SKOPJE, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Macedonian Parliament members voted on Friday to endorse the constitutional changes regarding the name of the country.
Eighty-one MPs voted in favor of the amendments 33, 34, 35 and 36 to the Macedonian constitution, paving the way to changing the country's name to the Republic of North Macedonia.
The MPs of the main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE did not attend the session.
According to the amendments, the citizenship will be Macedonian citizen of the Republic of North Macedonia "which neither determines nor defines the ethnic background of the citizens."
Macedonia guarantees that it will observe the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and the political independence of the neighbors - Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Serbia.
Under the Prespa Agreement signed on June 17, 2018, the amendments to Macedonia's constitution will not enter into force and will have no value if Greece doesn't ratify this agreement and NATO accession Protocol.
Macedonia is formally called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) by the United Nations. Macedonia is also the name of a northern province in Greece. Athens is worried that the use of the same name by the neighboring state could lead to territorial claims.
On June 17 last year, Macedonia and Greece signed the Prespa Agreement to resolve a decades-old name dispute. Under the deal, the official name of the country will become the Republic of North Macedonia.
