Bulgaria mulls nationalising TIR parking lots to tackle border transport chaos

The Bulgarian government is considering the possibility of taking control of currently privately owned parking areas where heavy lorries have to park and pay a fee before crossing the border.

Last week, Bulgarian transport organisations announced that Greece and Turkey were already discussing bypassing Bulgaria because of the traffic chaos in the country.

On Monday, the cabinet reacted, saying, "Consideration will be given to the possibility of the state fully taking over the management of the buffer car parks, which, as adjacent infrastructure, are also linked to border control." State takeover could happen if the car parks are declared sites of national security importance.

These private car parks, controlled under vague rules by threatening-looking people, are used to divert lorries to pay a compulsory fee, which is €25 a day for foreign lorries but only €7.50 a day for Bulgarian lorries.

Bulgarian police have not yet given an answer as to who is controlling the traffic and why the lorries are being held in private car parks.

Reports of such car parks, run by organisations linked to shadowy figures in Bulgarian business, have been circulating for more than a year, but the government only addressed the issue a week ago.

Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev said on Monday that a permanent solution to the problem should be found as a matter of urgency.

"The aim is also to take urgent measures to ease traffic, to reduce waiting times as much as possible," a government statement said.

"For the first time, the Bulgarian state border has not been conquered by hostile armed forces, but by a handful of thugs who, with the assistance of state institutions and political parties, are raging around," former deputy agriculture minister Ivan Khristanov told bTV on Monday.

Khristanov was part of the 2023 government and led the fight against private companies that managed food imports and exports across Bulgaria's border with Turkey.

Bulgaria's Kapitan Andreevo border crossing with Turkey is the busiest land border in Europe, and almost all truck traffic from Turkey and the Middle East passes through it.

[Edited by Daniel Eck]