Brussels, 19 May 2022
Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement today on an EU “Single Window” for Customs, aiming to digitalise and streamline trade procedures.
Under the “‘EU Single Window Environment for Customs” proposal, businesses and traders will be able to provide customs and non-customs data required for goods clearance and to complete the formalities in one single portal in a given member state, thereby reducing duplication, time and costs.
Currently, the formalities required at the EU’s external borders are often complex, cumbersome and lengthy. Issues of interoperability between authorities are major obstacles to progress on the digital single market and to the aim of integrated and coordinated customs management.
With the EU “Single Window”, customs and other authorities could automatically verify that the goods in question comply with EU requirements and that the necessary formalities have been completed, thus allowing for a fully coordinated approach to goods clearance and a clearer overview at EU level of the goods that are entering or leaving the EU. This would benefit both businesses and consumers.
Parliament negotiations managed to clarify the scope of EU non-customs systems connected to the Single Window and to ensure its structure is future-proof. The government to government systems should be connected to the portal by 2025, while business to government interfaces should be connected within 9 years.
Guarantees to ensure that the systems are designed and interconnected with high levels of cyber security and protection of personal data were also included in the text.
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Parliament’s lead negotiators Ivan Štefanec (EPP, SK) said: “The Customs Union represents one of the core elements for properly functioning internal market. Non-custom formalities are currently regulated by more than 60 legal acts covering around 39.7 million customs declarations each year. We came with a solution to simplify the process by providing a centralised solution and a single entry point for customs and non-customs declarations. Together with the update on cybersecurity and data protection we believe that new system will bring more efficiency also into cooperation between member states and the European Commission.”
Next steps
The regulation now needs to be formally adopted by Parliament and Council before it is published in the EU Official Journal and enter into force 20 days after.
Background
The EU is the largest trading bloc in the world, accounting for 15% of the world trade. In 2018, almost 343 million customs declarations were handled by more than 2,000 EU customs offices, who collected €25.3 billion in customs duties.
The Single Window is part of the new Customs Union Action Plan, which sets out a series of measures to make EU customs smarter, more innovative and more efficient.