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Ikonomou: Memoranda with North Macedonia to be ratified at an appropriate time, in coming period

Ikonomou: Memoranda with North Macedonia to be ratified at an appropriate time, in coming period
Athens, 6 September 2021 (MIA) – According to the Greek government spokesperson Ioannis Ikonomou, the three memoranda with North Macedonia arising from the Prespa Agreement, which have been waiting for ratification in the Greek Parliament for a year, will be ratified "at an appropriate time in the coming period", MIA reports from Athens. Given that the memoranda were part of the topics discussed by the foreign ministers of the two countries, Bujar Osmani and Nikos Dendias, at last week’s meeting in Skopje, MIA’s Athens correspondent asked the government spokesperson at Monday’s press briefing whether there’s any news on the ratification. “At an appropriate time, in the coming period, it will happen,” Ikonomou said briefly. The three memoranda, related to acceleration of North Macedonia’s EU accession, economic cooperation between the two countries, and the aerial policing of the Skopje airspace, were signed between North Macedonia and Greece, following the Prespa Agreement, and submitted to the Greek Parliament in mid-September, 2020. Since then, they haven’t been put on the agenda, first to be reviewed by the competent parliamentary committee and then ratified by the lawmakers, while the opposition Syriza party is often accusing the current Greek government of deliberately delaying the ratification due to disagreements of New Democracy lawmakers.