All three border crossings between Bulgaria and Greece were closed by protesters of Greek farmers on Friday. The last to be closed was the Kapitan Petko Voivida-Ormenion checkpoint.

However, it reopened again later in the day. The lines of waiting vehicles, mostly heavy-duty trucks, waiting to cross into Greece were kilometeres long.

The chief of the Border Police unit in the southern town of Smolyan, Todor Georgiev, told BTA that the blockade at Promachonas was lifted for about an hour on Thursday night and several dozens of vehicles used the opportunity to cross the border in both directions.

At a news conference on Thursday evening, he said that closing all three crossings would be without precedent and would cause great tension in the work of the Border Police and many other business and administrative structures.

The blocked crossings only let through vehicles in the event of emergencies and after talks with the Greek authorities and the protesters.

The border policemen who prevented serious clashes with inebriated Greek farmers at Koulata on Thursday night, will be offered for award, said the deputy head of the Border Police Directorate General, commissioner Peter Iliev.

Bulgarian vehicles were advised to drive through Zlatarevo and Macedonia to Greece. Road hauliers who are without the requisite papers for crossing another border, are practically stuck at the border with Greece, said the Border Police. However, the Border Police has received information from the Greek border authorities that crossings between Greece and Macedonia will start to be blocked as well. Traffic via them will be blocked for three hours and then allowed for three hours, and so on.

Railroad border crossings between Bulgaria and Greece work normally.

The Bulgarian Transport Ministry said it sent a note to the Greek Embassy in Sofia on Friday in connection with the ongoing blockade of the border crossings between the two neighbours. The note says that the impossibility to use the road connections between Bulgaria and Greece hinders links between the two and contravenes the rights and freedoms of EU citizens and the principles of the single market. The Bulgarian Transport Ministry called on the competent Greek authorities to take urgent actions to restore normal traffic.

Source: BTA