Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION Administrative Cooperation in the field of excise duties
Date: 2011-11-14
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: administrative formalities, disclosure of information, exchange of information, excise duty, information technology applications, intergovernmental cooperation (EU), tax avoidance, tax evasion

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 14.11.2011 
COM(2011) 730 final 

2011/0330 (CNS) 

Proposal for a 

COUNCIL REGULATION 

Administrative Cooperation in the field of excise duties 

 
 
  
 
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 

1. 

CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL 

The  provisions  of  Regulation  (EC)  No.  2073/2004  lay  down  a  legal  framework  for 
administrative cooperation in the field of excise duties. These provisions need to be revised to 
take into account the introduction of the computerised Excise Movement and Control System 
(hereafter  referred  to  as  EMCS).  EMCS  has  been  put  into  place  based  on  Decision  No. 
1152/2003/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  16  June  2003  on 
computerising the movement and surveillance of excisable products. EMCS supports a faster, 
more  integrated  approach  for  Member  State  Authorities  to  control  the  movement  of  excise 
goods, based on automated risk analysis (cf. third recital of Decision 1152/2003/EC). 

The  existing  Council  Regulation  provided  a  legal  basis  for  an  earlier  Phase  of  the  EMCS 
project,  to  support  computer  assisted  manual  procedures  (Phase  0  of  EMCS),  pending  the 
automation of support for administrative cooperation that is contained in Phase 2 and Phase 3 
of  EMCS.  Articles  concerning  the  use  of  the  economic  operator  registration  system  SEED 
(System of Exchange of Excise Data), EWSE (Early Warning System for Excise) and MVS 
(Movement  Verification  System)  provided  a  legal  base  for  the  use  of  these  tools,  alongside 
more  general  articles  on  Requests  for  Information,  Automatic  Exchange  and  Spontaneous 
Exchange.  These  were  derived  from  earlier  legislation  in  the  area  of  Administrative 
Cooperation,  Council  Directive  77/799/EEC,  and  certain  provisions  of  Council  Directive 
92/12/EEC. 

EWSE and MVS are now being phased out; EMCS Phase 2 is operational and EMCS Phase 3 
is  due  for  start  of  operation  in  2012.  EMCS  Phase  3  will  be  able  to  generate  electronic 
messages to replace EWSE and in the first instance to partially replace MVS, with complete 
replacement subsequently. 

The  existing  description  of  SEED  in  Regulation  (EC)  No.  2073/2004  is  out  of  date,  being 
based on the Phase 0 version of the system and so requires updating. In addition, a clear legal 
basis  for  the  service  provided  on  the  Europa  portal  for  checking  the  validity  of  economic 
operator authorisations (SEED-on-Europa) is required.  

Phase  3  will  include  the  automatic  exchange  of  messages  between  economic  operators  and 
Member State Administrations for the reporting of exceptional situations, such as the results 
of  road  controls,  reports  of  exceptions  made  by  economic  operators  and  definitive 
interruptions of movements. These exchanges are currently handled manually on a best effort 
basis.  The  automation  of  these  message  flows  will  play  a  role  in  improving  control  and 
administrative cooperation. 

A statistics and reporting service is to be provided as part of the EMCS project (CS/MISE – 
Central Services / Management Information System Excise). This is intended to improve the 
quality  and  frequency  of  reporting  on  the  operation  of  EMCS.  This  service  will  partially 
remove  the  need  for  manual  collection  of  operational  statistics  by  Member  States  and  the 
Commission.  A  legal  base  will  be  required  to  allow  the  collection  of  data  from  individual 
movement records. 

Decision  1152/2003/EC  has  required  the  Commission  and  Member  States  to  fund  the 
development,  testing  and  putting  into  place  of  EMCS.  The  new  Regulation  also  proposes  a 

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similar continuing obligation on Member States and the Commission for the maintenance of 
EMCS and associated services now that EMCS is operational. 

