Skopje Blueprint Prespa? Lessons learned from the Greece-North Macedonia agreement IOANNIS ARMAKOLAS/LJUPCHO PETKOVSKI June 2019 n February 2019, Macedonia received new name boards on its border crossings, and a new logo on the Government website. The country is now officially known as the Republic of North Macedonia. The Prespa Agreement 1 entered into force following the signature of the bilateral deal between the Governments of North Macedonia and Greece in June 2018, the changes in North Macedonia’s Constitution, and the ratification of the Agreement by the Greek Parliament,. The Greek Parliament was the first of its NATO member states’ counterparts to ratify North Macedonia’s NATO Accession Protocol. n The process getting to the Prespa Agreement was wearisome, politically exhausting and at times highly controversial; but ultimately it was a process that proved successful, despite encountering opposition or even hostility on both sides. The Prespa Agreement defies historical determinism in the Balkans. After almost three decades of mistrust, provocations, and international power games between two neighboring countries, the new agreement sends a positive message of compromise, cooperation and strong desire for European integration coming from the Western Balkans. Amidst usual bilateral disputes from the region, such as the Serbia-Kosovo relations or the constant ethno­political fragmentation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Greece demonstrated that core European values can prevail in the traditionally turbulent Balkans. n Could the Prespa Agreement be used as a blueprint for resolving other bilateral disputes in the region? What are its substantive elements? What are its key constituent components? 1 The official name of the agreement signed by the two sides is:‘Final Agreement for the settlement of the differences as described in the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 817(1993) and 845(1993), the termination of the Interim Accord of 1995, and the establishment of a Strategic Partnership between the Parties’. In this paper we’re using the colloquial term‘Prespa Agreement’