EU to tackle trucker bottlenecks

  • 2006-11-29
  • By Todd Graham

STOP TRUCKIN': The EU and Russia share responsibility for truck lines at the border, which run on for hours and hours.

RIGA - For months now, the issue of queuing trucks has plagued the Baltic region, spurring the EU to develop a combative plan. The blame has mostly been placed on Russian customs, but the EU has also been slow to tackle the issue. To be fair, neither the EU nor Russia was prepared for the explosion of trade that resulted from the Baltics' 2004 EU membership.

Balts raise their voice to the EU
Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis brought up the border issue during talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels on Nov. 24.
The PM said that the long lines of trucks were not Latvia's fault, but rather Europe's common concern.
"Latvia cannot accommodate all of Europe's transit flow alone," said Kalvitis. "If European carriers find the transit route through Belarus unacceptable… we will have to work together with the Commission and think about how to develop and expand border crossings and improve border infrastructure."

The PM said that Latvia's government expects the European Commission to tackle this issue and to hold talks with Belarus, which has created a transit system that is completely "unfriendly and unacceptable to carriers."
On Nov. 10, the customs authorities of Lithuania Latvia, and Belarus inked a protocol to try to expedite truck travel at Belarusian border points. However, until the situation shows marked improvement, truckers are likely to try to cross directly into Russia at Latvia's border crossings.

Because of the NATO summit, and in an effort to shorten the lines at Latvia's Russian border crossings, Latvia began restricting the amount of trucks allowed into Latvia from Lithuania, which resulted in protest from Lithuania that Latvia was in violation of the EU's free movement of goods.
Transport Minister Algirdas Butkevicius wrote a statement to the EU complaining about Latvia's restrictions, but said nothing about the larger problem at the EU-Russian border in the Baltic region.
The situation at the Russian border in Estonia is also starting to become a problem, although lines there are not nearly as long as in Latvia.

A spokesman for the Estonian Tax and Customs Board on Nov. 27 said that there were about 400 trucks standing in line at the Narva crossing, 191 trucks in Koidula and 195 at the Luhamaa checkpoint. Drivers have had to wait for up to three days to get through.

Not exclusively a Russian problem
Truckers seem to think that the problem lies on Russia's side of the border, however the regional picture is a bit more complex.
"The long lines on the border come from slow work on the Russian side. If on the Estonian side formulating documents takes 15 minutes, the Russians do it in nine hours," Latvian trucker Aivars Dambitis told the Estonian daily Postimees.
Dambitis had arrived at the Lukhama border point at 9:00 a.m.. By 1:00 p.m. he had only traveled 200 meters.
The current situation has European goods slowed down on their way to the Russian market, and thus has an impact on the EU as a whole, not only the truckers and those unfortunate people that live near the border.

After protests by Estonian truckers, the Estonian Tax and Customs Board raised the issue with Russia at a meeting of customs officials last summer.
Trouble at the border began after Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed dissatisfaction with corruption and weakness in the customs system in the fight against smuggling. Russian customs officers immediately began to check vehicles more thoroughly.
In September, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin admitted at an EU-Russia transport conference in the Finnish city of Lappeenranta that Russian customs were to blame for congestion at the border.

Levitin explained that the actions of Russian customs did not always meet the wishes of transport managers, and that information about changes introduced by customs workers tended to move slowly.
The EU is presently consulting with member countries on how to tackle the issue. After consultations are complete, the EU plans to contact Russian authorities, EU spokeswoman Emma Udwin told the Finnish business daily Kauppalehti on Nov. 22.
During a Nov. 23 summit between the EU and Russia, Finnish President Tarja Halonen suggested ways to help ease the situation in Finland. The commission supported the implementation of an electronic customs system in Finland and Russia.

Tapani Erling, director general of Finnish customs, said that the EU was partly to blame for the long backlog of trucks at the Russian border, telling the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat that the EU had slowed the implementation of an electronic customs system that would help speed up things on the EU side.

Erling said that developing the customs system was not among the commission's highest priorities. The problem, he emphasized, is that the EU is just beginning to understand opportunities afforded by trade between Russia and the EU.
"The central role of customs procedures and crime prevention has not been understood," he told the Finnish daily.
Meanwhile, Finland has tried to use its EU presidency to highlight the border backup issue.
Chairman of Parliament's transport and communications committee, Markku Laukkanen, expressed his frustration over negotiations with Russia to Helsingin Sanomat on Nov. 26.

Whenever Finnish officials manage to persuade Russians to drop one fee, another comes in its place, he said, wondering if Finnish officials had presented the issue with sufficient emphasis.
"The holder of the EU presidency should be able to discuss these matters with the voice of the EU. We need strong politics to remove unfair fees. Russia only seems to understand big letters in these matters." Laukkanen said.

Trucks on the Border
Since August, there have been hundreds of freight trucks waiting on the EU/Russian border in Latvia. Here are the latest numbers as of Nov. 26.

Border Point Terehova - 690, Grebneva - 260