Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC) member states involved in the BSEC permit project have agreed to increase the region’s quota of permits for commercial road transport operations.
IRU and the Union of Road Transport Associations in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Region (BSEC-URTA) have advocated for increasing the number of permits issued and extending the geographical coverage of the system. Next year, BSEC will issue 1,500 permits for each country in the system, an increase of 50% from 2020.
Eight BSEC member states currently participate in the project: Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. The BSEC permit was introduced in 2010 as an IRU and BSEC-URTA initiative to facilitate trade in the region. Since then, the system has seen great success, with the number of permits issued increasing from just 700 in 2010 to 8,000 in 2020 and up to 12,000 in 2021.
This year marks a milestone for the BSEC permit project, as member states have agreed to shift from paper to digital permits. Several participating states have expressed an interest in supporting the joint efforts of Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine to develop a pilot e-permit system. IRU was instrumental in establishing the system 10 years ago, and will continue to support BSEC in its further development and digitalisation.