Carriers Postpone Border Protests, Awaiting Brussels Talks
Carrier associations from Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina have postponed protests until a meeting in Brussels. The 90 in 180 day rule affects roughly 100,000 drivers.
Around 100,000 professional drivers in the region work under a rule that limits them to no more than 90 days in the Schengen area within any 180 day period. Carrier associations from four countries met in Skopje on August 11 and decided against blocking border crossings over the rule, at least for now. Instead, they will wait for September 1 and a meeting with representatives of the European Commission in Brussels.
Representatives of associations from Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina attended the Skopje meeting. According to them, decisions to protest have already been formally adopted in each of the four countries and confirmed at the level of the associations’ governing boards. The deadline the carriers set for themselves, August 10, passed without a resolution from Brussels, so only the timing of the action has changed.
Nedjo Mandic, president of the Business Association for International Transport in Belgrade, explained why the carriers are holding off.
“Decisions on protests have been formally adopted in our countries and at the level of governing boards, but as carriers we do not want to protest because it affects the whole of society. But if we are forced to, we will have to go out,” Mandic said.
Mandic added that the associations agree the European Union should not change the existing agreement on length of stay, but that they are asking for something narrower.
What the 90 in 180 day rule actually means
A citizen of a third country may spend no more than 90 days in the Schengen area during any 180 day period. The rule was written for travelers, but it also applies to drivers who enter the European Union solely to carry out international freight transport. Legally, then, they are treated as tourists, even though they cross the border for work.
The dispute is not about the number itself, but about how it is calculated. Carriers want each day counted as a full day, not as any border crossing that merely touches a calendar date.
“That means, if it has been said that citizens of third countries have the right to stay 90 out of the last 180 days, then we should stick to that rule. But since we know a day is not a minute or an hour, that a day lasts 24 hours, we are asking for our full 90 days. And if the European Commission agrees to count our days expressed in hours, minutes, or even seconds, then the problem is solved, or at least temporarily solved,” Mandic said.
Carriers point to two immediate causes: a new electronic system for recording entries and exits at the border, and inconsistent interpretation of the same rule at different crossings. The same documentation, they say, is accepted at one crossing and rejected at another.
How many drivers are affected?
In North Macedonia, the problem affects around 17,000 professional drivers, and around 100,000 across the region. That is not the number of people who have been denied entry, but the number currently working under the restriction.
The effect is already visible in the available workforce. Mandic says half of drivers refuse to set out on a trip because they do not know what awaits them at the border. For a carrier, that means a fleet standing idle rather than capacity that earns money.
“This is the holiday season, but what comes after September will be very tragic if we do not find a solution,” said Biljana Muratovska, secretary general of Makamtrans, the Macedonian employers’ association in transport.
The seasonal factor matters here. August is the weakest month for industrial freight traffic in Europe, so the driver shortage is not yet felt at full weight. September brings freight volumes back to normal, and the same shortage turns into an operational problem.
What comes after September 1
Carriers from the four countries already organized a five day protest at border crossings in the second half of January this year. That action had a set time limit. Now they say a new protest would be different: not limited in time, and lasting until their demands are met.
“If nothing changes after September 1, a regional protest will definitely be organized,” said Nikola Brkovic of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Logistics Consortium.
No date for the meeting with the European Commission has been announced yet. Until then, the associations are sticking with their decision to wait, while in parallel trying to work out travel patterns that would keep drivers within the allowed 90 days.
