EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss Macedonia on Monday and to formulat an opinion on the Prespa agreement, under which the country is supposed to change its name into “North Macedonia”.
According to the MIA state news agency, the EU Council has been informed about the ratification of the agreement in both Macedonia and Greece, and about the Greek decision to ratify Macedonia’s NATO membership. Following this, the EU should prepare to begin using the new name in communication with Macedonia in a matter of days.

Initial reports indicate that the EU will welcome the name change and will explain it away as something has been done before in other countries and would happen again. Greece has blocked Macedonia’s EU accession talks and NATO membership for years, using its veto power in both institutions, while facing little criticism in Brussels. EU officials pushed strongly to remove the conservative VMRO-DPMNE led Government in Macedonia and help put a left wing Government in its place, counting on it being more prepared to accept Greek demands.

Macedonia hopes that this would mean that EU countries allow it to open accession talks in the summer. With the threat of Greek veto presumably out of the picture, France and the Netherlands are seen as the countries most strongly opposed to this development.