site.btaUPDATED Interior Ministry Has Received Numerous Alerts from Citizens about Significantly Slow Crossing of Kulata Border Checkpoint

The Interior Ministry has received numerous alerts from citizens about the significantly slow crossing of the Kulata border control checkpoint, caretaker Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov told journalists at the Kulata border crossing with Greece on Sunday afternoon.

He pointed out that for this reason he had come on site to ascertain what the organisation was, and on the way there he had held the necessary talks with the management of the customs in Sofia, as well as a meeting the Greek authorities at the border control checkpoint.

"We have outlined some measures that will, in the coming minutes and hours, bring out the serious accumulated traffic from both sides," Stoyanov explained. The traffic to Greece is extremely heavy, the Minister noted.

Stoyanov noted that the situation is complicated not only at Kulata but in recent days it is extremely busy at all border crossings. As an example, he said that on Friday to Saturday, about 10,000 cars crossed the border control checkpoints to Romania within 24 hours. The situation is the same at Kapitan Andreevo, Stoyanov added. In his words, with the measures they have taken, the queue will quickly disperse. 

"Kulata is one of the busiest checkpoints. At the moment there are many Romanian citizens, Moldovan citizens, respectively many Bulgarians travelling for the weekend. What we are doing with our colleagues from Greece, on both sides we are reciprocally taking the same action, i.e. a way in which we can alleviate the traffic a little bit, which is to pass through the crossing point faster," the caretaker Interior Minister said. "However, let's not forget that we are at a border and not anyone can cross whenever they want, we are not yet in Schengen," he added.

Stoyanov also pointed out that there are situations where the authorities from the neighbouring country have some operational actions and should be more vigilant, which is why traffic jams occur on their side. "With us it is sometimes exactly the same," he said. "When we should work on a case and we should pay more attention, it is exactly the same as in their case," Stoyanov noted. 

Asked what specific measures would be taken at the Kulata border crossing, Stoyanov said it was all reciprocal actions on both sides. "We can not take action without their consent, everything is done together in communication, on site. I believe that we are achieving that at the moment and the queue will move very quickly," he told reporters.

The queue of trucks at the exit of the Kulata border crossing at 5:30 pm on Sunday was about 1.5 kilometres long. Traffic for cars was calm and they passed without difficulty, a BTA reporter saw.