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Because of the new German entry rules, the Austrian state of Tyrol wants to throttle truck traffic from Italy as early as Sunday in order to prevent extreme backlogs and a traffic collapse in the Inn Valley.
“We will not allow Tyrol to become Europe's parking lot.
For this reason, in coordination with the federal government, an ordinance is being issued that enables us to carry out checks at the burner, ”said Tyrolean Governor Günther Platter and Regional Transport Minister Ingrid Felipe on Saturday.
The background is therefore the German requirement that truck drivers are already registered online for entry in advance, have the relevant documents and also carry a negative Covid test that is not older than 48 hours.
According to Platter, this is unlikely to be fully known to all truck drivers on Sunday.
Therefore, Austria will check the exit requirements from Tyrol to Germany as soon as they enter Tyrol on the Brenner.
Slovakia intervenes
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The Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok has intervened with Germany's Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas against the travel restrictions for truck drivers.
As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bratislava announced on its website on Saturday, it was about the requirement to present a corona test that is no more than 48 hours old at the border in order to be allowed to enter Germany.
"This measure will cause huge problems and our truck drivers can hardly be fulfilled in practice," Korcok explained to his German counterpart, according to his ministry.
Slovakia has therefore sent a diplomatic note to Berlin.
The federal government in Berlin classified the EU country Slovakia on Friday as well as the Czech Republic and Tyrol as an area with particularly dangerous virus mutations.
With a few exceptions, travelers from Slovakia are no longer allowed to come to Germany.
Truck drivers are an exception, but only if they meet the test condition or go into quarantine.
Fear that the German example will catch on
Slovakia fears that other EU countries might follow the German example.
"Our economies are closely linked (...), so I ask that we avoid steps within the EU that could lead to reciprocal measures and further disruptions to the internal market," warned Korcok.