JPA manyToMany bidirectional mapping tries to use an not exist table - jpa

Question

Bidirectional ManyToMany mapping is using EMPLOYEE_PROJECT relation table instead of EMP_PROJ table described in mapping. EMPLOYEE_PROJECT does not exist on db. Eclipselink version is 2.7.3 and jpa version is 2.2
#Entity
public class Employee extends Base implements Serializable {
/** explicit set serialVersionUID */
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
#Column(name = "FIRSTNAME")
private String firstname;
#ManyToMany
#JoinTable(name = "EMP_PROJ", joinColumns = #JoinColumn(name = "EMP_ID"), inverseJoinColumns = #JoinColumn(name = "PROJ_ID"))
private List<Project> projects;
public List<Project> getProjects() {
return projects;
}
public void setProjects(List<Project> projects) {
this.projects = projects;
Project Class
#Entity
public class Project extends Base implements Serializable {
/** explicit set serialVersionUID */
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
#Column(name = "NAME")
private String name;
#ManyToMany(mappedBy="projects")
Set<Employee> employees = new HashSet<Employee>();
Problem is when query run
#Test
public void save_employee(){
EntityManager em = emf.createEntityManager();
Employee emp1 = em.find(Employee.class, new Integer(1));
Project p = new Project();
p.setName("Name1");
p.getEmployees().add(emp1);
p = em.merge(p);
assertNotNull(p);
Employee emp2 = em.find(Employee.class, new Integer(1));
assertEquals(1, emp2.getProjects().size());
em.close();
}
Following exception:
Exception [EclipseLink-4002] (Eclipse Persistence Services - 2.7.3.v20180807-4be1041): org.eclipse.persistence.exceptions.DatabaseException
Internal Exception: org.h2.jdbc.JdbcSQLException: Table "EMPLOYEE_PROJECT" not found; SQL statement:
SELECT t1.ID, t1.DESCRIPTION, t1.NAME, t1.VERSION FROM EMPLOYEE_PROJECT t0, PROJECT t1 WHERE ((t0.Employee_ID = ?) AND (t1.ID = t0.projects_ID)) [42102-197]
Error Code: 42102
Base.java code is as following
#MappedSuperclass
public class Base {
protected int id;
protected int version;
#Id
#GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
public int getId() {
return id;
}
public void setId(int id) {
this.id = id;
}
#Version
public int getVersion() {
return version;
}
public void setVersion(int version) {
this.version = version;
}
}