Carriers to protest at EU Delegation in Skopje on 31 August

Professional truck drivers from North Macedonia will hold a two-hour protest on 31 August in front of the EU Delegation building in Skopje, the transport association Makam-Trans announced, demanding a temporary fix to problems created by the EU Entry/Exit System (EES).

The association says at least 20 vehicles will arrive at the Delegation and that owners, drivers and other employees from across the country will take part. Identical demonstrations are planned the same day in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina between 12:00 and 14:00.

Pressure before Brussels meeting

The protest comes one day before a scheduled meeting of a Working Group in Brussels, which the associations view as decisive. "If the meeting does not adopt a transitional solution for drivers' stays in the Schengen area, it is proposed to hold protests at each country's border crossings separately starting on 14.09.2026," Makam-Trans said.

Association representatives say the border protests would require agreement from carriers in each country and approvals from the relevant authorities because the plan is to mirror the January action and such blockades could last longer than 10 days. They add the organisations from four countries are collecting consent from carriers to stage the protest "as a warning to the European Union, which in the past seven months has not shown goodwill to overcome the problem even though drivers were recognised as professionals in the visa strategy."

Makam-Trans also said authorities would be asked to define which goods would be allowed through during any blockade — items deemed of national interest and necessary for the population, such as fuel and fuel derivatives, coal, tools and supplies for municipalities and public utilities, ammunition and other products. "For this purpose a survey has been sent to determine consent from a larger number of carriers (70%) in the country or rejection of the proposed protest if generally there is no consent from the carriers," the statement adds.

Asked for a comment, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Aleksandar Nikoloski said the Government understands the carriers' problem and is trying to resolve it within its powers by signing bilateral agreements with Schengen countries. "We generally aim to cover the routes where Macedonian carriers travel most often. We have already received an answer from Switzerland, there is an agreement with Croatia, there is an agreement with Romania, as I said, next for talks are Austria and Slovenia and we are also working with Germany, so in this way we cover the countries with the highest frequency and that is what we can do and are doing in this period," he said.

The drivers from North Macedonia, as well as those from Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, have faced the problem since the introduction of the EES at the end of last year, which treats Western Balkan carriers as tourists and limits stays to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Photo: Arhiva