site.btaGreek Farmers Withdraw Almost All Tractors from Kulata-Promachonas Border Checkpoint

Greek Farmers Withdraw Almost All Tractors from Kulata-Promachonas Border Checkpoint

Blagoevgrad, Southwestern Bulgaria, February 29 (BTA) - Around noon on Monday, the protesting Greek farmers withdrew from the Kulata-Promachonas border checkpoint almost all tractors which had been blocking the traffic through the Bulgarian-Greek border for more than a month, Rossen Velev, regional representative of the International Road Transport Union for Blagoevgrad Region, told BTA over the phone Monday.

The withdrawal of part of the agricultural machinery at Promachonas began during the weekend, part of the vehicles left during the night to Monday and there currently are several tractors left at the border crossing, Velev said. In his words, the situation is similar at the other checkpoint at the Bulgarian-Greek border within the Blagoevgrad Region - the Ilinden-Exochi crossing - where around ten tractors were present on Monday morning. "That is why we did not have to undertake counteractions and stop the traffic of trucks and minibuses carrying Greek produce, as we were ready to do today," Velev explained.

Commenting on the Greek farmers' blockade at the border, parliamentary Agriculture and Food Committee Chair Roumen Hristov said that Bulgaria should seek compensation for the Bulgarian transport companies from the Greek side, and not from the EU. He gave as an example the so-called Strawberry Regulation that concerns the long-lasting dispute over strawberry and tomato exports between France, on the one side, and Spain and Belgium, on the other. "No single position of the EU was reached but the countries solved their dispute among themselves," Hristov said.

Deputy Economy Minister Daniela Vezieva supported Hristov and commented that solving a country's internal problems should not be achieved through border blockades. "I consider this to be a very radical solution and I would not recommend it to anyone. It obstructs the freedom of movement not only for Bulgaria but also for the entire European Union," Vezieva noted.