The European Commission has agreed on the final text of a special agreement on the liberalization of road transport between Ukraine and the European Union. The final consultations between the delegations of Ukraine and the European Commission took place with the participation of the leadership of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine.

The text of the agreement provides for the performance of bilateral and transit transportation by Ukrainian haulers without permits. The signing of the document is scheduled for the end of June.

"Thanks to the conclusion of such an agreement, we will be able to significantly improve and accelerate the logistics between Ukraine and the EU. This is critically important now, when, under the blockade of seaports, the Ukrainian economy is completely dependent on stable logistics on the western borders. 

In parallel, we are working on the development of border infrastructure, which has significantly increased capacity at the western borders. In particular, as part of the "Open Border" project, we plan to eliminate all bottlenecks on the border," - Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov said.

We are grateful to our European partners for their support of Ukraine and we expect that we will be able to consolidate our agreements at the official level in the nearest future,"-  said Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov.

Negotiations on the possibility of concluding a Special Agreement on the liberalization of road transport began at the initiative of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine last autumn.

The limited number of permits for international transportation has been a rather critical problem for Ukrainian haulers over the past five years.  Since the signing of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas the trade turnover with the EU countries has almost doubled, and the number of cargo transportation by road has increased by 42%.

At the same time, the number of permits for international transportation to individual EU countries was declining, which led to large losses for both Ukrainian haulers and the country's economy as a whole.

In the conditions of a full-scale war and blockade of Ukrainian ports, the volume of exports by road transport and, as a result, the need for permits for international transportation in some directions have increased in several times.

In the first month of the full-scale invasion, the Ministry of Infrastructure team managed to reach agreements on the temporary cancellation of permits with 12 EU countries (Austria, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Lithuania, Romania, Greece and Slovakia).

 The signing of the Ukraine-EU agreement on the liberalization of road transportation eliminates the need to obtain appropriate permits on an ongoing basis and will avoid stopping the export of Ukrainian products through automobile checkpoints.

Reference source:  Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine