The National Union of Road Transporters of Romania (UNTRR) welcomes Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, with land borders as well, with December 12, 2024 being considered a historic day awaited for 13 years and 9 months, with losses of 22 billion euros for Romanian transporters, which currently offer significant potential for Romania’s economic growth.
“UNTRR welcomes this historic decision for Romania and appreciates the involvement of Hungary, holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, for the signing of the joint declaration of Hungary, Austria, Romania and Bulgaria, especially since Hungary as a neighboring state could continue to benefit economically from Romania’s non-membership of the Schengen area with land borders. Also, a key role was played by the favorable decision of the Parliament of the Netherlands, which had maintained its opposition, Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area would have been postponed again”, claim UNTRR representatives.
From January 1, 2025, Romanian citizens traveling by car will be able to easily cross these internal EU borders, which will from that moment also be Schengen borders.
“Although commercial freight vehicle drivers will no longer be subject to identity document checks when crossing these borders, waiting times will not be significantly reduced as long as all other control activities (weighing, measuring, checking vehicle documents, freight, etc.) carried out at border crossing points are not relocated as is the case in other EU and Schengen member states,” warn the carriers.
Road accession to Schengen offers the Romanian road transport and logistics industry and the Romanian economy significant development potential, which, however, in order to materialize, requires the involvement of political decision-makers and relevant authorities in adopting and implementing rapid decisions that could lead to a significant reduction in waiting times at these borders and for commercial vehicles.
According to UNTRR, truck queues of 7-20 km are common when leaving Romania for Hungary, occasionally when leaving for Bulgaria, but the waiting time to enter Romania from Bulgaria via Ruse/Giurgiu frequently reaches 36 hours due to the Bulgarian authorities who have empowered the operator of the two parking lots on the Ruse city ring road to also manage the mandatory virtual queue for commercial vehicles to cross the border into Romania.
“In Romania, vehicle control at the borders is carried out by CNAIR, and on the national network, control activities are carried out by ISCTR, weighing being one of the common activities. The industry is interested in the control activities being carried out correctly to ensure fair competition in the road transport market. Given that both institutions are subordinated to the Ministry of Transport, an agreement should be reached and implemented as quickly as possible, taking into account the real possibilities and the equipment already available,” say UNTRR representatives.
In their opinion, the Romanian road transport industry is the first contributor to Romania’s service exports, with 7.82 billion euros in 2023, in a country that has imported more than it has exported since 1989.
“If Romania is the 12th largest economy in the EU, the Romanian transport market ranks 6th, and in terms of cross-trade activities (transport operations carried out between member states other than the one of origin) and cabotage (transport operations between two points located on the territory of the same member state, other than the one of origin of the carrier), Romania ranks 3rd after Poland and Lithuania. Poland has exceeded the figure of one million non-EU employees since January 2023, of which over 160,000 in road transport, while in Lithuania the number of non-EU employees in road transport exceeds 107,000, and in Romania there are only 550 non-EU employees in road transport, out of a quota of only 100,000 non-EU employees,” the carriers state in the statement.
According to them, the Schengen road “contract” offers Romania significant development potential, but transporters are wondering whether we will remain with the potential or materialize it.