Apart  from  these  specific  changes,  other  changes  to  the  content  of  Regulation  (EC)  No. 
2073/2004 are considered necessary: 

– 

– 

– 

To  update  the  language  in  the  Regulation,  to  take  account  of  new  legislative 
standards; 

To generally revise the text, taking out provisions which are no longer relevant and 
to make the structure of the text more logical; 

To take account of new administrative cooperation procedures in the field of excise 
and elsewhere, in order to provide a regulatory framework, which is more efficient 
and less burdensome for both excise authorities and economic operators. 

In  order  to  provide  a  legal  basis  for  the  administrative  cooperation  functions  of  EMCS,  to 
generally  tidy  up  and  create  an  easier  to  read and  more  consistent  document,  and  given  the 
scope of the changes it is proposed to totally replace the text of the existing Regulation. 

2. 

RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS WITH THE INTERESTED PARTIES AND 
IMPACT ASSESSMENTS 

Use of expertise 

The proposal was developed in close cooperation with a specialists working group under the 
auspices  of  the  Committee  on  Excise  Duty  (established  under  Directive  2008/118/EC).  The 
Commission's  services  undertook  a  number  of  bilateral  and  multilateral  discussions  with 
interested Member States to further discuss the proposal. 

Assessment of impact on services of the Commission and of the Member States 

Among the new elements contained in this proposal, the core is constituted by the legal rules 
ensuring application of the EMCS system. The ensuing impact has to be attributed in essence 
not to the text proposed here but to Decision No 1152/2003/EC, through which creation of the 
EMCS was decided. As explained above, the new system, in particular, simplifies movements 
under suspension of excise duty and facilitates appropriate controls by Member States. This 
proposal imposes no new additional burden on excise economic operators in comparison with 
the  existing  situation,  since  it  is  largely  confined  to  the  modernisation  of  existing  tools  and 
practices.  The  addition  of  new  statistical  and  reporting  facilities  should  reduce  the  current 
administrative  burden  on  Member  State  Administrations,  whilst  improving  the  quality  of 
reporting. 

Assessment of impact on fundamental rights 

The  proposal  assumes  that  Member  States  will  make  necessary  and  proportionate  use  of 
Article  13  of  Directive  95/46/EC,  which  allows  Members  States  to  exempt  administrative 
bodies from the requirement to act according to all of the rights of a data subject under Article 
8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Regulation permits Member States to make use 
of the exemptions in Article 13 of Directive 95/46/EC for storage or exchange of information, 
where  such  a  restriction  is  necessary  to  safeguard  the  important  economic  or  financial 

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interests  of  a  Member  State  or  of  the  European  Union,  including  monetary,  budget  and 
taxation  matters.  The  exact  use  of  the  exemption  is  covered  by  national  legislation  and 
administrative practice, subject to the national transposition of Directive 95/46EC and subject 
to  the  general  legal  principles  of  necessity  and  proportionality  of  measures  taken  and  the 
foreseeable  relevance  of  information  collected,  stored  or  exchanged.  In  this,  there  is  no 
change in the rights and obligations of Member States from the rights and obligations defined 
in the existing Regulation on Administrative Cooperation in the field of excise. 

The processing of data by the Commission is limited to the following areas: 

(1) 

Providing  a  secure  communication  channel  (CCN/CSI)  between  Member  State 
Administrations.  This  channel  is  used  for  the  forwarding  of  structured  messages 
involving  the  exchange  of  information  on  request,  automatic  exchange  of 
information and spontaneous forwarding of information, which can aid in the correct 
application of excise legislation. 

(2) 

Providing a mechanism for the copying of excise economic operator registration data 
between Member States. 

(3) 

The extraction of data for statistical purposes. 

