- The coordinated protest by Western Balkan truck drivers has been formally suspended after five days of blockades at freight crossings into the Schengen area. Between 29 and 30 January, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Montenegro eased the pickets following the publication of the European Commission’s Visa Strategy and commitments on transitional solutions.
- According to estimates cited by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, the stoppages may have generated losses of up to €100 million per day for Serbia alone, with knock-on effects on exports, time-sensitive deliveries and perishable goods. The key operational issue remains the full rollout of the EES, expected by 10 April 2026.
- Attention now turns to the 3 February meeting in Brussels between the transport ministers of the Western Balkan countries and representatives of the Commission. The aim is to define uniform application rules at borders, guarantees during the transitional phase and a pathway towards electronic visas and “extended short stays” for professional drivers.
On the evening of 30 January 2026, the blockades at the borders with Schengen countries carried out by hauliers from Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia came to a complete end, following the European Union’s opening to dialogue on entry rules for drivers. The dispute focused on a technical point that has become vital for road haulage companies: the application to non-EU professional drivers of the Schengen rule allowing 90 days’ stay within any 180-day period, made more rigid and traceable by the introduction of the Entry/Exit System, also referred to as the EES. With the shift from manual stamps to digital registration, every entry and exit is automatically recorded; for those working on recurring routes to and within the Schengen area, days are “used up” within a few months through border waiting times, loading and unloading operations, and driving and rest constraints. Balkan associations have stressed one key point: this is not tourist travel, but working time necessary to move goods and semi-finished products along corridors linking the EU, Turkey and the Middle East.
The protest took shape between late 2025 and January 2026, as cases of refusals of entry, sanctions and stoppages for exceeding the threshold multiplied across the sector. According to reports in local media, more than one hundred drivers were reportedly turned back in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2025, while in Serbia nine drivers were said to have been arrested in EU territory in the week preceding the protest. The escalation came with the announcement of a coordinated blockade: from 26 January at 12.00, trucks began stopping at freight terminals at more than twenty crossings, with rotating pickets and limited exemptions for emergencies, humanitarian loads and certain sensitive categories.
In Serbia, coordination was attributed to the association Međunarodni Transport, led by Neđo Mandić. The country concentrated the highest number of blockade points, between 15 and more than 20 crossings, including nodes towards Croatia and Hungary along Pan-European Corridor X. The Serbian Chamber of Commerce, under its president Marko Čadež, provided institutional backing and, above all, brought the protest onto economic ground, estimating damage of up to €100 million per day for the region and around €60 million per day in direct impact on Serbian exports. Publicly quantifying the effect on flows served a dual purpose: increasing pressure on Brussels and framing the issue as systemic for manufacturing and supply chains, not merely a sectoral dispute.
Mandić, in statements reported by the Serbian press, linked the suspension of the 30 January blockade to a political development from Brussels: recognition of drivers as a professional category that may require stays exceeding 90 days. The association immediately highlighted the most delicate point for companies: the transitional phase, which Mandić suggested could last up to two years, during which the sector is seeking operational certainty at border controls to prevent the EES rollout from turning any calculation anomaly into a stoppage with loss of capacity and disruption to schedules.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the mobilisation had a more “systemic” character thanks to Konzorcijum Logistika BiH, which represents the majority of the country’s freight traffic and brings together tens of thousands of workers across hundreds of companies. The January protest built on a recent history of tensions: in 2025, Bosnian hauliers had already paralysed roads and crossings to demand tax and bureaucratic relief, as well as measures on licences, customs and costs. In January 2026, the European dimension became the priority, prompting the consortium to call for a joint appeal to the EU on the 90/180 rule, seen as a threat to fleet continuity.
On the domestic political front, the Minister of Communications and Transport, Edin Forto, took a position of substantive support for hauliers, insisting that the solution must be European rather than purely national. The Chair of the Council of Ministers, Borjana Krišto, directly involved the head of the EU Delegation in Sarajevo, Luigi Soreca, calling for constructive dialogue and a stable channel to prevent border disruptions from undermining exports and supplies. In Bosnia too, the 30 January suspension was linked to the prospect of a formal commitment from the Commission and to the already scheduled Brussels meeting.
