EU Commissioner Valean: Road transport between Ukraine and EU liberalisation agreement introduces stricter rules

  The current agreement on the liberalisation of road transport between Ukraine and the European Union comes with a tightening of the rules for Ukrainian hauliers, precisely to give guarantees to member states, especially those in the front line, that there are no abuses and that European rules are respected by Ukrainian hauliers, said European Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean, on Tuesday at the stocktaking conference.She explained the basis of the transport liberalisation agreement."In short, due to the fact that road transport for Moldova and Ukraine is now essential - the new geopolitical reality in which the maritime for them is quite restricted, the emphasis on road and naval - the old system with bilateral agreements with number of permits could not work, so it was standardised at the level of the European Union and this bilateral was abolished. In other words, they had to close bilateral agreements with each of the EU countries on a number of annual permits. That was impossible to work in the current situation. So that would be the basis of the transport liberalisation agreement. Because of the dispute with Poland, we have what situation? Much more bureaucracy, much more rules for Ukrainians. For example, the presence of that sticker on the truck is so that the transport inspectorate in the member states can more easily spot which Ukrainian trucks or freight carriers are Ukrainian trucks or freight carriers from Ukraine and if they want to check them," Valean pointed out.In addition, the new version of the agreement introduces even stricter rules."Now they have introduced stricter rules and clearly defined the documents they must have, additional guarantees that they are not cabotage. So, if they are found with an empty truck, they have to prove that it is empty because they have left goods somewhere, which was part of a bilateral transportation Ukraine - a member state (...) So, it is the opposite of what I have seen and I told you frankly, I was even surprised, because usually, the Romanian transport industry, the carriers are very well organizsed. In fact, we also have an important presence in the international organisations of Romanians, in the associations of carriers with which we collaborate and we have collaborated very well throughout this mandate," Valean said.