FYROM Parliament to debate Constitutional name-change today

As reported last week by GCT, the debate on the Zaev government's proposal to start procedures for changing FYROMs constitution based on its recent Agreement with Greece, starts today in the Plenary of the country’s Parliament.

Late Saturday night the debate in the Constitutional Affairs Committee of FYROM’s Parliament ended and in the vote that followed, ten MPs voted in favour of the proposal of the Zoran Zaev while seven opposed it.

The plenary debate, in this first phase of the process, will last up to 10 days and will be completed by a vote, which will only concern whether the process of amending the Constitution will proceed on the basis of the guidelines contained in the government's proposal. A two-thirds majority (80 out of the 120 deputies) is required to make the relevant decision so that the procedure for amending the Constitution will go through the next stages provided for in the Parliament's Rules of Procedure.

During an interview with Greek newspaper TA NEA, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev characterised the signing of the Prespa agreement with Greece as an "historic moment" and "source of stability for the Balkans and Europe".