Bulgarian Government Supports Hauliers' Demands for Amendmentsto EU Mobility Package

The Bulgarian government fully supports road hauliers' demands for amendments to the EU Mobility Package 1, which will be put to the vote this week in the European Parliament Committee on Transport and Tourism. The issue was discussed at a meeting between Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Transport Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov, the Cabinet press office reported on Tuesday.

Borissov and Zhelyazkov discussed the upcoming road hauliers' protest in Brussels planned for January 10 and their demands for the Transport Committee to adopt the amendments proposed, dealing with business trip regulations, returning to the country of registration every four weeks and drivers' night breaks.

Zhelyazkov said that Bulgaria stands by the protest which is expected to be also attended by Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Irish hauliers. "The restrictions imposed by the Mobility Package will be very frustrating for the haulage business in the marginal member states and will practically push it out of the market," he noted.

Borissov commented that if the Mobility Package is adopted without any amendments, Bulgaria and the other Eastern European countries will lose a big share of their economic potential and GDP. "Our road hauliers will be forced to move their business elsewhere, and this is unacceptable to the State," he said.

Zhelyazkov will personally attend the protest in Place du Luxembourg, and later that day he will be at the Transport Committee session.
Source: BTA