The EU Enlargement Commissioner, Austrian Johannes Hahn has called on the Parliament of Skopje to proceed with the necessary constitutional changes to change the name as per its recent agreement with Greece.
According to Hahn, there are reports that threats have been made against members of the opposition party VMRO-DPMNE who wish to cross the floor and support the government on the Prespes Agreement. Sanctions were imposed on members that went against the party line of opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, such as the Deputy Secretary General of the party, who was fired.
The European Commissioner pointed out that such threats and punitive measures are totally unacceptable for a political party that claims to be pro-European and democratic, and now hopes to engage in a dialogue process, "because Euro-Atlantic integration, which is now very close to achieving the solution to the name dispute is also referred to by VMRO-DPMNE, but this party should act accordingly and make it possible to approve the Agreement, all else being unreliable."
Johannes Han called for the main opposition party to "abandon its disastrous stance and put the interests of the country and its citizens above its party interests."