Area  No.  1  (The  secure  communication  channel)  may  convey  information  obtained  by 
Member  States  that  have  made  use  of  the  exemptions  allowed  in  Article  13  of  Directive 
95/46/EC, where a Member State needs to exchange data with another Member State in order 
to establish a full and accurate picture of compliance with excise legislation. The Commission 
assumes  that  the  use  of  Article  13  is  restricted  to  those  cases  where  notification  of  the  data 
subject might reasonably lead to interference with the assessment of compliance with excise 
legislation by the Member States in question. The scope of the information processed under 
this draft regulation is supposed to be necessary to the assurance of the correct application of 
excise legislation (draft Article 1 as well as the explanations given on this provision, below). 
Member States are bound by their Treaty obligations and by national legislation derived from 
Directive  95/46/EC  to  respect  the  rights  of  data  subjects  under  Article  8  and  also  by  the 
general  legal  principles  of  necessity  and  proportionality.  National  arrangements  are  not 
specified  by  this  Regulation  as  such  specification  is  not  needed.  The  Commission  further 
assumes that in exercising the powers granted under this Regulation, Member States respect 
all their other treaty obligations. 

The  Commission  only  provides  a  communication  mechanism  for  the  exchange  of  data 
collected and stored by Member States and the Commission has no operational access to the 
data  itself,  apart  from  for  system  maintenance.  The  responsibility  of  the  Commission  under 
this proposal is to ensure the confidentiality and the correct transmission of data with which 
we are entrusted. 

Area no 2 (Mirror copy of national economic operator registrations) does not require the use 
of  Article  13  by  Member  States,  since  the  information  is  provided  by  the  data  subjects 
themselves. Member States should notify data subjects of this data, and data subject should be 
able  to  correct  inaccuracies  in  such  data.  To  address  this  right  the  proposal  contains  a 
reminder  of  the  necessity  of  allowing  subject  access  to  their  own  data  in  this  area  and  the 
possibility  of  correcting  errors.  However,  the  Commission  has  no  operational  access  and 
therefore no possibility of modifying this data itself, since this would require the Commission 
to  exercise  control  over  national  registers  of  economic  operators,  since  the  major 

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responsibility  of  TAXUD  is  to  ensure  the  continuing  confidentiality  of  the  information 
processed. The public service which allows the checking of the validity of authorisations uses 
an  extract  of  the  excise  economic  operator  registration  data,  which  only  includes  an  excise 
authorisation  number  and  does  not  include  information  that  would  allow  individuals  to  be 
identified,  such  as  a  name  or  address.  The  Commission  provides  a  contact  e-mail  address 
associated with this service. Where an economic operator feels that the information provided 
is inaccurate, the Commission provides the economic operator with the details of the Member 
State Administration that is the Data Controller for this economic operator's data. 

Area 3 only involves the extraction of anonymised operational data, which is used as the input 
for  statistical  reports.  This  extract  contains  no  identification  of  the  economic  operators 
involved in an excise movement. 

3. 

LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL 

Summary of the proposed action 

The  Commission  proposes  to  the  Council  to  adopt  a  new  regulation  on  administrative 
cooperation in the field of excise duty, which will replace the existing Council regulation in 
this area. 

The aim is to align legislation in this field with the possibilities created by the development of 
EMCS  and  to  provide  a  more  clearly  defined  and  comprehensive  legal  base  for  these 
possibilities, allowing for the replacement of existing manual and semi-automated procedures. 

A secondary aim is to more clearly define the rights and obligations of Member States and the 
Commission in this field, both within the scope of EMCS and more generally. 

Such  an  approach  will  allow  and  encourage  enhanced  cooperation  between  Member  States 
and will bring the legislation in this area more into line with the recently adopted provisions 
for administrative cooperation in the field of VAT and of direct taxation.  

Legal basis 

Article 113 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. 

Subsidiarity principle 

The  subsidiarity  principle  applies  insofar  as  the  proposal  does  not  fall  under  the  exclusive 
competence of the European Union. 

The objectives of the proposal cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States for the 
following reason. 

