Previous negotiations with the European Commission regarding the restriction of work and residence of road freight transporters from the Western Balkan countries in the Schengen countries have not yielded results, which is why new protests by transporters and blockades of border crossings and ports are possible, "Vijesti" has learned.
According to information from "Vijesti", all proposals for compromise that were sent to representatives of the European Commission at the last meeting by the authorities from the Western Balkans region and transporters were rejected with comments that they were "impossible, too creative and contrary to Schengen law", while it was proposed that drivers register their residence in one of the closer EU member states, which was unacceptable for transporters.
"Vijesti" sent questions to the Montenegrin Ministry of European Affairs yesterday, from which they expect answers.
At the beginning of April, rules will come into force according to which carriers from the Western Balkan countries will be able to stay/work in the EU territory for a maximum of 90 days within a 180-day period. Carriers believe that under the new rules, including waiting times and other procedures, they will be able to work for a maximum of ten days per month, and that due to the new regulations, they will not be able to compete with carriers from the EU and will lose their jobs.
Members of the Association of International Freight Forwarders of Montenegro will hold meetings today after which they will announce their decisions, and their colleagues from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia will also decide today on the continuation of possible protests. If decisions on protests are made, they would again be joint and organized simultaneously.
Carriers have been warning about this problem for two years, since it was known what the new regulation looks like and that it will come into force in April 2026, and they were first taken seriously after a joint regional protest from January 26 to 29. After that, the ministries of these countries approached the European Commission, which organized a Technical Working Group on this issue.
This working group includes representatives of the three EU directorates for Migration and Home Affairs (DG Home), Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood (DG Enest) and Mobility and Transport (DG Move), representatives of Balkan governments and transport associations.
"To all the proposals, the EC representatives said that they were impossible, too creative and not in line with Schengen law. When we asked them what their proposal was if they were already rejecting all our proposals, the answer was unequivocally 'drivers and transporters must adapt to the 90/180 rule'," an interlocutor from the meeting told "Vijesti".
Their proposals were that professional transporters should receive different visas or a similar document that would allow them to stay and work in the EU for a longer period without changing their residence, or that their working hours according to travel orders they translate in transit through the EU should not be counted towards their stay...
EC representatives only offered the possibility for carriers to obtain a visa from a member state for a stay longer than 90 days in that state, and that they would then not be entered into the EES system.
Representatives of transport companies responded to this proposal by saying that obtaining a visa means that their drivers become citizens of those countries and that they then lose them because they will be able to work for European transport companies. They pointed out that in that case transport companies from the region would also have to move their representative offices and register in EU member states, which is long and complicated, but also that the surrounding EU member states would not accept them because they would become competition for their transport companies. The interlocutor of "Vijesti" said that the EC representatives had no comment on these remarks and that they stood by their positions.
Of the representatives of the EU member states that attended the meeting, as the interlocutor of "Vijesti" said, only Croatia defended the position that the drivers are not a migration threat, that all their entries are already controlled and that a solution that would be acceptable to them should be found. The interlocutor of "Vijesti" also says that the representative of Sweden asked the members of the working group from the EU directorate how Swedish companies that depend on transporters from the Western Balkans will function, but that he did not receive an answer.
They will apply for visas to see if it is possible.
The chairman of the EU working group has scheduled a new meeting in two weeks, and they would only discuss the director's proposal that drivers from the Western Balkans apply for visas to work in the EU with additional consideration of the residence application.
The interlocutor of "Vijesti" said that the procedure for the solution proposed by the EU would take years, and that transporters would be left without work in April.
Until the next meeting, carriers will try to submit requests to the embassies of EU member states in their countries, to see if what was proposed to them by EU representatives in the working groups is possible.
Blockades may be longer
Carriers will agree on a new form of protest today or in the coming days, to show domestic and EU authorities that they cannot accept endangering the livelihoods of their families from April, when the new rules come into effect.
The previous protest by Montenegrin transporters from January 26 to 29 concerned blockades near nine border crossings where road freight traffic is carried out, as well as the blockade of the entrances and exits of the Port of Bar. At that time, they allowed passenger traffic, as well as the transport of medicines, livestock and explosives.
Some transport operators want the next protests to be radicalized and last longer. According to information from "Vijesti", new protests could be organized in late February or early March, if an agreement is not reached by then regarding the main condition - exemption from Schengen rules.
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