Customs

The customs union is a single trading area where all goods circulate freely, whether made within the EU or imported from outside. A Finnish mobile phone can be dispatched to Hungary without paying any duty and without any customs control.

Duty on goods from outside the EU – say a TV from South Korea – is paid when they first enter the EU, but after that there is nothing more to pay and no more checks.

Despite this, customs activity in the EU remains vital, especially given the sheer volume of goods entering the bloc. EU customs services handle nearly 20% of total world imports – over 2 billion tonnes of goods a year. To do so, they process well over 200 million declarations annually.

How customs protect EU citizens

The list is a long one:

• enforcing rules that protect the environment and our health and safety (e.g. turning back contaminated foodstuffs or potentially dangerous electrical appliances);
• ensuring exports of sensitive technology (which could be used to make nuclear or chemical weapons) are legitimate;
• tackling counterfeit goods and piracy – in the interests of health and safety, as well as the jobs of those who work for legitimate manufacturers;
• ensuring anyone travelling with large amounts of cash (or equivalent) is not laundering money or evading tax;
• helping police and immigration services fight trafficking in people, drugs, pornography and firearms – all factors in organised crime and terrorism;
• protecting endangered species, e.g. checking trade in ivory, protected animals, birds and plants;
• protecting European cultural heritage by watching for smuggled art treasures.

Preventing fraud

Another major duty of customs in the EU is to tackle fraud, in particular 3 types:

• because the EU has lower tariffs on many imports from poor countries, some importers are tempted to try to qualify for these tariffs by producing a false certificate of origin for their goods from one of these countries;
• fraudulent VAT declarations and payments, used by unscrupulous businesspeople to report fictitious trade;
• evasion of excise duties on items such as cigarettes, which deprives governments of tax revenue needed for vital public spending.

Making life easier for business

The EU is constantly working on updating and automating procedures which will smooth trade across its internal and external borders.

Within the next couple of years, businesses will be able to throw away all their paper customs forms and the customs networks of all EU countries will be fully integrated electronically, providing a one-stop-shop for traders to sort out customs dealings throughout the EU.

Helping policymakers

EU customs officers do a vital job in collecting statistics. Their records contribute to decisions on whether to introduce limits on goods which may be competing unfairly with EU products. The trade flow data they collect also helps European policymakers detect economic trends.

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EU institutions and bodies

• European Commission
  • Customs
• European Parliament
  • Committee on internal market and consumer protection
• Council of the European Union
  • Competitiveness (internal market, industry and research)
• European Economic and Social Committee
  • Single market, production and consumption section
• Committee of the Regions
  • Commission for economic and social policy (ECOS)

Funding opportunities

• Grants
• Call for tenders (public procurement)

Publications, newsletters and statistics

• Publications
• Newsletters
• Statistics

Legislation

• Summaries of EU legislation on customs
• Legislation in force on customs
• Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union - Articles 28 - 33