(Reuters) -Slovak truckers staged a symbolic brief blockage of the country's main crossing with Ukraine on Thursday but threatened a full blockade in the near future to support Polish calls for restrictions on the number of Ukrainian trucks entering the EU.
Polish drivers have been blocking roads to three crossings with Ukraine for over a week, citing government inaction over a loss of business to foreign competitors since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
They insist on the return of a limited number of licenses for Ukrainian truckers, a demand Kyiv said it would not consider.
Haulers' union UNAS chief Stanislav Skala told Reuters by telephone that Ukrainian truckers took away business by undercutting prices with cheap fuel and other costs, as well as doing prohibited intra-EU business.
"We need licencing for Ukrainian truckers to be reinstated," he said.
"We asked the European Commission today to immediately start acting and let us know in seven, eight days if they will do something... or the border will have to be blocked."
The Slovak haulers blocked truck traffic from Ukraine at the Vysne Nemecke crossing, which is the only crossing between the two countries for heavy trucks.
Skala said no date for the start of the full blockade had been agreed and would depend on response from European authorities.