News and Articles related to Bulgaria
Current date: 2010-02-09 08:46

Truck Traffic Goes Round Serbia after Bulgaria`s EU Accession

Serbia is increasing worried by the fact that the international truck traffic in the Balkans has started to go round it after Bulgaria and Romania`s EU accession, according to the Serbian newspaper Politika.

An increasing part of the truck traffic is switching to using the European Transport Corridor No. 4, which goes from Greece to Central Europe through Bulgaria and Romania, instead of Corridor No. 10, which goes through Bulgaria and Serbia.

According to Politika, the truck traffic through Serbia had decreased 30% in the last two years even Corridor No.10 offers a shorter route and better gas stations and parking lots. This situation is expected to prompt the Serbian state to make the procedure at the border checkpoints shorter, and to decrease the fuel excise tax for foreigners.

Serbia is also losing the battle for the truck traffic because of the higher transit fee. The predictions there, however, state that Bulgaria and Hungary will not go on much longer with their cheap system of road vignettes.

The transit fee for one truck for Bulgaria is EUR 9 per day, whereas the combined transit fee per truck per day for Serbia and Macedonia is EUR 154.