The object of the proposal is to replace Council Regulation (EC) No. 2073/2004 by provisions 
fulfilling the same function, namely to provide a common legal framework for administrative 
cooperation  in  the  particular  field  of  excise  goods  and  making  full  of  the  facilities  of  the 
EMCS system. 

This objective cannot be sufficiently achieved by individual actions of the Member States and 
can  be  better  achieved  at  European  Union  level.  In  the  absence  of  this  proposal  and  the 

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existing  Regulation  exchange  of  information  between  Member  States  could  only  be  carried 
out  through  the  negotiation  of  bilateral  treaties.  It  would  be  unlikely  that  such  bilateral 
arrangements  could  be  supported  electronically  by  the  Member  States  concerned,  since  the 
cost  would  be  unsupportable  for  a  bilateral  arrangement.  Variation  between  bilateral 
arrangements might also impede the efficient functioning of the Single Market. 

Proportionality principle 

The proposal complies with the proportionality principle for the following reason(s). 

The proposed action only sets  out common rules of procedures and instruments to facilitate 
day-to-day  administrative  cooperation  between  Member  States,  which  therefore  remain 
entirely responsible for their internal organisation and allocation of resources, for which cases 
are  covered  by  international  administrative  cooperation  and  for  what  use  is  made  of  the 
results. 

The proposed action will not mean any major additional financial and administrative burden 
for the Union, national governments,  regional and  local  authorities, economic operators and 
citizens,  but  should  on  the  contrary  rationalise  human  and  financial  costs  by  creating  a 
common approach to international administrative cooperation. 

Choice of instruments 

Proposed instrument: regulation. 

The  choice  of  instrument  is  fully  in  line  with  the  current  legal  act  in  force.  A  Regulation 
provides a common framework for activity which can be applied immediately on replacement 
of the existing regulation. 

The  proposal  aims  to  provide  the  basis  for  a  modernisation  of  the  existing  common 
framework  for  administrative  cooperation  between  Member  States.  The  regulation  is  solely 
concerned with administrative cooperation and does not affect the approximation of national 
laws concerning the management of excise movements or the taxation of excise goods, both 
of which are covered by other legal acts. 

4. 

BUDGETARY IMPLICATION 

Any financial impact relating to the introduction of Phase 3 of EMCS results from Decision 
1152/2003/EC. The budgetary impact of the development and operation of a new service for 
the collection of statistics and the commitment to continue to develop, maintain and operate 
the  system  in  general  is  covered  by  expenditure  under  the  Fiscalis  2013  Programme1  and 
therefore will not be discussed any further here. 

5. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

Repeal of existing legislation 

1 

OJ L 330, 15.12.2007, p 1. 

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The  adoption  of  the  proposal  will  repeal  existing  legislation,  namely  Regulation  (EC)  No. 
2073/2004. 

Simplification 

The  proposal  provides  for  simplification  of  legislation,  simplification  of  administrative 
procedures  for  public  authorities  (EU  or  national)  and  simplification  of  administrative 
procedures for private parties. 

The  legislation  leads  to  administrative  simplification,  as  it  comprises  common  measures 
which are easy to interpret and apply and which go further in this direction than the measures 
contained in Regulation (EC) No. 2073/2004. 

Public  authorities  will  be  able  to  use  common  tools  and  instruments  in  a  pre-defined 
organisational  framework.  This  set  of  measures  will  simplify  recourse  to  European 
international administrative cooperation. Extending the scope of EU legislation will mean that 
administrative authorities will not have to have recourse to different sets of legislation, each 
with  their  own  rules  and  conditions,  depending  on  the  type  of  claim  for  which  they  are 
requesting assistance. 

Detailed explanation of the proposal 

The following detailed article by article explanation focuses on provisions which are new or 
have  been  changed  in  substance  in  comparison  with  the  corresponding  provisions  of 
Regulation  (EC)  No.  2073/2004.  The  correlation  table  attached  to  the  proposed  new 
regulation should be used to correlate the new with the existing provisions of Regulation (EC) 
No. 2073/2004. 

