The agreement between the EU and Ukraine on liberalisation of road freight transport (transport visa-free travel) is likely to last until the end of 2025. Find out how the agreement benefits Ukraine and what changes will be introduced in the new document

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The European Commission has proposed to extend the agreement on liberalisation of road freight transport (transport visa-free travel) with Ukraine until the end of 2025. However, there are some changes in the text of the agreement. We tell you about them.

The extension of the agreement is due to the fact that due to russia's aggressive war against Ukraine and the inaccessibility of the Black Sea as a traditional trade route, traditional transport routes in the region have been disrupted or closed.

What will change in the new agreement?

The European Commission has proposed certain changes to the text of the document. They note that the new conditions appeared due to the fact that the EU countries took into account the experience of the implementation of the current transport agreement between the EU and Ukraine.

The following changes are proposed:

- Introduce mandatory availability of documents confirming that the transport operator is duly authorised to carry out international transport and the transport is carried out in accordance with the agreement.

- Make it mandatory to have specific documents certifying that a non-cargo operation is directly linked to a transit or bilateral operation as required by the agreement.

- Strengthen the control of road hauliers' compliance with the obligations related to the operations allowed by the agreement, the fight against fraud and forgery of driving documents, as well as road safety offences: licences can be revoked for this.

- Add a new remark: if there is a significant offence in the national road transport market in a certain geographical area that can be linked to the agreement, the agreement can be suspended in that geographical area.

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What stage is the document at?

The proposals are currently under consideration by the European Council, which must authorise the European Commission to negotiate with Ukraine and Moldova.

As you know, the current agreement on "transport visa-free travel" was signed in June 2022 and is valid until June this year.

It is worth noting that the "transport visa-free travel" is an opportunity to carry out quota-free freight transport by road with EU countries. 

How did the transport visa-free regime affect exports?

According to the EC's calculations, the volume of Ukrainian exports by road to the EU has increased significantly since the agreement came into force: in terms of transport volume it has increased by about two-thirds and in terms of value by about one-third. In absolute figures, monthly exports of goods to the EU have increased by more than 300,000 tonnes.

The level of Ukrainian imports from the EU has also noticeably increased in physical terms by a similar amount of about 300 thousand tonnes monthly. However, in value terms, the growth of imports exceeded the level of exports almost three times, reaching more than 700 million euros per month compared to 250 million euros of exports.

We remind you! Trade business with Ukraine in 2023 brought Poland a record surplus while Polish farmers blocked and continue to block the Ukrainian border. Read here how much Poland earned from Ukraine and how the Ukrainian authorities may hit Polish business in response.

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