LAUNCH PROCEDURES FOR BILATERAL VISA DEALS WITH EU COUNTRIES

SARAJEVO, OCTOBER 29 /SRNA/ - Zijad Šarić, a representative of the Logistika Consortium, said today that carriers are asking the joint institutions to urgently launch procedures for bilateral visa issuance for drivers with certain EU countries, in the same way as was done with Croatia.

"These are Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Italy and Hungary. If that were done, it would ease the burden on carriers, and we would reach a final solution once we got D visas from these countries as well," Šarić told reporters after a meeting of the working group on resolving the problems of drivers in the Schengen Area.

Šarić said an initiative should be launched to introduce fuel subsidies for carriers, given rising prices.

Another initiative launched today calls for the entity governments to help carriers through contributions.

"As with the textile sector, contribution obligations should be cut by 50 percent, which would reduce part of the costs," Šarić said.

According to him, BiH carriers are moving capacity out of BiH, most often to Croatia and Slovenia, and 30 percent of capacity has already left BiH.

"We also know that carriers have moved capacity to Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and some want to go to Hungary and Montenegro," Šarić said.

Minister of Communications and Transport in the Council of Ministers Edin Forto said a large number of companies and drivers are leaving BiH, and that it is time for institutions to wake up and treat this problem as a crisis.

"If this continues, the estimate is that transport costs will rise, which means the cost of living will rise, and nobody wants that," Forto stressed.

Forto added that certain relief measures for carriers, such as issuing a third license plate and cheaper international transport permits, have "got stuck in the procedure".

He also said the working group's mandate expires at the end of the year, and that carriers have said it needs to continue its work.

"We will ask the Council of Ministers for a new mandate for this group, or to expand its powers and adopt a decision establishing a committee for transport facilitation, which is much broader than what we currently have," Forto concluded.

The working group is made up of representatives of the Council of Ministers, the Foreign Trade Chamber, the chambers of commerce of Republika Srpska, the Federation of BiH and Brčko District, and the Logistika Consortium, with additional representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, the Directorate for European Integration, the Indirect Taxation Authority and the Border Police.