Chapter I – General provisions 

Article 1 – Subject matter and scope 

This Article reflects the fact that the scope of the Regulation will be widened so that it covers 
administrative  cooperation  to  ensure  the  enforcement  of  all  excise  legislation,  not  just  the 
correct assessment of excise duties. It also sets out the principle that the Regulation will not 
affect the application in Member States of the rules on judicial mutual assistance in criminal 
matters. 

The  standard  of  “necessity”  is  intended  to  provide  for  exchange  of  information  in  excise 
matters to the extent required by genuine needs of tax administrations, while being compliant 
with the criteria of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, as far as personal data are 
concerned  (Articles  8  and  52(1)).  Concretely,  a  request  for  information  may  be  considered 
"necessary",  for  example,  where  it  serves  the  verification  of  suspicions  of  investigators  that 
economic  operators  may  be  involved  or  have  been  involved  in  activities  that  are  irregular 
from an excise point of view. On the other hand, the term "necessary" clarifies that Member 
States  are  not  at  liberty  to  engage  in  “fishing  expeditions”  or  to  request  information  that  is 
unlikely to be relevant to the excise situation affairs of a given person or ascertainable group 
or category of persons. 

Article 2 – Definitions 

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A number of new definitions have been inserted to reflect the putting into operation of EMCS 
Phase 2 and Phase 3, which are not contained in Regulation (EC) No. 2073/2004, and to align 
with  Council  Directive  2008/118/EC.  These  are  the  “event  driven  exchange”,  "economic 
operator",  "excise  number",  "electronic  administrative  document",  "mutual  administrative 
assistance  document"  and  "fall-back  administrative  assistance  document".  Other  definitions 
have been slightly altered. 

Articles  3  to  6  –  Competent  Authorities,  Central  Excise  Liaison  Office  (CELO),  liaison 
departments 

The proposal continues the existing arrangements in Regulation (EC) No. 2073/2004, where 
there  is  a  distinction  between  the  competent  authority,  which  is  legally  responsible  for 
exchanges of information and in the name of which such exchanges are carried out, and direct 
contacts between departments and officials under the delegated legal authority of a competent 
authority,  These  arrangements  are  supervised  by  a  central  excise  liaison  office,  which  also 
acts as a first point of contact. This is because, having regard to the scope of the Regulation 
and  the  differences  between  Member  States  in  the  matter  of  organisation  and  operation  of 
government  departments  and  the  Member  State  in  general,  it  is  not  possible  to  establish 
uniform rules in this connection; in some States, for example, the competent authorities will 
normally be the excise authorities or services, while in other States other bodies may carry out 
certain tasks in connection with administrative assistance in this area. Any Member State may 
freely  decide  to  change  its  competent  authority.  If  it  does  so,  it  is  obliged  to  inform  the 
Commission and other Member States.  

Consequently these articles impose no restrictions on the way that Member States choose to 
organise  internally  beyond  the  requirement  to  have  a  first  point  of  contact.  The  proposal 
therefore  continues  to  provide  a  clear  legal  framework  for  decentralised  cooperation,  gives 
central excise liaison offices a pivotal role, but also clarifies the functions for which they have 
primary responsibility. 

Article 7 – Information or documents obtained with the authorisation or at the request of the 
judicial authority 

Where  the  information  requested  involves  making  enquiries  on  behalf  of  or  for  judicial 
authorities information exchange is sometimes refused or seriously delayed. This can prevent 
the  administrative  authority  of  the  requesting  Member  State  initiating  effective  and  timely 
administrative or legal proceedings against criminals. Consequently Article 7 defines Member 
States'  duty  to  cooperate  where  criminal  proceedings  are  involved,  with  due  regard  for  the 
rules on judicial cooperation in criminal matters. 

