"We, the foreign ministers, have completed what was entrusted to the prime ministers of the two countries. Today, and probably tomorrow, negotiations will continue at the level of experts — technical and legal issues must be resolved," Kotzias told journalists in Brussels after meeting with his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Dimitrov.
As soon as experts finish and clarify technical and legal issues, the texts prepared at the level of foreign ministers will be handed over to two prime ministers, who will then negotiate and reach a definitive agreement, the ministry's statement said.
Earlier in the day, Dimitrov said that it would be possible to reach an agreement on the country's name before the EU summit on June 28.
READ MORE: Macedonia Must Revise Constitution to Resolve Republic's Name Issue — Tsipras
Greece and Macedonia are involved in a long-standing dispute over the name of the Republic of Macedonia. Greece regards "Macedonia" as a term referring only to one of its northern regions and to the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia, and insists on the use of another name for its northern neighbor. In the 1995 interim bilateral accord, Greece agreed that the term "the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM) would be applied to Macedonia until the dispute was settled. The issue has been blocking Skopje's aspirations to join NATO and the European Union for years.
