PM: Greece will not ratify memorandums until Skopje complies with Prespa deal

The Greek government will not submit for ratification the three cooperation memorandums signed with North Macedonia over issues such as its EU accession process until Skopje fully complies with the Prespa Agreement signed in 2018, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday.

“We will not ratify the memoranda as long as we are not absolutely convinced that the other side complies with all the provisions of the Prespa Agreement,” he told Skai TV.

His comment follows a move by the main opposition to table the memorandums for a vote in Parliament, a few days after North Macedonia’s newly elected president Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova referred to her country simply as “Macedonia” during her inauguration, instead of the country’s constitutional name, approved in the Prespa Agreement. 

“I had warned with a clear statement the new government in Skopje that any deviation from the implementation of the agreement is sure to have serious consequences for our relations with North Macedonia and also for the country’s European path,” he added.

If Greece approves the memorandums, it “will lose any leverage it has” to pressure the neighbouring country to abide by the deal, he said.

The Prespa Agreement was agreed in 2018 between former prime minister and former SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras with his North Macedonia counterpart, Zoran Zaev.

The New Democracy government, which first came to power in 2019, deferred the signing of the cooperation memorandums in June 2021, claiming that North Macedonia was not implementing the agreement on the country’s name in all contexts.

Mitsotakis said New Democracy was “completely vindicated” in its policy to delay the ratification, claiming that it “read that another government was coming (in Skopje).”