Chapter II – Co-operation on request 

The proposal defines the rights and obligations of Member States and distinguishes between 
requests  for  information  and  administrative  enquiries,  the  presence  of  officials  in 
administrative  offices  and  their  participation  in  administrative  enquiries,  the  use  of 
simultaneous controls and notification requests. Article 11 lays down a three-month time limit 
for  communication  of  information  from  the  date  of  receipt  of  a  request  (one  month  where 
information is already available) but also allows other time limits in individual cases. 

Article 8 - General duties of the requested authority 

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Article 8 is largely unchanged from Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No. 2073/2004. Article 8(1) 
is  the  legal  basis  for  all  information  requests  made  using  EMCS  or  otherwise.  Paragraph  2 
obliges the requested authority to carry out administrative enquiries if they are necessary to 
obtain  the  information  requested.  For  this  purpose  paragraph  3  provides  that  information 
requests may include a reasoned request for an administrative enquiry. The requested Member 
State may decide, however, that no enquiry is necessary but if so must immediately inform the 
requesting  Member  State  why  it  has  decided  not  to  carry  out  such  an  enquiry.  To  avoid 
arbitrary refusals, the list of legal reasons for such a refusal is listed in Article 25. As is the 
case today, the requested authority must proceed as though it were acting on its own account 
or at the request of another authority in its own Member State.  

Article 9- 10 – Form of the request and the reply and provision of documents 

Article  9  updates  Article  6  of  Regulation  (EC)  No.  2073/2004  to  ensure  that  requests  and 
replies  under  Articles  8  will  normally  be  carried  using  EMCS.  The  details  of  the  business 
processes, the exchanges of information and the fallback procedures will be contained in an 
Implementing Act for this Regulation, enacted according to Article 35(2), which will provide 
a  legal  basis  for  the  business  processes  and  message  specifications  in  Section  IV  of  the 
Functional Excise System Specification (FESS).  

Nevertheless, it is not possible to predict in advance all forms of requests for information and 
requests  for  administrative  enquiries.  There  is  also  a  need  to  exchange  supporting  evidence 
and  documentation.  Therefore,  it  is  important  to  recognise  that  the  scope  of  Article  8  also 
includes the exchange of information not currently covered by EMCS. These requests need to 
continue  to  have  a  legal  base  and  should  be  transmitted  electronically  as  far  as  possible,  to 
avoid  unnecessary  burden  on  Member  State  Administrations.  An  example  is  the  use  of  the 
secure CCN e-mail system to exchange information between Central Excise Liaison Offices. 

Article  10  privileges  the  use  of  certified  copies  and  extracts  to  avoid  the  need  to  transfer 
original documents, the processing of which would increase administrative burdens. 

Article 11 – Time limits 

In Article 11, the Commission proposes a normal maximum time limit of three months for the 
provision  of  information,  as  is  the  case  under  Regulation  (EC)  No.  2073/2004.  Where  the 
requested Member State already has the information that is required, this normal deadline is 
reduced  to  1  month.  In  special  cases,  such  as  particularly  complex  fraud  cases  involving 
several  Member  States,  another  time  limit  may  be  set  by  common  consent.  Where  the 
requested authority is unable to respond to the request within the time limit laid down, it must 
inform the requesting authority immediately of the reasons for its failure to do so and indicate 
when it is likely to be able to respond. 

Article 12 – Participation of officials from other member States in administrative enquiries 

As in Regulation (EC) No. 2073/2004, this Chapter of the proposal also provides a legal base 
for excise officials to be present on the territory of another Member State in order to exchange 
information  and  to  participate  as  observers  in  administrative  enquiries.  The  Commission 
proposes  a  small  change  in  wording  to  the  existing  Regulation  to  clarify  that,  subject  to 
mutual  agreement,  officials  from  another  Member  State  are  entitled  to  be  present  anywhere 
that officials of the Member State are entitled to be. 

