The hauliers have thus called off a protest planned for Monday morning in Ljubljana, which would have likely resulted in traffic chaos.

However, unless the talks bear fruit by the end of the month, a protest will be staged on 31 January, said Andrej Klobasa, the head of the hauliers' association at the Chamber of Craft Industries and Small Business (OZS).

Talking to the press after today's meeting, Omerzel said that they defined the issues to be addressed. He did however not wish to talk about solutions.

The key grudges carried by the truckers include high motorway tolls and fines, new limitations for trucks on specific road sections, precarious labour arrangements and lack of concrete incentives to buy environment-friendlier vehicles, the Chamber of Craft Industries and Small Business (OZS) has said when announcing the protest for Monday.

Representatives of the OZS's association of transport claim hauliers paid some EUR 60m for emission coupons annually, but only a small share of this returns in form of encouragement for buying ecologically more suitable vehicles, which makes Slovenian hauliers less competitive than foreign ones.

They moreover noted that weight limitations were to be introduced on 15 road sections in Slovenia at the end of January, which is to cause hauliers major costs, as they will need to transport the cargo with more vehicles.