EU says ‘green lanes’ at borders will speed truck deliveries as transport federation criticises move
The European Commission has urged Member States to create fast lanes at border crossings so that trucks can speed through with delivery of basic supplies and medical equipment, as the 27-member bloc remains in the eye of the sweeping coronavirus pandemic. But the European Union’s main transport workers’ federation criticised the idea, saying it goes against efforts to contain the pandemic.
In a speech to the European Parliament Plenary on 26 March, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen explained that the so-called priority ‘green lanes’ were meant to speed up deliveries affected by measures taken to contain the coronavirus.
Last month, EU countries restored border controls to slow the virus from spreading, resulting in long queues of trucks at some internal borders, waiting times of up to 18 hours, and a slowdown of supply chains across the continent.
The European Commission said in a separate statement that border checks had had a major impact on European transport, slowing down and sometimes paralysing transport. It said the priority now was to ensure that the main access points in the EU remain unblocked.
‘It is why we are calling for priority “green lanes” for transport of goods,’ Van der Leyen said. ‘These will ensure that crossing the border takes no more than 15 minutes. And they will help ensure that goods and supplies can go where they are needed and we all can avoid shortages.’
But the European Transport Workers’ Federation (‘ETF’) said that the recommended measures ‘seem to be somehow disconnected from reality, both with regard to the development of the pandemic and to the expected transport trends.’
It said that, because the pandemic has yet to reach its maximum contamination levels in Europe, ‘it is only normal that Member States adopt increasingly drastic measures to cut down contacts with the outside world.’
In a 24 March letter to the Commission, the ETF said, ‘It is more than likely that the transport of goods, both domestic and international, will be considerably reduced in the days to come, due to the economic slow-down associated with the pandemic.’ The measure, it added, ‘goes against the efforts of the Member States to contain the pandemic and address its impacts.’
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/SPEECH_20_532
