EU report shows ineffectiveness of simplified customs procedures

07 June 2010
by Ina Dimireva -- last modified 07 June 2010

The European Court of Auditors has assessed whether the regulatory framework and control approach developed by the European Commission and put in place in the Member States effectively control simplified customs procedures for imports. According to a Special Report published by the Court today, simplified procedures are not yet effectively controlled in the majority of the audited Member States.

Simplified customs procedures for imports are a key element of EU customs policy. Traders who are authorised to use these procedures benefit from an accelerated customs clearance process, with the result that they have the goods at their disposal more quickly. Customs services place reliance on the correctness of import declarations and carry out fewer controls. The procedures are long-standing and widely used in the EU; in 2008 more than two thirds of all EU customs declarations for imports were made using simplified procedures.

According to a Special Report published by the Court today, simplified procedures are not yet effectively controlled in the majority of the audited Member States. As such, there is no reasonable assurance of the correct collection of traditional own resources or that traders comply with the obligations deriving from the common trade policy.

The Court found that the Commission had taken international standards into account and put in place an appropriate regulatory framework for simplified procedures, but this was not done until the end of 2008. As simplified procedures can be manual until the end of 2010, the application of an EU-wide automated risk analysis will only be mandatory from that moment. Guidelines for ex-post audits in customs are not yet complete and the Commission did not start dedicated inspection of simplified procedures for imports until 2008.

The audit shows that Member States did not apply a standardised approach for controls/audits at the different phases of simplified procedures and often used deficient methods for such controls/audits. The significant number of poor or poorly documented pre-authorisation audits identified (assessing the trader’s reliability by means of an examination of his accounts, records and systems before issuing the authorisation to use simplified procedures) increases the risk that unreliable traders can operate simplified procedures. The approaches used for checks during the processing of simplified procedures for the release of goods were varied and often of poor quality. Thus the controls were frequently ineffective and resulted in a high frequency of errors in the sample of imports tested by the Court.

In order to improve controls on simplified procedures the Commission should urge Member States to rapidly implement the recently-developed regulatory framework and guidelines, monitor their implementation and further enhance the framework in the light of the Court’s and its own audit and monitoring results.

Special Report No 1/2010: Are simplified customs procedures for imports effectively controlled?