It is necessary to change the Constitution, for the name to be for internal and international use, but also to avoid future allegations that the constitutional provisions have been violated, says the Greek Foreign Minister in an interview with the Greek newspaper ‘Dokumento’. Nikos Kodzias, says he is moderately optimistic and that there is still a lot of work on both sides.
The Greek Foreign Minister, explaining why Greece insists on Macedonia making a constitutional change, says MIA’s correspondent in Athens.
– The change of the constitution of our frien dand neighbor, that is, the first implementation of the erga omnes, ie the use of the new name in all cases, internationally and internally, as well as avoiding future disagreements that would arise without this change. Secondly, in the future, another government may ask for explanations for a violation of the Constitution if the International Treaty comes out of its framework, says the head of Greek diplomacy, and for disagreements about which he speaks, he explains that in a period of globalization when there are two different names one for international, another for internal use, then disagreements are inevitable.
According to Kotzias, the solution should not be “one to impose their opinion on the other,” but in a package agreement that will contain the necessary mutual compromises.
The treaty, he believes, should be a package of agreements, include the issues we are discussing at the UN, eliminating irredentism and predicting specific measures and conditions for no new occurrence, support for the integration of the neighboring country into international organizations and joint activities, and adds that it takes a period of time to implement these things because, as he says, “the world does not change in one day, even the Lord, according to the Bible, it took 6 days to create it.”
– Of course, this is not the implementation of an abstract method of partitioning partition resolution, but an element of pragmatism, realism, decisiveness and sense of responsibility, Kotzias says regarding the implementation of a possible solution.
Asked if an International Agreement would be sufficient to avoid constitutional changes in our country, Kotzias recalled the experience so far in the decisions of the national courts of the European Union member states.
– Based on Article 27 of the Vienna Convention on Contracts, the content prevails over national legislation. But this principle is more often not implemented. We know the decisions of the national constitutional courts of the EU member states regarding the subordination of the national legislation to the European, on issues related to the hard core of the Constitution, and the name is one of them. According to them, the Constitution exceeds any international agreement, explains Kodzias, MIA reports.
This means Zaev must find a way to change the Macedonian Constitution in order to appease the Greek side.
