Carriers block roads throughout the country. “There are about 20,000 tons of goods on the borders”

Truck drivers began the protest on Monday, blocking roads and border crossings throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. Carriers demand the elimination of discrimination in the European Union and reducing excise duty, road fees or new drivers' training – the local media donated.

Velibor Peulii, a representative of the BiH logistics consortium, associating truck drivers in this country, said that at the one started on Monday at 6. In the morning of the strike, 47 thousand participated. people.

“There are about 20,000 tons of goods on the borders,” he added, emphasizing that drivers returning to the country from abroad also participate in the strike.

“We suspended the supply chains throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said during a press conference, adding that the consortium controls “93 percent of commercial flows” in the country.

Peulii explained that drivers from BIH are deported and receive a ban on entering the EU for exceeding the 90-day stay. – Today, if the driver from Neum (in BiH) goes to Pocze (in Croatia) three times a day, it is counted as if he was in the EU for three days – said a representative of Bosnian drivers. The sector demands counting the stay of its representatives in the EU in hours, not days.

Carriers also demand a 50 % excise duty reduction for fuel and trucks. They also want to amend the regulation of the Ministry of Transport and Communication, according to which drivers' training cost about 750 euros per person.

– In addition, in BiH, a young driver must wait three years after graduating from high school to start work, while in e.g. Germany he can work under supervision from 18 years of age, after graduating from school – he noted Peulić.

Carriers say that these and numerous other administrative obstacles and high fees weaken the competitiveness of the sector.

The ministry replied that it has no influence on the right of professional drivers in the EU, and during recent negotiations with Brussels, drivers were refused to release drivers from the provisions regarding their stay in the Schengen zone. According to the Bosnian Statistical Office, 64 percent The country's trading in 2024 was trade with the European Union.

Movement at the entrances to most cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina is difficult that day. The media reported that there are no serious difficulties for passenger vehicles at border crossings.

Jakub Bawołek (PAP)

JBW/ MMS/