The European Commission proposes changes to the “transport visa-free”

The European Commission proposes to extend the so-called visa-free transport (agreement on road transport) with Ukraine and Moldova until the end of 2025. Currently, the agreement is valid until June 2024. At the same time, the European Commission wants to make some changes to it.

This is stated in the press release.

The European Commission proposes to leave the scope of the agreement unchanged, but introduce the following innovations:

• make it mandatory to have documents that confirm that the transport operator is authorized to carry out international transportation and that these transportations comply with the agreement;
• make it mandatory to have special documents certifying that the operation without cargo is directly related to the transit or bilateral operation;
• to strengthen compliance by operators of road freight transportation with obligations regarding operations, the fight against fraud and forgery of driverʼs documents and violations of road traffic safety; operators may lose their licenses for such violations;
• add a new precautionary clause: if there are serious violations of the agreement in the national road transport market in a certain geographical area, it may be suspended in that geographical area.

"These measures will contribute to the implementation of the agreement without prejudice to mutual benefit," the European Commission believes.

They added that the transport visa-free regime has benefited the EU and Ukraine, increasing their exports to each otherʼs markets.

The European Commission forwarded the proposals to the Council of the EU. When the latter authorizes the European Commission to negotiate with Ukraine and Moldova, the EC will officially cooperate with our partner countries to obtain consent.

Road transport agreements support Ukraine-EU Solidarity Routes, created as an alternative to Black Sea shipping routes after the full-scale Russian invasion. They were signed for the first time in June 2022. Ukrainian exports by road transport to the EU have increased and now amount to almost 300 000 additional tons of goods every month. The volume of Ukrainian imports from the EU also increased. For example, during the full-scale war, Poland increased its exports to Ukraine, and the trade balance broke a record.

• Despite the increase in Polish exports to Ukraine, Poles continue to protest: from November 2023, they periodically block checkpoints on the border with Ukraine. Polish carriers, and then farmers, have been obstructing the movement of trucks for varying lengths of time, demanding from their authorities and the European Union to improve working conditions and preferences. They ask to ban the import of agricultural products from Ukraine that do not meet EU standards, to return the permit system for Ukrainian transporters, to provide subsidies for fertilizers, to pay compensation for excise duty on fuel and subsidies, and also have other demands that have nothing to do with Ukraine.