CEFTA working on expanding Green Corridors to all crossings with neighboring EU member-states

Within the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), which was also signed by Serbia, there are intensive efforts toward the expansion of the Green Corridors, a special regime for the transport of goods, toward the neighboring EU member states, in which only several crossings toward Croatia, Greece and Italy, and at which the CEFTA SEED electronic platform for a fast exchange of customs data is implemented, are included at the moment, stated the project manager of the SEED+ project at the CEFTA Secretariat, Edna Karadza.

– The Green Corridors Initiative was one of the most successful initiatives for cooperation within the CEFTA, which has, in the meantime, been expanded to all the crossings within the CEFTA, but also some crossings with the neighboring EU member states, namely, Greece, at the Bogorodica-Evzonoi crossing, and Croatia, where, after the current initial test phase at several crossings, all the crossings with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro for road transport will be included. With Italy, for maritime transport, the initiative includes Bar-Bari/Ancona and Durres-Bari/Ancona – said Karadza in an interview for the Beta news agency.

She reminded that the Green Corridors Initiative, launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, had served to preserve the trade and accelerate the process of the customs clearance of medical drugs and equipment and essential goods.

Karadza said that it had been enabled through the CEFTA SEED system for the electronic data exchange, because the information about the arrival of those goods would be announced before their arrival to the crossing to all the organs involved in the control of goods at the crossings, enabling them to check the documents in advance and give priority to the trucks transporting those specific goods.

According to her, after the pandemic, the Green Corridors Initiative is an instrument for the facilitation of trade through the exchange of data and documents within the SEED system between all the participants, the acceleration of the movement of goods, the deepening of the customs cooperation, as well as the improvement of the coordination of the operations of the agencies at the crossings.

It also serves to improve risk management, improve the business environment, increase the transparency, reduce the costs of trade and ensure a continuous supply chain.

She also reminded that, on October 8, Serbia and Hungary had also made an important step toward the improvement of trade and mobility by signing the Memorandum of Understanding for the purpose of expanding the Green Corridors Initiative.

– This agreement will facilitate the trade between Serbia and Hungary, bringing considerable economic benefits to the economies of both signees. This expansion is an important step toward the harmonization of the customs procedures and the strengthening of the economic integration with the EU – said Karadza.

She explained that, as a result of the Green Corridors Initiative, the collecting of the data on the time of waiting/processing at the customs had started at the beginning of 2022 and that the data collected in 2022 served as the basis for future analyses.

CEFTA Secretariat

Edna Karadža

CEFTA

Green Corridors Initiative

customs procedures

transport

SEED system