The EU single customs window

The EU’s international trade is subject to both customs legislation and other legislative requirements. For example, other import requirements apply to specific goods in policy areas such as health and safety, the environment, agriculture, fisheries, cultural heritage and market surveillance. In this context, the EU Council has now adopted measures to create a single window for customs duty and other importation purposes. The intention is that the measure will make international trade easier, shorten customs clearance times and reduce the risk of fraud. The new rules are intended to aid the smooth flow of cross-border trade and reduce the administrative burden for traders, particularly by saving time and making clearance simpler and more automated.

To implement the EU single window, a certificates exchange system, namely the electronic European Union Customs Single Window Certificates Exchange System (EU CSW-CERTEX) will be established, that interconnects national single window environments for customs and EU non-customs systems managing specific non-customs formalities. It will also be necessary to harmonise national single window environments for customs, integrate those environments into the EU single window, and establish a set of rules on digital administrative cooperation within the EU single window.

Once fully implemented, businesses will no longer have to submit documents to several authorities through different portals. The single window environment will allow customs and other authorities to automatically verify that the goods in question comply with EU requirements and that the necessary formalities have been completed. All relevant authorities at the EU’s external borders will be able to access the relevant data electronically and collaborate more easily on border checks. This will enable the EU to enforce European standards in areas such as health and safety, environment and agriculture more easily.

Next steps

Following the EU Council adoption of the final text of the necessary regulation, the regulation can now be signed at the European Parliament’s November session and then be published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Following its formal adoption by the European Parliament and the Council, the Press Release reports that the intergovernmental component of the Single Window will come into effect by 2025, while the business-to-government scheme will be accessible at a later stage.

The regulation establishing the EU single window environment for customs can be found here: Regulation establishing the European Union Single Window Environment for Customs and amending Regulation (EU) No 952/2013.