The President of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, Marko Čadež, said that due to bureaucratic procedures and the inefficient response of the European Union (EU) regarding the residence of professional drivers in the Schengen area, companies suffer losses amounting to approximately 100 million euros daily, just from the export of goods.
During a visit to the Batrovci border crossing with Croatia, where traffic is blocked and more than 50 trucks are stuck in line, Čadež stated that the current situation seriously jeopardizes the operations of thousands of companies and the stability of entire supply chains.
“This figure only accounts for damages related to the export of goods. On top of that, penalties that manufacturing companies must pay for undelivered products range from 10,000 to 50,000 euros daily. With around 10,000 companies exporting from Serbia to the EU, it is clear that the total losses are enormous,” Čadež explained.
Transport operators from the Western Balkans began blocking traffic at border crossings with Schengen countries on Monday at noon, in protest against restrictions on the movement of professional drivers while performing their daily work duties. The blockade is also expected to expand to alternative crossings with Bulgaria.
Čadež emphasized that, unlike previous global supply chain crises, such as those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic or the Suez Canal blockage, this current crisis is not caused by external factors but by the inefficiency of European administration.
“In the past seven days alone, nine drivers have been detained in Germany because European regulations are applied to professional drivers as if they were illegal migrants, leading to serious disruptions in supply chains and the functioning of the European economy,” Čadež noted.
“This is not just a Western Balkans issue, it concerns all of Europe. We hope that European authorities will heed the concerns of major companies in member states, which are now raising these issues with their governments, because this approach ultimately harms their own economies,” he added.
Čadež also stressed that business representatives from Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro have been raising this issue for more than two years, along with EU companies operating in the region, yet no solution has been found so far.
