Western Balkans carriers deliver demands in Skopje ahead of 1 September Brussels meeting

Transport associations from the Western Balkans met in Skopje and handed their demands to the European Commission ahead of the meeting scheduled for 1 September in Brussels. Their central requests focus on strict application of the Schengen 90-day stay rule for truck drivers who transit EU countries and on accurate recording of entries and exits to calculate allowed days correctly.

Precise entry/exit records and a 24‑hour day

The associations said they want full respect for the rule that third‑country nationals may stay 90 days in any 180‑day period, and they demand that every border crossing is logged so that counting the 90 days is correct. They also argued that brief crossings of a few hours must not be counted as a full day.

Biljana Muratovska, general secretary of the Association of Carriers - Makam‑Trans, said: "We will be patient, we will try to create movement schemes for the drivers. Now is the holiday period, however what follows from September onwards will be very tragic if we do not find a solution. We do not want to harm anyone, neither the European Union, nor our countries, and least of all us carriers, but if we are forced we will organize protests with which once again we will remind everyone that there is still a problem that needs to be solved."

Nedjo Mandic, president of the Association for International Transport, Belgrade, proposed a transitional adjustment rather than changing the decades‑old agreement. He said: "What we proposed in the latest letter as a transitional solution is the following: when the European Commission does not want to change the agreement from 41 years ago even though it should have been changed long ago, we agree not to change the agreement, only to make an adjustment. That means that, if it is said that citizens of third countries may stay 90 days in the last 180 days then that rule should be kept. How will that be? So that we will know that the day is not one hour nor one minute but that the day lasts 24 hours."

Zijad Saric, president of the board of the Transport Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina, warned against waiting indefinitely for promises and deadlines: "They were constantly promising us and giving us deadlines for when the problem would be resolved, but we cannot wait for those deadlines. Today we adopted a joint conclusion, and that is that as you know we all live in democratic states and in democratic Europe and the only democratic right is to use protests to achieve our goal. Europe is currently not listening to us, but even if it does not listen nothing happens, because it thinks we will give up our demands. We will not give up our demands because we want to protect our drivers."

At the Skopje meeting the associations presented figures showing the problem affects 100 000 drivers from the Western Balkans, of whom 17 000 are from North Macedonia. Transporters from North Macedonia and across the region held mass protests in January this year over Schengen rules; Macedonian authorities then said they were in communication with European representatives to seek a solution.

Photo: press material from the event