Carriers Postpone EU Border Blockade — Drivers: They Acted Under State Pressure

The “International Transport” Carriers’ Association postponed a few days ago the protest, respectively the blockade of border crossings with the EU, which had been planned and announced for September 14. According to the protest’s organizing committee announcement, the decision was made after new talks with the EU Office in Serbia, where progress was achieved in resolving the problems that caused the protest.

“Unlike the previous period, this time the EU showed real readiness for dialogue and took concrete steps toward meeting the Association’s demands. Specifically, progress has been made on setting deadlines for issuing special visas for professional drivers from the Western Balkans,” the announcement states, also mentioning the great diplomatic activity of state institutions that yielded results in several EU member states.

“Gathering at the border is the last resort, and since things are finally moving, we want to show goodwill for a constructive solution. We stress that the protest has not been canceled, but only postponed,” the Association says. Truck drivers had previously blocked the border crossings of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia with EU countries because of the 90/180 rule: citizens of non-EU countries can stay in the Schengen zone only 90 days in six months, and professional drivers are being fined and even banned from entry when they exceed this limit.

Drivers are not convinced by the claimed progress. Srđan Tošić, a driver who until recently was president of the “381” drivers’ association, says the state forced carriers to give up the border blockade. According to him, checks in the EU have tightened in recent days and in just the last three days over 300 trucks were turned back from borders because drivers could not enter EU countries. Fines range from 100 to 1,000 euros, while entry bans range from one to 12 months — Tošić says he himself received a 200-euro fine and a two-month entry ban a few days ago.

He accuses that at the meeting in the Government, Prime Minister Macut told carriers they could not block the borders: “They clearly don’t want protests before the elections. We wanted to protest, to force foreign companies working in Serbia to call their parent companies to influence the resolution of the problem. Instead we have traffic inspectors at the border who stop only local drivers as a form of pressure,” Tošić says, adding that the state offered neither a moratorium on loans nor financial assistance for drivers.

Source: Danas