Transport workers' protest possible on March 23rd

There has been no progress in the negotiations between the European Commission's working group and the transport associations and chambers of commerce of the Western Balkan countries, although there is less than a month left until the general application of the new Schengen rules, which allow drivers to stay in the EU for a total of 90 days in a six-month period. There have been differences of opinion among transport groups from five countries in the region, as some want to organize new border blockades on March 23 and others on April 14, "Vijesti" has learned.

A new meeting of this working group was supposed to be held yesterday, but the EC informed the transport associations that it was postponed to Thursday next week.

The Association of Transporters from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the "Logistika BiH" consortium, has decided to block the country's borders for freight transport from March 23. According to information from "Vijesti", this date is also acceptable to the majority in the Association of International Freight Transporters of Montenegro, which will decide on this in the coming days.

Transporters in Serbia have decided to organize their protest with border blockades on April 14, although a significant number were for March 23, believing that it is pointless to organize a protest after April 10, when all EU member states must begin implementing new rules on limiting the stay of transporters from the Western Balkans. Transporters from Albania and North Macedonia are also expected to decide in the coming days whether to organize a protest and on what date.

This means that there will be no unified protest by all transport operators in the region, such as the one they organized from January 26 to 29.

Croatia has already begun implementing the new Schengen rules, and the Association of Transporters from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as reported by the Bosnian media, states that in recent days around 300 of their drivers have been detained after crossing the border because they had spent a large number of days working and staying in EU member states, and that they were then given a measure of expulsion and a ban on entering Croatia for six months.

This is the reason why this association requested that a joint protest be organized as soon as possible, while carriers from other countries did not have so many problems with Croatia or other member states, but the application of the new descriptions will begin for everyone on April 10. Carriers from BiH most often do this - they travel through Croatia, transporting cargo between BiH and Croatian ports.

A European Commission working group has rejected proposals by Western Balkan carriers to be exempted from the new Schengen rules, instead proposing that Western Balkan carriers open representative offices in the EU and that their drivers apply for work and residence permits in one of the member states. Most carriers find this unacceptable because it involves lengthy procedures, and they will already be left without the most significant volume of work in April because they will not be able to compete with EU carriers.

The ETIAS rules come into force in mid-April, and they do not recognize the status of cabin crew for road freight carriers, unlike air and sea carriers, but are practically treated as tourists - that is, they can stay/work in the territory of EU member states for a maximum of 90 days in a 180-day period. In other words, they will be able to drive through EU territory for a maximum of ten days per month, which will make them no longer competitive with EU carriers, who will be able to more easily obtain all transport jobs between the EU and the Western Balkan countries.

Transporters have been warning about this problem for years, and negotiations with the EU working group were organized only after they blocked all border crossings in the region where truck transport is carried out at the end of January.

However, two weeks ago, the working group rejected the proposal that carriers from the Western Balkans be exempted, that is, given the status of cabin crew, with comments that "the requirements are impossible, too creative and contrary to Schengen law."

Transporters from Montenegro have additional reasons for protesting because the Government did not fulfill most of the demands it accepted on January 29, which is why the protest was then suspended. These demands related to increasing the amount of excise tax refunds on fuel that their colleagues in the region have, faster VAT refunds to 30 to 60 days because they have been waiting for years now, preferential working years, and extending the work of customs and phytosanitary inspections to be adapted to the needs of transporters as taxpayers. VAT refunds were partially accelerated, the work of phytosanitary inspections was extended, and transporters were given a slightly longer deadline for submitting customs documents.