In its common position, the Council has taken on board, totally or in part, 24 of the 27 amendments adopted by the European Parliament at first reading. Regarding the amendments taken on board in part in the common position, it is worth mentioning the following points:
- the Council has opted for more precise wording concerning the description of the exemption regarding oral declarations of goods;
- with regard to the provision on implementing measures, the Council considers that the implementing powers should concern the collection of the following data: the specification of data sources other than the customs declaration, and also statistical data provided by the economic operator benefiting from further simplification of customs formalities and control. In addition, the Council has underlined the necessity of setting up an efficient system minimising the administrative burden;
- other data sources may continue to be used by Member States for the compilation of their national statistics until the date of implementation of a mechanism for mutual data exchange.
There are also new elements introduced by the Council in its common position, in addition to the EP amendments taken on board:
- a recital explains that, following the introduction in the Modernised Customs Code of facilitations for operators, in the form of simplifications of formalities and controls, customs declarations might not be available; where such declarations are the source of statistical data on external trade, the Regulation must lay down measures that will ensure that data will be provided by operators which are granted facilitations;
- another recital makes a reference to the "e-customs" Decision, on the basis of which an electronic customs system for the exchange of customs declaration data is being set-up;
- Source of data: a new paragraph lays down the principle that operators granted facilitations which might lead to the non availability of customs declarations and the pertaining statistical data should provide these statistical data. The Council has added a sentence in view of making sure that the administrative burden on trade and administrations, arising from the data collection process, would be minimised;
- Exchange of data: the Council in its common position has not taken on board the European Parliament amendment, as it considers that, from the date of implementation of the exchange data mechanism by electronic means, data should be transmitted by the customs authorities to the national statistical authority of the Member State (of destination or of actual export). In addition, the Council considers that the above mechanism should be implemented at the latest when the relevant section of the Modernised Customs Code will be applicable.