Greece’s former Prime Minister and current leader of Syriza, Alexis Tsipras called on the Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev to enforce the strict implementation of the Prespes Agreement, particularly in terms of the names of public entities and of textbooks.
Tsipras made the request on the sidelines of the first "Prespa Forum Dialogue" held in the neighbouring country on Thursday.
The former Greek PM however, also called on the Greek government to ratify as soon as possible all memoranda of collaboration with North Macedonia, something the Mitsotakis government has ‘frozen’ following alleged breaches of the agreement by Skopje concerning their national football federation.
On his side, Zaev affirmed that federations which have not changed their names to reflect the terms of the agreement will be doing so in the near future, and that some of the name changes are at the stage of completion. He also underlined that the new passports with the constitutional name will be distributed in the following days, and he will be receiving his on Monday.
"We progressive politicians know it is hard to dismantle walls, but it becomes easier if you know how to build bridges with your neighbours - this is what Zoran and I achieved, with Nikos Kotzias and Nikola Dimitrov," Tsipras said, referring to the Greek and FYROM foreign ministers who signed the agreement. Reaching an agreement came after realizing that no one else would resolve the problem between the two countries, he added, while noting that the two countries "convinced the EU to take another look at the Western Balkans and unfreeze the accession process."