Documents with the name "Macedonia" become invalid

2024-02-13 16:17:14, Kosova & Bota CNA

The personal documents of the citizens of North Macedonia with the old name, "Republic of Macedonia", have been out of use for exiting and entering this country since February 13.

The replacement of personal documents, passports, identity cards, driver's licenses and traffic permits with those with the name "North Macedonia", is an obligation for the residents of this country, based on what is known as the Prespa Agreement between Skopje and Athens on the name change of the state, which was reached on June 17, 2018.

The agreement entered into force in February 2019 and had a period of five years to implement its obligations, including the exchange of personal documents.

Through a circular letter sent to all Greek ministries, the Foreign Minister of Greece, Giorgos Gerapetritis, "recalled that at midnight on February 12, 2024, the five-year transitional period regarding the documents for international use of North Macedonia expires."

The head of the Greek diplomacy has also informed that in order to enter the Greek territory, vehicles from North Macedonia must have the marking NMK or NM.

Despite the expiry of the old documents, the customs and police services of North Macedonia have announced that Macedonian citizens in Kosovo, Albania and Serbia also crossed the border on February 13 with old documents under the name of the Republic of Macedonia.

Even after the expiration of the deadline, on February 12, many citizens have not been provided with personal documents with the new name, Republic of North Macedonia.

According to the data of the Macedonian Ministry of Internal Affairs, about 650,000 citizens out of 1.8 million in North Macedonia have not yet managed to replace their personal documents with the new name of the state.

For the chaos created in front of the counters, the institutions also blamed the citizens, who, according to them, waited for the last moment to replace the documents even though they had enough time to apply.

Due to the lack of forms, Albanian citizens cannot receive passports and identity cards in two languages ??- Albanian and Macedonian.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bujar Osmani, in a press conference on Friday, said that citizens who are abroad after February 12 and who have old travel documents, will be able to return to the country with a travel document, which is issued in the diplomatic office and consular missions.

The Assembly of North Macedonia has approved on February 12, with a quick procedure, the changes and additions to two laws on traffic safety, which extend the validity of driver's licenses with the name of the Republic of Macedonia until the end of 2024.

Their use is valid only within the territory of North Macedonia, while the changes were approved since the current law did not provide for such a thing.

Their change followed many reactions in the public opinion, since otherwise, from February 13, all citizens with old driver's licenses could face high fines.

For the created situation, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Pançe Toshkovski, who is from the ranks of VMRO DPMNE, which is part of the Technical Government, has accused the former minister Oliver Spasovski, inviting the prosecution bodies to act for legal violations and for failure to act in time.

Such accusations have been rejected by the Social Democratic League of former Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski, accusing the opposition of spreading panic.

"Spreading panic and giving any populist statement that is not in the direction of solving the problem with personal documents, does not bring anything good", says the reaction of SDSM./ REL