Logistika BiH Consortium: We continue protests with colleagues from Serbia

(Patria) - The Logistika BiH Consortium welcomes the European Commission's decision to pay special attention to the issue of entry and work of truck drivers in the European Union within the European Asylum and Migration Management Strategy (European Asylum and Migration Management Strategy), presented on Thursday, January 29, 2026, in Brussels.

It is encouraging that the European Union institutions have recognized this problem and taken the first significant step towards a systemic solution for the entry and stay of our drivers in the EU. In our demands, which we have been repeating for a long time, we asked and continue to ask the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina to find a systemic solution with the representatives of EU institutions. We believe this is the path towards the expected, long-term, and systemic solution.

The problem for which we started protesting on Monday, January 26, 2026, has not yet been resolved. The European Commission announced that "during 2026, in cooperation with the member states, it will work on finding concrete legislative solutions, including the possibility of adopting new rules that would apply throughout the Schengen area. The goal is to ensure legal certainty for both drivers and transport companies, while preserving the security of the EU's external border".

Therefore, the existing rule according to which our drivers cannot stay longer than 90 days in six months in the EU is still in force. Therefore, we ask the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, primarily the Council of Ministers of BiH and state line ministries, to intensify activities to find a temporary solution with the representatives of the European Union institutions that will take effect immediately and apply until the adoption of the systemic solution announced by the European Commission.

We will continue the protests, together with colleagues from Serbia, until the problem of the stay and work of our drivers in EU countries is resolved, i.e., until the current 90/180-day rule is changed.

Despite our calls for negotiations, repeatedly made public, the representatives of the authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to ignore our demands. This is an issue that should be addressed by the Presidency of BiH, namely the members of the Presidency of BiH Željko Komšić, Denis Bećirović, and Željka Cvijanović, the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers of BiH Borjana Krišto, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmedin Konaković, and the entity prime ministers Nermin Nikšić and Savo Minić. None of them, except for Edin Forto, the Minister of Transport and Communications of BiH who invited us for talks, have deigned to even contact us, ask what we want, and how we can solve our problems.

As we have repeated on several occasions, apart from the demands related to changing the rules on stay and work in the EU, domestic authorities, especially the entity governments, are responsible for all our other demands. That is why we insist on talks with the Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nermin Nikšić, and the Prime Minister of the Republika Srpska, Savo Minić, who can, if there is a minimum of goodwill and desire to help an economic sector that employs about 47,000 workers, resolve our demands regarding the refund of part of the excise tax on fuel, following the example of countries in the region and the EU, the urgent conclusion of an agreement with EU countries on VAT refunds, a 50% discount on road tolls for the use of highways throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the reduction of unnecessary delays for trucks at border crossings and customs terminals.

Given that part of our demands also involves decisions by parliaments, we also invite parliamentary parties, especially parties of the ruling coalition at the state and entity levels, to talks on models and ways to fulfill these demands.