Baltic, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Tourism, Transport

According to a directive signed by the Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Taavi Aas, the roads and railways department of the ministry did not identify the circumstances set out in the common rules of the European Parliament and the Council on access to the international bus and coach market that would preclude the application being granted.

Flixbus Estonia will operate the Tallinn-Vilnius bus route in cooperation with a total of 58 carriers from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Latvia.

In late August, the news portal of public broadcaster ERR wrote that when investigating the activities of the Estonian operation of the German bus operator Flixbus, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications found that the company did not have the right to provide paid passenger transport services.

The Lithuanian Transport Safety Administration had previously turned to the the Estonian ministry to obtain approval for the Tallinn-Vilnius route permit application submitted by Flixbus.

However, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications discovered from the register of economic activities that Flixbus Estonia has not applied for any certified copy of the activity license during the last six months, which means that the company has not actually carried out paid passenger transport.

Thus, in the opinion of the ministry, the company did not meet the requirements of the regulation in force in the European Union, meaning that Flixbus Estonia is not operating stably and efficiently in Estonia as a carrier.

The ministry issued a precept to Flixbus to bring the company into compliance with the requirements of the regulation within two months. Otherwise, the Association of Estonian International Road Carriers (ERAA) could have revoked the license granted to Flixbus.