Professional truck drivers engaged in international transport from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia will hold a regional meeting in Skopje today to discuss what steps to take to resolve the problem of the limited stay in Schengen countries to 90 days within a 180-day period.
Neđo Mandić, president of the Serbian Association for International Transport, previously told the Beta news agency that the European Commission (EC) has so far offered no solution to lift the restriction.
Mandić also announced a meeting at the end of this week with representatives of the relevant EU directorate to seek a solution that would exempt truck drivers from the EU’s 90/180-day rule.
He said that transport associations from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia had sent a letter to the EU requesting a meeting and proposing Belgrade or Brussels as the venue for the talks, but that the meeting would probably be held online, which, he stressed, is not an appropriate format for an issue such as the inability of drivers to carry out their work throughout the year.
He stressed that three of the relevant directors from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport are on leave until 12 August, so the talks are expected to take place after they return to work.
“Drivers from Western Balkan countries who are found in the Schengen Area continue to be deported, while trucks are being detained, even after 10 April this year, when it was agreed with the European Commission that the ‘days spent in the Schengen Area up to that date would be reset to zero and a new count would begin.’ Drivers who have reached the 90-day quota over the past six months are still unable to enter Croatia, Hungary or Romania,” Mandić said.
He added that since the 90/180 rule was introduced in October 2025 for the stay of carriers in Schengen countries – which, in addition to EU member states, also include Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City – nothing has changed to enable carriers to carry out international transport.
At the end of January 2026, transport operators from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina blocked freight terminals at border crossings for four days, but no solution was found to exempt them from the stay restrictions in the Schengen countries.
The EU introduced the 90/180 rule to prevent an uncontrolled influx of migrants, thereby placing professional truck drivers engaged in international transport under the same status as tourists.
Following the latest meeting of Western Balkan transport operators, international transport companies gave the European Commission 10 August 2026 as the deadline to provide a position on how to resolve the problem faced by these drivers, but they received no response.
(N1, 11.08.2026)
https://n1info.rs/vesti/vozaci-kamiona-zapadnog-balkana-danas-o-problemu-ogranicenog-boravka-u-sengen-zoni/
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