Government members, former prime ministers, ambassadors and religious leaders gathered outside the government building in Skopje on Tuesday for the symbolic raising of the NATO flag, as Macedonia makes its final steps towards membership.
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said in a speech that this marks the end of insecurity for the country, and opens the path to a prosperous future through membership of the “most powerful alliance in the world”.
“We succeeded in getting back from the Balkan side-road to the main highway to Europe,” Zaev said.
The accession protocol was signed last week in Brussels, but Macedonia will not have the right to vote and participate in key decisions until all 29 parliaments of NATO countries have ratified it.
Greece and Slovenia have already become the first to ratify, judging by previous experience, the entire process is expected to last from one to two years.
Macedonia enters the alliance under a new name, Republic of North Macedonia, which was agreed in the historic ‘name’ deal signed last summer with Greece.
In return for changing its name, to which Greece had objected for years – insisting it implied territorial claims towards its own northern province also called Macedonia – Athens agreed to lift its long-standing blockade on Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic accession.
NATO invited Macedonia to join the alliance last year, shortly after it struck the agreement with Greece.
Photo: BIRN
The Balkaninsight
