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Truckers' Balkan border blockade over EU rules continues

(ANSA-AFP) - BELGRADE, JAN 28 - Hundreds of truck drivers continued blocking freight border crossings across several Balkan countries for a third day on Wednesday, protesting EU rules limiting their time in the bloc. Dozens of goods checkpoints in Bosnia, Montenegro and North Macedonia have been blocked as part of a coordinated effort by trucking unions, while Serbian truckers have shut both Schengen entry and exit points, with lines of trucks seen near the crossings. At Bajakovo, Croatia's main crossing with Serbia, there was a queue of around two kilometres (1.2 miles) of trucks waiting to leave the EU's Schengen area on Wednesday morning, border police told AFP. "Western Balkan economies are losing around 100 million euros ($119 million) a day in goods exports," Serbian Chamber of Commerce (CCIS) president Marko Cadez said late Tuesday, blaming EU bureaucracy and an inadequate response. One of the protest organisers, Nedjo Mandic from the Association of Transport Operators of Serbia, told AFP they "do not want drivers standing idle" but "have no moral right to force them to go somewhere where they could be arrested". According to CCIS, nine drivers from Serbia have been detained in Germany over the past week for breaching the rule limiting stays in the EU to 90 days within a 180-day period. Since October, the EU has begun rolling out its long-delayed Entry/Exit System (EES) at borders across the 27-nation bloc, aimed at ending the use of passport stamps and digitising visitor registration. Although the limit on stays in the EU is not new, the electronic EES system will mean more rigorous enforcement for non-EU citizens. (ANSA-AFP).

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