Customs programme for cooperation in the field of customs 2021–2027
PURPOSE: to establish the customs programme for cooperation in the field of customs for the period 2021-2027.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: the customs 2020 programme and its predecessors have significantly contributed to facilitating and enhancing customs cooperation. Many of the activities in the customs area are of a cross-border nature, involving and affecting all Member States, and therefore they cannot be effectively and efficiently delivered by individual Member States.
Since 2016, the Union Customs Code is the new legal customs framework. The Code triggered a massive digitalisation project with 17 different electronic systems to be fully in place by 2020. Some systems will be deployed gradually up to 2025. These electronic systems touch upon all customs procedures.
The upcoming withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU implies disentangling the United Kingdom as a Member State from all existing customs electronic systems financed by customs 2020. These implications and costs however cannot be precisely estimated at this stage.
The implementation of all these aspects can only be achieved through intense operational cooperation between customs administrations of the Member States, between them and other authorities, with trade and other third parties. It is therefore necessary to ensure the continuity of the Union’s financing of customs cooperation activities by establishing a new cooperation programme in this area.
CONTENT: the proposal for a Regulation - presented for a Union of 27 Member States - seeks to establish the customs programme for cooperation in the field of customs for the period 2021-2027, which will succeed the customs 2020 programme.
Objective: the general objective of the proposed new programme is to support the customs union and customs authorities to protect the financial and economic interests of the Union and its Member States, to ensure security and safety within the Union and to protect the Union from unfair and illegal trade, while facilitating legitimate business activity.
Customs cooperation and capacity building shall focus, on the one hand, on human networking and competency building actions and, on the other hand, IT capacity building actions.
Like the current Customs 2020 programme, the new programme shall be open to participation by Member States, acceding, candidate and potential candidate countries. It may provide funding in any form provided for in the Financial Regulation, in particular grants, procurements and reimbursement of expenses.
Eligible actions: the programme shall cover expenses for preparation, monitoring, control, audit, evaluation and other activities for managing the programme and evaluating the achievement of its objectives.
It shall also cover expenses relating to studies, meetings of experts, information and communication actions, in so far as they are related to the objectives of the programme, as well as expenses linked to information technology networks focusing on information processing and exchange, including corporate information technology tools and other technical and administrative assistance needed in connection with the management of the programme.
IT capacity: the proposal provides an improved framework and governance for the IT capacity building actions carried out under the programme. An improved definition of the European electronic systems ‘common components’ and ‘national components’ reflecting better the reality of electronic systems and their features has been integrated. The tasks incumbent on the Commission on the one hand and the Member States on the other hand have been listed.
Lastly, a multi-annual strategic plan for customs, to be drawn up by the Commission, in partnership with the Member States, shall allow for a better planning of budgetary and human resources both at national and EU level.
Proposed budget: under the proposed new multiannual financial framework, the programme shall have an overall budget of EUR 950 million (in current prices) for the period 2021-2027. The vast majority of the proposed budget will be spent on IT capacity building activities.