A few hours’ wait at the Serbian-North Macedonia border, with all the agreements of the Open Balkans

“…when it arrives, I mean at the door of the house, it is not right to wait so long in vain, because in my eyes this waiting for hours is in vain”, says Azir Hani, who together with his wife and two children shows that he traveled from Switzerland to spend his holidays in North Macedonia.

“I traveled all over Europe and here we are now staying here for hours. That doesn’t make sense,” said another expat, who identified himself only as Jane.

“At other borders, if you have one or many, three cars in front of you, but here you see how long the line is,” he says.

Shqipe Ameti, from Presheva – a municipality in the south of Serbia – says that she visits her family twice a week in Kumanovo, North Macedonia.

“From Presheva to Kumanovo, the road is one hour, while three hours are lost at the border”, says Shqipja, according to which, these waits in temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius happen “unnecessarily”.

However, according to Macedonian authorities, the wait is a consequence of the greater flow of citizens crossing the border during the summer months.

The Auto-Moto Association of North Macedonia said in Wednesday’s announcement that the wait at the Tabanoci crossing lasts about an hour.

Currently, five lanes for cars, two for trucks and one for buses operate at this point.

Since the beginning of July, it has been foreseen that checks of travelers and cars will be done only at one point – that is, those entering from Serbia into North Macedonia will be checked only at the customs point of North Macedonia.

But, considering that the integrated border crossing system is not yet in operation, passengers are subject to passport control at the checkpoints of both Serbia and North Macedonia.

The opening of the “One Stop” system in Tabanoc was promoted as early as 2019 by the then Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, and the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabic.

Meanwhile, the Government of North Macedonia said that it had allocated 2.8 million euros from the state coffers for the realization of this project.

However, the situation on the ground looks different.

“I have a truck loaded with plums… You tell me now, in these temperatures that are above 35 degrees, if it’s okay for me to wait… The goods have not been spoiled by the heat”, says Goran Tanev for Radio Free Europe , carrier, indicating that it was left waiting for more than two hours.

North Macedonia, together with Albania and Serbia – as countries of the initiative known as the Open Balkans – have even agreed on a special lane in Tabanoc for the citizens of these three countries.

“What an Open Balkan, nothing works in practice. Queues remain long”, says Time Iliev.

The director of the Customs Directorate in North Macedonia, Slavica Kutirov, says that work is being done to open a special lane for the Open Balkans member countries, but she does not specify when it will be able to be put into operation.

On the other hand, Bilana Muratoska, from the Association of Transporters of North Macedonia, Makam-Trans, says that she does not expect that the transporters will have any obvious benefit from the agreements made by the leaders of the Open Balkans in terms of facilitating the circulation of citizens and goods.

“In Tabanoc we have duplication of duties, the inspection is done by one side, just as it is done by the other side – that is, the Macedonian side and the Serbian side and vice versa, despite the fact that they are now at a common border point,” Muratovska told Radio Free Europe .

According to her, the situation is only improved by control through a unified data system – and, if it will ever reach this point, remains to be seen./Rel

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