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Article 13 - Simultaneous controls 

The Commission continues to believe that simultaneous controls make a positive contribution 
to  administrative  cooperation  and  should  form  an  integral  part  of  Member  States'  standard 
control  plans.  In  cases  where  cross  border  excise  irregularities  or  infractions  are  suspected, 
simultaneous  controls  can  be  very  effective  compliance  and  control  tools  for  Member  State 
administrations. 

Certain multilateral controls are being financed by the Fiscalis 2013 programme to encourage 
Member  States  to  include  simultaneous  controls  in  their  control  plans.  The  Commission 
proposes  only  a  small  textual  modification  to  the  existing  text  in  the  Regulation  (the 
replacement of ‘central liaison office’ by central excise liaison office’). 

Article 14 - Requests for notification of administrative decisions and measures 

This  Article  allows  addressees  to  be  informed  of  decisions  affecting  them  made  by  the 
requesting  authority,  excluding  notifications  of  claims.  The  proposal  confines  itself  to 
updating the reference to the Recovery Directive, as Directive 76/308/EEC has been replaced 
by Directive 2010/24/EU of 16 March 2010 concerning mutual assistance for the recovery of 
claims relating to taxes, duties and measures2.  

Chapter III – Exchange of information without prior request 

Articles 15 to 18 –Mandatory exchange, optional exchange and follow-up 

The Commission proposes a number of changes to this chapter in order to create a logical and 
easy  to  understand  framework  for  automatic  exchange  and  spontaneous  exchange,  together 
with a flexible framework  of  legal  rights for those  Member  States,  which  might  want  to  go 
further  than  the  automatic  exchanges  specified  in  Section  4  of  the  FESS.  The  proposal  also 
introduces the concept of "follow-up", similar to the concept of "feedback" in VAT and direct 
tax. This is a voluntary reporting by a requesting or receiving Member State of the usefulness 
of the information received. This can make a positive contribution to the quality of exchanged 
information. This functionality is not currently part of EMCS. 

The  existing  Regulation  already  contains  Articles  that  cover  automatic  or  mandatory 
exchange,  and  some  Member  States  have  made  use  of  the  legal  possibilities  to  exchange 
monthly reports and to forward information. However, there is a lack of clarity in the current 
Regulation  concerning  the  rights  and  obligations  created  by  these  Articles,  compounded  by 
the  existence  of  a  separate  Article  covering  the  Early  Warning  System  for  Excise  (EWSE), 
which  is  in  fact  a  particular  form  of  spontaneous  or  optional  exchange,  coupled  with  a 
compulsory feedback mechanism in the case of warning messages. 

EWSE  information  messages  became  obsolete  with the arrival of EMCS Phase 2, their role 
being  replaced  by  the  forwarding  of  electronic  administrative  documents  (e-AD)  by  the 
Member  State  of  Dispatch.  The  remaining  EWSE  warning  messages  become  obsolete  with 
the  arrival  of  Phase  3  of  EMCS,  which  incorporates  support  for  spontaneous  exchange  that 
will replace this function.  

2 

OJ L 4, 31.3.2010, p 1. 

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Article 15 of the proposal continues to oblige Member States to forward information to any 
other Member State where there may have been an infringement or irregularity, or where an 
infringement  or  irregularity  may  have  an  effect  in  another  Member  State,  or  where  there  is 
risk  of  fraud  or  of  loss  of  excise  duty.  The  Article  additionally  mandates  the  use  of  EMCS 
messages to carry this exchange of information, where these messages are available to carry 
the information in question. Article 15 also mandates the exchange of messages which report 
on  exceptional  situations  which  may  occur  during  an  excise  movement,  as  provided  for  in 
Section  4  of  the  FESS.  It  is  intended  that  the  exchange  of  reports  of  these  exceptional 
situations which can occur during a movement of excise goods under duty suspension should 
be compulsory. An implementing act will set out the different categories of information that 
can be exchanged automatically, on both a mandatory and an optional basis. Member States 
will have the choice of opting in or out of automatic exchange based on these categories. The 
list of categories will be reviewed on an annual basis. Article 16 of the proposal also makes it 
clear that there is no intention to restrict any existing arrangements that Member States may 
have made concerning bilateral or multilateral exchanges of information. 

