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Southeast Europe
July 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
locked Macedonia’s Euro-Atlantic integration pro- cesses as the country's accession was previously vetoed by Greece due to the unresolved dispute. Greece objected to the use of the name Macedo- nia as it has a province with the same name in the north, fearing possible territorial claims by Skopje.
For the deal to be implemented, Macedonia needs a yes vote in a referendum that will probably be held at the end of September or early October.
However, this is not expected to be an easy pro- cess as the opposition and the country’s President Gjorge Ivanov are adamantly against the name deal, claiming it is unlawful and unconstitutional.
Under the deal, Skopje needs to make consti- tutional changes to change the country’s name to North Macedonia, which will be used not only internationally, but also at home.
Zaev and senior government officials consider the deal will keep the country's national identity and even strengthen it, and EU and Nato accession will open a better future for its citizens.
Zaev is convinced that the referendum will be successful and that most citizens will vote for the changes, as around 75% of citizens are in favour of Nato membership, according to polls.
The deal also has to be approved by the Greek parliament, which will be another difficult step as the opposition there is also against the deal, because it does not want the word "Macedonia" to be included in the country’s new name at all.
Macedonia was invited to start Nato accession talks as Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), an acronym used so far for the country due to the Greek objection to international institu- tions calling the country by its constitutional name.
Greece used its veto to block Macedonia from be- ing invited to join Nato at the Bucharest summit in 2008, but Skopje did not stop its preparations for joining the alliance. But it was only after the ap- pointment of a new government in May 2017 that serious efforts were made to find a solution with Greece.
Macedonian Defense Minister Radmila Sekerins- ka recently said that the government has adopted the Strategic Defense Review, a document on the long-term development of the Macedonian army. This is a key document for the defense sector and its alignment with Nato standards.
According to the plan, the Macedonian army will have 6,800 soldiers. It foresees a budget for the army of 2% of GDP until 2024, up from the current 1% of GDP.