Parliament adopts all Constitution Change Amendments from Prespa Agreement

The Parliament of Macedonia officially adopted on Friday all the four amendments for changes to the Constitution of Macedonia included in the Prespa Agreement, with ultimate purpose for resolving the name dispute with Greece. 81 MPs, from the ruling alliance, from Albanian parties from the opposition, along with the 8 independent MPs from VMRO-DPMNE, supported the adoption of the constitutional changes, while no MPs voted against them or abstained from voting. VMRO-DPMNE and its MPs decided to not participate in the adoption of the Prespa Agreement and few days before they left the Parliament. Of the four amendments adopted, Amendment XXXIII officially changes the constitutional name of the Republic of Macedonia into “Republic of North Macedonia”, the Amendment XXXIV changes the preamble of the Constitution of Macedonia, and now includes all ethnicities present in Macedonia, the Amendment XXXV claims that “the Republic of North Macedonia respects the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of its neighbouring countries”, and the Amendment XXXVI claims that “the Republic of North Macedonia takes care for the diaspora of the Macedonian people and other ethnicities living in Macedonia and maintains and improves their relations with their native country” and that “the Republic shall not interfere in internal affairs of other countries”.