BRKOVIĆ: WE ARE FORCED TO BLOCK EU BORDERS ON SEPTEMBER 14

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, SEPTEMBER 2 /SRNA/ – Nikola Brković, a member of the Logistika Consortium, said that after the European Commission announced that it would not change the Schengen rules, transporters would be forced to take more radical measures on September 14 and block the borders with the EU at the regional level, as they did in January.

“Today we held a regional online meeting where we all unanimously confirmed what we have already stated publicly, because the European Commission still has no understanding of our problems. Although we sent them a protest note asking once again that we not cause harm to anyone, either ourselves or others, they ignored our requests, which are reasonable,” Brković told SRNA. He added that no country would take action individually, so transporters from BiH, Serbia, North Macedonia and Montenegro are acting together on this matter. Brković said the worst part was that the European Commission claimed it was aware that the problem existed and was open to dialogue, while at the same time refusing to do anything about it. “We have been talking to them for two years; there have been countless meetings, both in Brussels and online. Serbia in particular had its representatives involved,” Brković said. He added that blocking the borders with the EU was expected to cause widespread disruption, but said he considered it a preventive measure. “It is better for us to stop on our own and try to reach a solution more quickly than to have more than 80 percent of our companies individually blocked and end up paralyzing ourselves. That scenario is going to happen to us anyway,” Brković said. He stressed that transporters had no other option because nobody had paid attention to or even been aware of their problems until they first took action at the borders. The European Commission announced that it would not change the Schengen rules, but said it was open to discussing practical solutions for transporters from the Balkans who need to remain in the Schengen area for more than 90 days within a 180-day period. On Monday, August 31, transporters gathered outside the headquarters of the EU delegations in Sarajevo, Belgrade, Podgorica and Skopje, demanding that the problem of the limited stay of professional drivers from the Balkans in Schengen countries be resolved urgently.