The small Balkan country Macedonia is now officially called Northern Macedonia. The new name went into effect on Tuesday.

The renaming of the country is part of the conversion of an agreement with Greece last June to prepare the country for NATO and EU membership.

Athens had insisted since the independence of Macedonia 27 years ago that the northern neighbour would change its name because it is shared with a province in the north of Greece.

As an EU and NATO member, Greece had blocked any rapprochement from Macedonia to the Western alliances.

With the renaming, the name conflict with Greece is now defensively off the track. Meanwhile, the accession of Northern Macedonia to NATO has been initiated. The Greek parliament had already ratified the protocol in question last week.