WRITTEN QUESTION No. 950/96 by Viviane REDING to the Council. Problems with customs checks
Date: 1996-04-29
Institutions: European Parliament, REDING
Subjects: application of EU law, customs fraud, customs inspection, customs regulations, customs transit, fraud, simplification of formalities













EUR-Lex - 91996E0950 - EN






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91996E0950

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 950/96 by Viviane REDING to the Council. Problems with customs checks  


Official Journal C 305 , 15/10/1996 P. 0031 





WRITTEN QUESTION E-0950/96 by Viviane Reding (PPE) to the Council (29 April 1996)Subject: Problems with customs checksWhat measures are planned in response to the following criticisms voiced by the Committee of the Union of Financial Officials in Europe (UFE) on 22 September 1995?'The UFE criticizes the fact that the quality of customs checks is often inadequate. Customs checks are carried out in the context of a situation characterized by a flood of information and goods, i.e. by mass transit. All this can no longer be dealt with using current monitoring methods.In view of the continuing high incidence of forgeries, a paper-based procedure is unsatisfactory.Very few customs examinations are carried out, the identification checks are inadequate, the stamp administration system is outdated. The simplified procedures and the transit procedure, i.e. precisely those procedures designed to cope with mass transit, constitute particularly weak points in the system.Customs procedures are often used to cope with the high volume of traffic and cannot focus on risk areas.Many offices also suffer from a shortage of equipment. Centralized and decentralized information processing is inadequate.'Reply (7 August 1996)The Council, as legislator, naturally takes an interest in the proper application of the customs regulations which it has enacted, and in particular the Community Customs Code, which states that customs authorities may carry out all the controls they deem necessary. However, problems relating to the nature and quality of checks are a matter not for the Council but for the Commission and the Member States, whose customs administrations are responsible for applying the Code correctly. It is therefore in the first place for the Commission or the Member States to bring forward any measures that may be necessary to resolve the problems to which the Honourable Member refers in her question.The Council itself is aware of the problems pinpointed by the Commission in its communication of 29 March 1995 on fraud in the transit procedure, and has reacted by adopting, on 23 November 1995, a Resolution on the computerization of customs transit systems in which it requests the Commission and the Member States to initiate a process intended to lead to the introduction of a computerized transit system, operational by 1998 at the latest.Finally, the Council would draw the Honourable Member's attention to the proposal for a Decision currently being examined at the European Parliament and the Council concerning the adoption of the Community customs programme ("Customs 2000"), on which the Council adopted a common position on 22 December 1995 (OJ C 37, 9 February 1996). The guiding principle which the Council followed in drawing up its common position was to apply the latest techniques, such as targeting and risk analysis, to provide a high standard to checks without impeding the normal flow of legitimate trade.