Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on a paperless environment for customs and trade
Date: 2007-09-05
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: customs document, customs inspection, customs regulations, electronic document, exchange of information, information system, systems interconnection

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 5.9.2007 
COM(2007) 516 final 

2005/0247 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Decision of the 
European Parliament and of the Council on a paperless environment for customs and 
trade 

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   EN 

 
 
 
  
 
 
2005/0247 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Decision of the 
European Parliament and of the Council on a paperless environment for customs and 
trade 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council 
(document COM(2005)609 final – 2005/247COD): 

02/12/2005. 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

13/09/2006. 

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: 

12/12/2006. 

Date of adoption of the common position: 

23/7/2007. 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

The proposed Decision provides for the engagement of Member States and the Commission to 
develop interoperable electronic customs systems within agreed timeframes. In addition to the 
deadlines,  the  Decision  sets  the  objectives,  strategy  and  coordination  mechanism  for  the 
electronic customs systems, defines Community and national components of the systems and 
the  related  responsibilities  and  tasks.  Furthermore,  it  establishes  a  monitoring  and  reporting 
framework for the e-customs initiative. 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION 

The  common  position  introduces,  in  addition  to  technical  modifications  and  a  specific 
reference  to  the  protection  of  personal  data,  changes  concerning  the  deadlines  for  the 
establishment  of  the  individual  systems.  Regarding  some  systems  it  creates  a  distinction 
between deadlines for the establishment of functional specifications and for the operation of 
the system. 

Furthermore,  it  establishes  the  possibility  to  extend  the  deadlines  under  the  comitology 
procedure  (regulatory  procedure  with  scrutiny)  and  to  abolish  some  projects  following  a 
negative evaluation of the functional specifications. 

The Commission can accept the common position since it still ensures maintaining deadlines 
in the proposal in order to create a commitment of the Member States and the Commission. 

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The  deadlines  for  the  different  systems  revealed  to  be  the  most  important  problem  for  the 
adoption  of  the  common  position  since  some  Member  States  feared  a  commitment  to  long 
term projects, of which the feasibility, according to them, still needs to be proven. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The Commission agrees with the common position. 

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