Chisinau and Bucharest are making a concerted effort to ease border traffic. The head of the Border Police of the Republic of Moldova Rosian Vasiloi said the priority of the authorities is to institute joint border control to reduce the border crossing period. For his part, the head of the National Customs Authority of Romania Claudiu Ardeleanu said they are considering a number of solutions to unlock borders, including the creation of special corridors intended for empty trucks and of corridors deigned for perishable goods, IPN reports.
The war in Ukraine blocked the traditional transport routes and all the exports of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova were redirected to the Moldova-Romanian border. The flow of trucks crossing the border rose by over 70%. The chief of the Border Police said that one of the solutions is to create joint checkpoints.
“We cannot build new bridges overnight. We will try to ease traffic, evidently not to the detriment of the national legislation or the legislation of the European Union. There will be constituted joint working groups to discuss these subjects and to offer assistance to citizens and business entities in the crossing of the state border. The Schengen Borders Code allows instituting joint border control between a member state and a third country for checking persons, units of transport and freight. We will focus on this priority,” Rosian Vasiloi stated in the talk show “Emphasis on Today” on TVR Moldova channel.
The director of the National Customs Authority of Romania Claudiu Ardeleanu said a large part of the trucks waiting to cross the border are empty and special corridors will be opened for these. According to the officials, the drivers of trucks waiting to cross the border benefit from medical and psychological assistance.
“We will set up corridors intended for empty tusks or will redirect these to other customs posts so as to ease traffic. We plan to implement a project to provide information in advance about the units of transport that intend to cross the border, which will enable to carry out a preliminary analysis. We intend to agree on the use of new corridors for perishable goods or to facilitate the transportation of these goods over the border. We make effort to support the Republic of Moldova’s entry into the Convention on a Common Transit Procedure that will ensure simplified border crossing as the document checking procedure will be simplified,” stated Claudiu Ardeleanu.
On June 2, a truck driver aged 62, who had been waiting for over 20 hours to cross the border with Romania, died as a result of cardiac arrest. Two days ago, the Union of Carriers and Road Workers and the International Road Carriers Association sent a letter to the Moldovan authorities, noting that the waiting time at border crossing points is 4-5 days.
