"This agreement can open the door for EU membership. The Greek government strongly supports this option as it can secure stability and cooperation in the Balkans, i.e. a region that has long suffered by wars and ethnic clashes," Papadimoulis said.
Macedonia’s accession to the European Union remains blocked by Greece over a decades’ long dispute, where Athens has claimed that Macedonia might have territorial claims over Greece’s own region of the same name.
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The spokesman of the ruling Social Democratic Union of Macedonia party told Sputnik that the signing of the agreement between Greece and Macedonia on the name change is a positive step for the two countries.
"This agreement is good for everyone, for Macedonians and the Greeks, also the region. This agreement solved a very huge problem which was not solved in the past 20 years or more. So this agreement is a very huge step for Macedonia, Greece, and the region," the spokesman said.
On Sunday, the foreign ministers of Greece and Macedonia signed an agreement on the new constitutional name of the Western Balkan nation, which was known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) since 1995.
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Macedonia gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. In the 1995 interim bilateral accord, Greece agreed that the term FYROM would be applied to Macedonia until the dispute over potential territorial claims was settled.
