One more round of talks is expected in Greece today between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and farmers who have been blocking the border with Bulgaria. It has been close to one month since communications by land between the two countries have been disrupted.

Greek farmers have intermittently been blocking the transiting of goods and people towards Bulgaria - fully or partially - in contravention of EU norms of the free passage of commodities and people. In retaliation, Bulgarian hauliers have also been blocking transit. The governments have not intervened to solve the problem bilaterally, not counting three telephone conversations Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov had with his Greek counterpart Tsipras that came to nothing, and several futile attempts by Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski to engage the regional authorities on the other side of the border in a dialogue. The government in Sofia referred the matter to the European Commission, as yet with zero result. Brussels seems to regard the resolution of the financial, economic and migration problems Greece faces as being more important than its problems with Bulgaria. On the other hand the Commission has no mechanism at its disposal for regulating problems like the problem between Bulgaria and Greece. Meanwhile, things are growing worse.

After meeting with Transport Minister Moskovski and Foreign Minister Mitov, Bulgarian hauliers threatened to put up a counter-blockade along the entire stretch of the border with Greece, unless traffic between the two countries is resumed by Monday. The Bulgarian Association of Road Transport Unions on its part cautioned that unless a lasting solution to the problem was found, as of next Monday they would block the borders between the two countries to farming produce coming from Greece, including via Macedonia. A step that would have a devastating effect on the farmers blocking transit on the Greek side. But allegedly, there will be blockades at Easter and in summer, and not just of goods but of people as well. This would mean protracting the conflict with dire consequences for tourism in Greece during high season.

On the other hand, if the passage of Greek farming produce across the border with Macedonia were to be blocked this would mean a partial transference of a bilateral problem, concerning the free passage of goods between Bulgaria and Greece, onto a third country. And this at a time when that same country - Macedonia has its own serious problems along the border with Greece - the problem of the refugee flows. If the problem with Greece were to be internationalized and transferred, albeit partially, onto Macedonia this would mean nothing good for Bulgaria in its delicate relations with its neighbor to the southwest.

As a matter of fact, the problem has been internationalized anyway - at the beginning of the week two Bulgarian ministries - of transport and of foreign affairs - informed all EU members in writing that there was a problem at the checkpoints along the Bulgaria-Greek border and recommended careful consideration before traffic was directed towards them. The border problem with Greece is no longer bilateral but the attempts to solve it by putting in place counter-blockades or sanctions by hauliers on the Bulgarian side do not look like yielding any result in the foreseeable future. What they are resulting in is an endless string of compensation claims and lawsuits that will drag out far into the future. Sanctions and counter-sanctions are obviously not the solution, it is governments and not hauliers that must seek and find mutually acceptable solutions before the conflict has developed into a full-blown trade war.

English version: Milena Daynova