English
Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski said that Macedonia is conducting intense talks with European Commission officials to resolve the issue of the work licenses for Macedonian and other Balkan truckers. The truckers face being locked out of the EU for half the year, that will greatly increase transportation costs for Balkan exporters.
The outlines are clear – it is supposed to be a new visa strategy and the truckers are recognized as professionals for the first time. There are now several possible options – to have every Schengen zone country issue separate visas and the days the driver spends in the country would count individually; full exemption of the truckers in the style of railroad engineers and pilots, and an option to treat them as across-the-border workers. We’ve had three meetings so far, one was at a political level and two at the technical level, and I expect that we will come up with a solution, Nikoloski said.