Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
Truck drivers become key EU election issue in Bulgaria
The European Commission wants to put restrictions on cargo transport to ensure adequate rest for truck drivers and limit driving distances. Bulgaria, where the transport sector accounts for 15% of GDP and employs some 200,000 people, fears it will erode its workforce's low-cost advantage. It says it could cost jobs and force Bulgarian truckers to move to Western Europe, worsening a wealth gap within the EU
[...]
The new rules concern truck drivers' postings, driving and rest times, and access to the market. Especially worrying for Bulgarian truckers is the requirement that they spend their rest time in a hotel rather than in bunks in their trucks. The rules would also force drivers to return home every three or four weeks with an empty truck.

[EP candidate Angel] Dzhambazki said that the European proposal, called the Mobility Package, would cause thousands of Bulgarians to emigrate to wealthier European countries to be closer to the markets they work with. He sees the proposal as an effort by countries like France and Germany to protect their own businesses from the competition of lower-wage countries like Bulgaria.
[...]
"Like the Germans or Italians who come to Bulgaria and feel comfortable here, we also need to feel comfortable when we go there because we are a big family," [Eurospeed transport owner, Dimitar Rashkov] says. "That is what the European Union stands for."



Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Tue May 14th, 2019 at 06:49:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Others have rated this comment as follows:

Display: