The President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), Mevlut Chavushoglu has stated that the Republic of Macedonia will chair the Committee of Ministers under the name "Macedonian chairmanship".

- As far as know, this is discussed in the Committee of Ministers. It has been confirmed and accepted there that "Macedonian chairmanship" will be used. It hasn't been said that it will be the chairmanship of the Republic of Macedonia, neither Macedonia, nor the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, even though this is the official name of the country, Chavushoglu told Deutsche Welle.

According to the PACE President, the name is an obstacle to the future Euro-Atlantic integration of the country. He expressed his hopes that the name row will be solved soon and that PACE will no longer take care of similar issues, which are "useless".

- A name row settlement will contribute to reinforced stability in the Balkans, says Chavushoglu, emphasising that "the six-month CoE presidency will be called "Macedonian chairmanship" and this has nothing to do with me being Turkish or with me personally."

Recently, PACE has said that it won't take sides in the name dispute, because it is being settled in UN. Its president has admitted that Greek MEPs objected the use of the title "Macedonian chairmanship".

- We've received a letter from a member of the Greek delegation. In its response it was elaborated that PACE did not reach a decision on the title, that PACE was not the right address of the letter. It should have been sent to the Committee of Ministers instead. In addition to this, there were no other reactions, Chavushoglu said.

He expects the Macedonian chairmanship to play more active role in the Council of Europe and in PACE in terms of reforms.

- I hope reforms will be followed and guaranteed by the Macedonian chairmanship. The PACE bureau and standing committee will convene on May 20-21 in Skopje. I look forward to visiting your country once again, the PACE president said.

He is convinced that the Macedonian chairmanship will be crowned with success, adding that Macedonia will contribute to strengthening CoE's major values.