In Bulgaria the Customs Agency has strengthened border control in fulfillment of the commitments made to Austria for Schengen entry

In Bulgaria, since the beginning of the year, the "Customs" Agency has been carrying out increased checks of goods traveling from and to Austria at all customs and border points, as well as together with the Ministry of Interior and other competent authorities on the country's road network. The inspections are in fulfillment of the commitment for enhanced control at the land borders, undertaken by Bulgaria and Romania to Austria in the signed Annex to t he decision on the accession of the two countries to Schengen.

All this gives rise to long downtimes of the inspected vehicles. All vehicles are checked, regardless of their country of registration, including Bulgarian, which are most affected.

At the insistence of the Bulgarian road transport operators, a meeting on this matter at the Ministry of Finance, to whom customs is subordinate, with representatives of carriers took place today. Unfortunately, during the meeting, despite the protests of the Bulgarian road transport industry, representatives of the competent authorities repeated that the increased checks were in fulfillment of a clause of the signed annex to the decision on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen (with the initial opening of the air and sea borders) and they will continue to fulfill these commitments for enhanced land border controls.

However, AEBTRI will continue its efforts to mitigate the situation for all road transport operators.

Link to the press release of the Customs Agency on the matter (in Bulgarian):

https://customs.bg/wps/portal/agency/media-center/news-details/07-01-2023-National-Customs-Agency

Unofficial translation of the press release English: attached.