site.btaNorth Macedonia's PM Requests Conversation With EC President Regarding Border Blockades

The Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, said on Tuesday that he expects the issue of carriers staying in Schengen countries to be resolved soon. He said that talks with the EU have been ongoing since September and that he expects the issue to be reopened in the coming days. 

"Yesterday, I requested a telephone conversation with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, but she is officially absent as she is in India. I expect that we will reopen this topic in the coming days and, together with colleagues from the region, we will put it on the agenda," he told reporters. He added that the country's government had tasked Foreign Minister Timco Mucunski with discussing the issue with the EU.

In an interview with TV Sitel, Mucunski said that, if the EU is sincere about integrating the Western Balkans, he will not allow measures to be implemented that will negatively impact the economy. He added that the issue of regulations on the stay of truck drivers in the Schengen area - which has sparked protests and blocked border crossings in North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina - has been raised several times at the highest level. For example, it was discussed during the President of the European Commission's visit to Skopje.

"The problem is not only with transport companies; we also face the challenge of the potential application of EU tariffs on steel exports from countries in the region. This issue affects not only us, but also all EU candidate countries and those in the Western Balkans. Since September, we have been actively communicating with the EU on these two key issues. Among other things, we are telling the EU that if this measure is applied to our carriers and if the measure on tariffs on the steel industry is implemented, we will pay a price four to six times higher than the funds we would receive from the Growth Plan," Mucunski told TV Sitel in an interview.

"The same EU that complains about unprincipled tariffs has decided to place not only us, but the entire region - Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo - in a group with Russia, Belarus and North Korea. For months, we have been telling senior officials in Brussels that a solution must be found," the minister added.