site.btaCabinet Discusses Border Buffer Parking Lots

Caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev established a working group tasked to propose a permanent solution to the problem of buffer parking lots for heavy goods vehicles at border crossings. The aim is also to take urgent measures to ease traffic, to reduce waiting times as much as possible, to ensure a level playing field for freight vehicles and predictability in their processing. The working group will look at the possibility of the State taking over the management of the buffer parking areas, which as adjacent infrastructure are also linked to border control. This was announced by the press centre of the Council of Ministers on Monday.

By the end of September, the working group will present the results of its activities and the checks carried out. They started on Thursday on the Prime Minister's order. National Revenue Agency (NRA) officials checked the buffer parking lots for heavy goods vehicles located in front of the border crossing points Lesovo, Kapitan Andreevo, Ruse, and Vidin. No violations were detected by the NRA. The results of the SANS inspection, which was also ordered by the Prime Minister, are yet to be revealed.  The working group will also follow the development of the issue by the Commission for the Protection of Competition, which in March this year investigated violations of antitrust legislation in connection with the management of the buffer parking lot located in the immediate vicinity of the Danube Bridge checkpoint.

The working group will be headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Lyudmila Petkova and includes the Ministers of Regional Development and Public Works Violeta Koritarova, of Transport and Communications Krasimira Stoyanova, of Agriculture and Food Georgi Tahov, the executive directors of the National Revenue Agency Rumen Spetsov, of the Customs Agency Georgi Dimov, and of Border Police Ministry Anton Zlatanov, and Dr. Svetlozar Patarinski, executive director of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency, the statement said.