There are kilometres of traffic jams at Europe's borders. The cause: several countries introduced new corona measures for professional freight transport separately this weekend.TLN wants the EU to intervene and prevent a proliferation of rules.
Last weekend, Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria, separately from each other, suddenly announced testing obligations and extra checks for freight traffic. This immediately led to congestion. On Monday morning, there were long traffic jams at the Italian Brenner border crossing and at the German-Czech border. In Austria, drivers without negative test results are barred at the Italian border. However, the border posts hardly have any test sites for drivers, leaving them stranded for hours.
To ensure the smooth passage of goods transport, the European Commission adopted a number of rules last year, including the establishment of Green Lanes. Although member states have long respected those rules, several countries are now taking matters into their own hands again and imposing additional measures on freight traffic, TLN notes.
President Elisabeth Post: "We have seemingly learned nothing from last year's situation, when thousands of trucks stood still across Europe. International freight transport is essential for supplying our shops, pharmacies and hospitals. Therefore, freight traffic must be allowed to continue unhindered as much as possible."
According to Post, countries cannot suddenly close their borders or introduce different measures. The trade association is asking the EU to intervene so that freight transport can continue unimpeded.
