diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 965fbf39741a9eeaf497d106700d520e480b4cd4..b0712d837d113d851d0a98e4957b68d31050963f 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ cache:
 .unittest: &unittest
   stage: test
   before_script:
+    - 'mkdir .m2 || echo ".m2 directory exists already"'
     - 'cp ./scripts/settings.xml .m2/settings.xml'
   script:
     - 'mvn $MAVEN_CLI_OPTS clean test javadoc:javadoc -Dwith-postgresql -Dtest.env.db.postgresql.host.name=postgres -Dtest.env.db.postgresql.user=$POSTGRES_USER -Dtest.env.db.postgresql.pass=$POSTGRES_PASSWORD -Ptomcat'