Implementation of Article 43b of Regulation 515/97

1. Introduction

Regulation 2015/1525 amending Regulation 515/97 on mutual assistance in customs matters introduced Article 43b requiring the Commission, by 9 October 2017, to carry out an assessment of:

·The necessity of extending the export data contained in the Container Status Messages (CSM) directory and Import, Export and Transit (IET) directory, by including data on goods other than excisable goods ('necessity assessment'), and

·The feasibility of extending the data contained in the transport directory, by including data on import, export and transit of goods by land and air ('feasibility assessment').

The Commission made a preliminary assessment in its annual report on the protection of the EU's financial interests (PIF Report) for 2016 and committed to make a more comprehensive analysis in the PIF Report for 2017.

Member States were regularly associated with this exercise in the context of the Expert Group on mutual assistance in customs matters.

2. Necessity assessment

Currently, in accordance with Article 18a(4), point (b), and Article 18d(1), point (c), of amended Regulation 515/97, both the CSM directory and the IET directory are limited to the export data of specific categories of excisable goods (including alcohol, tobacco and energy products).

With regard to the CSM directory, the maritime carriers currently submitting CSM data to the Commission are given a choice as to the preferred method of transmission. According to Article 3(2) of Commission Implementing Regulation 2016/345 the two options include: 'global dump' which means transfer of all CSMs generated, collected or maintained in the carrier's electronic records without selecting individual CSMs as specified in amended Regulation 515/97, and 'selective reporting' which means, as the name suggests, selecting only the CSMs as required by legislation.

It has to be noted that only three carriers are selectively restricting the reporting of export CSM to excisable goods. The CSM reported by these three carriers constitute a mere 6.5% of the total CSM data volume. All the other carriers report export CSM independently of the commodity being transported by the containers. This means that, as such, extending the obligation to report CSM export to all types of goods, would not affect significantly the volume and completeness of the current CSM database. Nonetheless, such an extension would have the benefit of simplifying the text of the reporting obligation and there would be no more need for the Commission to maintain a long list of excisable goods.

As regards the export data included in the IET directory, it is copied from the Export Control System (ECS) managed and operated by the Commission in accordance with Article 18d(1) of Regulation 515/97. Even though the data replicated in the IET directory are limited to excisable goods, the data contained in the ECS are not limited to excisable goods and, provided Regulation 515/97 allows it, they would be easily replicable in the IET directory.

The Commission engaged in consultations with Member States to determine the necessity of an extension of the existing directories to encompass other categories of goods apart from those subject to excise duties. A large majority of Member States (nineteen) as well as the Commission have supported such an expansion, stressing that additional information may assist the identification and prevention of infringements committed in violation of export restrictions, curb customs fraud, expose fraudulent networks and protect public health, safety and security. One Member State noted that the gathering of additional data may facilitate the recognition of connections between companies, goods and supply chains. Similarly, one Member State acknowledged that the additional availability of data could provide for a deeper level of analysis to tackle customs related fraud from a variety of different perspectives, whilst another expressed its appreciation over the centralisation of additional data and its potential positive effect on data availability.

Eight Member States, however, expressed reservation about the widening of the scope of the directories to include export data on non-excisable goods for a variety of reasons. One Member State felt that it had firstly to ensure that the CSM directory was functioning properly and smoothly before it could consider the necessity of extending the scope to other non-excisable goods. Similarly, one Member State felt that the CSM and IET directories were too new, to conclusively determine whether the expansion of such would be in its interests. Another felt that the type of information to be included in the foreseen expansion had to be defined before it could endorse such an initiative. One Member State expressed its scepticism over the need or added value of an expansion of the data available at central level in CSM and IET directories, arguing that the current databases should be perfected before notions to expand them can be entertained.

One Member State was not in a position to provide a definite reply to the question pertaining to the need for an extension of the existing directories beyond excisable goods.

The outcome of this consultation will be taken into account in the next review of Regulation 515/97.

3. Feasibility assessment