Crippling border queues as ministers discuss issues

Even as due to border controls introduced on the Polish side owing to the coronavirus spread, serpentine traffic jams were formed, Poland’s Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz discussed the situation with his German and Czech counterparts Heiko Mass and Tomáš Petříček, as well as with Dietmar Woidke – Minister-President of Brandenburg and speaker of the Bundesrat, the upper house of the German parliament.

A 40-kilometer long traffic jam was formed on the A4 motorway that runs in southern Poland from the Polish-German border at Zgorzelec-Görlitz to the Polish-Ukrainian border at Korczowa-Krakovets. It is a part of the European E40 route – the longest European route, more than 8,000km long, connecting Calais in France with Ridder in Kazakhstan near the border with Russia and China.

The German police and the Polish embassy in Berlin appeal to drivers to remain calm and focus on traveling. Travelers had to wait for over seven hours on Wednesday morning at the road border crossings in Budzisko and Ogrodniki (Poland-Lithuania), the Polish Border Guards stated.

“Common actions aimed at the urgent streamlining of Polish-Czech border crossings were the focus of a phone conversation of the Polish and Czech foreign ministers,” the Polish foreign ministry tweeted.

Due to the coronavirus spread, border controls have been reinstated in Poland and across the EU. In Poland, a temporary entry ban has been applicable to foreigners from Saturday for ten days with the possibility of prolonging the ban. Poles crossing the border will be placed under a 14-day quarantine. Over Tuesday night, three new border crossings with Czechia were opened and Poland’s border with Germany now includes four additional crossings.

For updates on waiting times at Polish borders, FOLLOW.

(PAP1, PAP2, PAP3, WNP, Polskie Radio)