist interpretations the agreement will not pass.

“We must be careful because our right to self-determination and our right to use our Macedonian Language is accepted and recognised by Greece,” Zaef said

Bulgarian Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov demanded that Skopje make clear it has no claims as regards a “Macedonian language” in Bulgaria and acknowledge that FYROM and Bulgaria historically had a common course until 1944.

The main opposition party has vowed to vote down the agreement when it is tabled in the Greek Parliament for ratification,

Zaev’s statement led UN mediator Matthew Nimetz to intervene with the parties in order to calm the waters.

Katrougalos declared that the naming accord guarantees Greek sovereignty and forbids FYROM’s intervention in Greek affairs.

Allegations that the US spent two million dollars to secure votes in FYROM’s parliament to back the Prespa Agreement must be answered by the US Ambassador

In an exclusive interview with Ta Nea, FYROM Prime Minister Zoran Zaev expresses the conviction that political problems are solved by implementing a new policy, and not by changing borders.

The German Chancellor again weighed in to support the Greece-FYROM aaccord in a letter to FYROM’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

The main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, from which Zaev hopes to draw votes, is fiercely against the agreement, and was the motive force behind the boycott of the referendum on the Prespa Agreement.