site.btaRomanian Hauliers Urge Authorities to Take Measures to Stop "Abusive Controls" by Bulgaria of Romanian Trucks to/from Austria with Bulgaria

The National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania (UNTRR) complains that the Bulgarian authorities hold up for border checks all Romanian trucks with cargo to and from Austria for seven days. In a declaration put out Wednesday, UNTRR calls for urgent intervention by the Romanian Prime Minister, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Romanian Ambassador in Sofia "to stop the abusive controls by the Bulgarian authorities on Romanian registered trucks carrying goods to and from Austria, blocked for seven days at the BG-RO border". The declaration is published on the UNTRR website.

UNTRR has raised this issue with the European Commission as well as the relevant authorities in Romania and Bulgaria. "The Bulgarian authorities continue their practice of detaining vehicles carrying goods to Austria for 7 days. Please note that this practice does not only concern vehicles registered in Romania, but all vehicles transporting goods to Austria," they say.

Bulgaria stepped up border checks of trucks to and from Austria at the beginning of 2024 in line with its commitment to Austria for heightened border security in the context of the Schengen accession process.

UNTRR says that the excessive controls by the Bulgarian authorities for goods to/from Austria "further aggravate the situation of Romanian road hauliers at the Romania-Bulgaria border, where they are strongly affected by the non-transparent functioning of a new virtual queue management system at the border crossing". The system was introduced by the Bulgarian authorities last summer and Romanian truckers say it is "abusively managed by the private operator, TIR Parking Ruse", which they describe as "the absolute master of the Ruse border" as it manages both the queue management system and most of the parking places for trucks near the border.

UNTRR argue that it is a major conflict of interest to have one company operate most of the TIR parking capacity in Ruse and the queue management system, and accuse TIR Parking Ruse of discriminatory treatment of Romanian trucks. 

The Union calls on the Romanian Government to take urgent action to unblock the trucks of Romanian hauliers waiting for days to cross the BG-RO border, and to intensify interventions to immediately eliminate discrimination against Romanian hauliers at the Ruse car parks.

"In the absence of urgent measures to resolve this serious situation, which has been reported since last year and has worsened even more this year, Romanian hauliers are calling for Romania to be decoupled from Bulgaria in the Schengen accession process," the hauliers say. They point out that "if they are waiting for days to cross the BG-RO border anyway, Romania's Schengen accession without Bulgaria would solve the waiting times between Romania and Hungary, which are usually between 6 and 15 hours".