North Macedonia represented the case of greatest direct political exposure, as the government chose to publicly back the protest. The association Makam-Trans led blockades at ten crossings, mainly towards Greece, effectively interrupting one of the main gateways to the eastern Mediterranean along Corridor X. On 27 January, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Aleksandar Nikoloski visited the Blace crossing, describing the mobilisation as “a warning” ahead of the full operational launch of the EES scheduled for 10 April 2026, and outlining three options: postponing application for hauliers, increasing the number of available days, or excluding drivers from rules designed for tourists. In the Macedonian political narrative, the risk was not only sectoral: Nikoloski linked stricter controls to the resilience of the regional economy and its ability to attract investment tied to EU supply chains. The suspension came on the evening of 29 January, following publication of the Visa Strategy and the circulation by the minister of a document in which the Commission would commit to assessing corrective measures for Western Balkan hauliers.
Montenegro, while aligning with the common approach on the Schengen issue, followed a different trajectory as the protest intertwined with domestic demands and a sensitive logistics node: the port of Bar. The blockade did not only affect land crossings into Croatia, but also access to and operations at the port, triggering immediate fuel supply alerts. Lacking refining capacity, the country depends on Bar for a central share of fuel imports and storage. In this context, the Montenegrin government accelerated an agreement with the hauliers’ association: timely VAT refunds, extension to 72 hours of the transit period for imported goods, commitments on phytosanitary inspectors’ hours and on certain sector proposals. The issue of fuel excise duties, however, remains unresolved.
On the external political front, Montenegrin President Jakov Milatović chose a diplomatic route, writing to European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos to request “pragmatic solutions” within the Schengen framework regarding the EES and ETIAS, presenting the issue as a concrete obstacle to professional mobility in a region seeking EU integration. Montenegro suspended its blockades as early as 29 January, signalling that at least some domestic levers could be activated without waiting for European timelines.
Alongside the four main countries, spillover effects were felt by those not participating in the pickets. Kosovo was among the most affected due to its reliance on transit via Serbia and North Macedonia, with delays to imports, industrial deliveries and projects dependent on incoming materials. In the background, the international dimension of routes also emerged: Turkish hauliers expressed support, highlighting the strategic importance of the Balkan corridor for overland flows between the EU and eastern markets.
The turning point came on 28 January, when the European Commission presented a new Visa Strategy. In statements reported at the time, the spokesperson for home affairs, Markus Lammert, said the Commission recognises that certain categories of third-country nationals, including hauliers, may need stays exceeding 90 days for professional reasons. The strategy would therefore open the way to “pragmatic solutions” developed with Member States: on one side, a regime of “extended short stay” for highly mobile professions; on the other, faster tools such as electronic visas to avoid embassy procedures and reduce administrative times.
The shift from political framework to operational practice is now entrusted to the 3 February table in Brussels, announced by Luigi Soreca. For transport companies and shippers dependent on these corridors, the issues are concrete: uniform instructions for external border controls, verifiable transitional rules to prevent stoppages and refusals while the EES becomes fully operational, and genuine coordination among Member States to limit differences in application between crossings. In the Commission’s reading, a parallel issue is the reduction of heterogeneous bilateral agreements vis-à-vis Schengen rules, with the aim of achieving more coherent management of short-term professional stays.
The outlook outlined by Brussels is therefore twofold: in the short term, stabilising flows through transitional guarantees and faster digital tools; in the medium term, building an EU regulatory framework that clearly distinguishes work-related mobility from tourist stays, without offloading the regulatory friction generated by stricter controls onto logistics corridors. For logistics operators, the key variable remains predictability: the outcome will be measured by the ability to avoid new border congestion and to preserve transport capacity and delivery reliability as the EES calendar advances towards 10 April 2026.
M.L.
