As for trucks, he doesn’t believe there will be much of a difference right away.
The big problem for truck drivers, he says, is that all truck checks happen at the border, from weighing to permits and loading, health and environmental inspections, and searches for illegal migrants.
In other countries that are already part of the Schengen zone, such checks take place more quickly and efficiently at special road parking lots, far from the border.
Rada Dinescu blames the successive governments of Romania for the inability to agree on new agreements with the country’s neighbors to relieve pressure from the borders.
He refers to the European Union’s 2008 regulation, which provides for the removal of control of the weight and dimensions of trucks from border points between EU countries.
This was never implemented on the Romanian-Hungarian border or on the Romanian-Bulgarian border due to competition between rival inspectorates.
We are talking not only about trade, but also about investments, says the head of the association of Romanian motor carriers.
When BMW was trying to choose between Hungary and Romania as the location for a new car plant, the wait at the Romanian-Hungarian border mysteriously increased.
After that, BMW chose the Hungarian city of Debrecen.
Dacia Renault, the largest car manufacturer in Romania, faces constant delays in the delivery of spare parts across the borders of the Schengen area. “I don’t want to underestimate the value of joining our land borders to the Schengen area, but there is still a lot of work to be done,” says Dinescu.
In Timisoara, Philip Cox of Romania’s largest wine exporter Cramele Recas is more optimistic.
“Border control will fall,” he believes, “but it will happen, maybe in six months, because it’s in everyone’s interest.”
And this will make his wine more competitive in the western and northern markets of Europe, he believes.
