Ivanov could put Macedonia name agreement on hold

The failure to ratify the agreement between Macedonia and Greece on the part of Macedonia's president, Djordje Ivanov, presents a huge barrier to its implementation, legal experts estimate.

After the Parliament's approval, Macedonia's president, Ivanov, has a bad deadline days to sign the decree to declare the Law for ratification of the agreement between Macedonia and Greece.
But President Ivanov has indicated that he does not intend to decree the agreement, because, as he has said, this agreement is at the expense of Macedonia as a state.

Legal experts explain that if the president does not decree the agreement, it returns to Parliament for the second time and in this case, the president is obliged to sign it. They add that by keeping his stand against the agreement clear, it is expected that he will refuse to decree the same, as is the case with the Law of Languages.
Rose Ivanovski, former head of the Constitutional Court, tells Radio Free Europe that the Constitution is clear, and Ivanov has only once refused to sign the agreement he has received from the parliamentary majority.

In the second case, the president is “obligating” to sign, although he adds that in this respect there is space the law and Ivanov can prolong the decree of the agreement indefinitely which damages and the process of realising this agreement through which the unblocking of the integration process is targeted.
The refusal to sign the Macedonian-Greek Agreement Law means a serious violation of the Constitution. The president of the state with his actions seriously violates the fundamental principles of the Constitution and rule of justice, and he does this because he is aware that this composition cannot initiate the president's confidence vote, because SÉ has numbers in Parliament”, says Ivanovski.

It explains that, in contrast with laws that should be signed by the president, ratification of the agreement becomes an all-powerful act after it has received a visa from the parliamentary majority, but for publishing in the Official Journal, however, the president's signing is needed.
On the other hand, Merim Maxuti, legalising Constitutional Law at Tetovo University, tells Radio Free Europe of particular importance that the fact is Greece's obligations are not linked to the act of law declaration, but the act of visating this agreement in Parliament, respectively, after the ratification of the Agreement, the next step belongs to Greece.

“Now is Greece, which is expected to announce the bodies of the institutions of the European Union and NATO, that Greece as a state will not make obstacles to the opening of negotiations for Macedonia's EU membership, Macedonia's integration into NATO” respectively.
“Things must flow under the agreement already reached by Macedonia and Greece. So the next step should be from the Greek side, and then Macedonia should fulfil its obligations made in line with this” agreement, Maksut points out.

Political issues recognisers say the upcoming challenge during realism of this agreement will be organising the referendum because it is expected that the Macedonian opposition V MRO-DPMNE, to make instructions on both the organisation of the referendum, may even question its success if it calls for boycott.
Separately the problem is the adoption of constitutional changes, for which two-thirds of votes are needed, which the Government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev currently does not have secured.