This Commission Staff Working Document concerns the enforcement by national customs authorities of Regulation (EC) No 669/2009 implementing Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the increased level of official controls on imports of certain feed and food of non-animal origin and amending Decision 2006/504/EC.
This document sets out a comprehensive summary of the procedure that must be applied by customs authorities in order to ensure the enforcement of Regulation (EC) No 669/2009 correctly and consistently throughout the EU.
The Commission states that despite the fact that Commission Regulation (EC) No 669/2009 has been very well implemented in the Member States, a series of audits carried out in 2010 and 2011 identified some heterogeneous practices between Member States as regards the contribution of customs to the control of these commodities.
One of the practices observed was that in the case of customs declarations made using a data-processing technique, the release for free circulation was based on the mere reference to the Common Entry Document (CED) number in box 44 of the customs declaration. Neither the physical existence of the CED nor the presence of a favorable decision for release for free circulation in the CED was checked.
The document concludes that customs authorities can release for free circulation consignments of commodities falling under the scope of Commission Regulation (EC) No 669/2009 only after they have checked that the CED exists, that in Box II.14 it is indicated that the consignment is acceptable for release for free circulation and that Box II.21 has been signed.