The Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine has agreed with the Ministry of Transport and Maritime Affairs of Montenegro to liberalise all freight traffic between the two countries from 1 June 2024.

“Our goal is to have no countries left on the map of Europe with which we have a permit system for transportation, and for our transport companies to be able to deliver goods to any country without additional restrictions. That is why we have been consistently working to liberalise freight transport with other countries.

More than 10 years ago, we signed the Agreement on Road Transport between our countries, and since then, the trade turnover between Ukraine and Montenegro has increased sevenfold. This is a confirmation that the liberalisation of freight transport is timely and will benefit both countries,” said Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine and Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development.

In addition to freight transport, the Ministry’s team is working to develop regular and irregular bus services between the two states.

“It is important to ensure that we have permits for irregular operations and that we can launch regular services. We expect the opening of the first regular route from Kyiv to Budva soon. Regarding irregular permits, this year we have available regular universal permits and permits for shuttle routes with a unique opportunity to replace a group of passengers by up to 10%,” said Serhiy Derkach, Deputy Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development.

The parties also discussed the possibility of non-parity passenger transportation by Ukrainian companies. The parties have agreed that if the Montenegrin carrier refuses to operate the route, the Ukrainian company can operate the route independently.

Background

Freight transport liberalisation, i.e. the possibility of carrying out transport without the need for special permits, is possible with 36 countries, including the European Union. Only last year, the Ministry managed to agree on such a possibility with Norway and North Macedonia and to extend the agreement with Moldova and Turkey.