Some examples of possible use of automatic exchanges are given here: 

(a) situations where fraud is suspected in another Member State; Example: where an EMCS 
report of receipt has not been returned, nor any explanation given and it is suspected that the 
excisable goods dispatched have been diverted in the Member State of destination; 

(b) situations where there is a serious risk of fraud in another Member State; Example: excise 
duties  are  paid  in  a  Member  State  where  the  rate  is  low  and  goods  are  moved  under  the 
arrangement for excise goods released for consumption, but the goods are never received by 
the  consignee,  whilst  goods  are  diverted  to  the  market  of  a  Member  State  where  the  rate  is 
high; 

(c) situations where fraud is discovered in the territory of a Member State, which could have 
ramifications  in  another  Member  State;  Example:  the  Member  State  that  discovers  the 
irregular physical presence of excisable products suspects that fraud might have committed in 
the Member State of departure involving under-reporting or misreporting of excise goods on 
an e-AD.  

Article 16 allows Member States to launch a forwarding of information where the information 
falls  outside  of  the  categories  on  which  basis  the  Member  State  automatically  exchanges 
information,  perhaps  due  to  an  unusual  but  economically  important  irregularity  being 
discovered. Article 16 also proposes as an option the establishment of a follow-up procedure 
that can be used by the requesting authority to tell the requested authority if the information 
given  has  been  useful.  Experience  in  the  fields  of  VAT  and  direct  taxation  has  shown  that 
such feedback is a good motivator for the wider use of spontaneous exchanges and can act to 
help the requesting authority complete its own information on a case. 

To sum up, the proposal intends to define a framework, which is both flexible and effective 
for these kinds of exchanges of information between Member States.  

Chapter IV – Storage and exchange of information on economic operators and statistics 
specific to transactions within the Union 

The  four  Articles  of  this  Chapter  combine  the  coverage  of  Chapter  IV  and  Chapter  V  of 
Regulation  (EC)  No.  2073/2004.  With  the  replacement  of  EWSE  and  MVS  by  the  tools 

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provided by EMCS Phase 3, the articles relating to them have been removed. The new scope 
of  this  new  chapter  is  more  clearly  defined  to  consist  of  those  aspects  of  administrative 
cooperation  where  Commission  Services  provide  operational  support  to  administrative 
cooperation activities of the Member States, as well as a coordinating and facilitating role.  

Article 19 - Storage and exchange of information contained in electronic databases 

This  Article  describes  the  arrangements  for  the  distributed  electronic  database  known  as 
SEEDv.1, which differ in some respects to its predecessor, which is described in Regulation 
(EC) No. 2073/2004. This Article also describes the obligation for the Member States and the 
Commission Central Services to ensure that the register details are up to date and accurate so 
that excise movements under duty suspension can proceed immediately, whilst movements to 
unauthorised destinations cannot take place. Finally, Article 19 provides a clear legal base for 
the SEED-on-Europa service, which allows excise economic operators to check the validity of 
the authorisations of their trading partners. 

Article 20 – Access to and correction of information 

Article  20  explains  that  economic  operators  have  the  right  to  check  the  publically  available 
information  on  SEED-on-Europa  concerning  the  details  of  their  authorisation,  by  entering 
their  excise  authorisation  number.  They  also  have  the  right  to  have  any  errors  in  the  public 
information  corrected  by  the  Member  State  that  issues  the  authorisation.  The  Commission 
undertakes to forward such requests for correction to the appropriate competent authority. For 
access  and  corrections  to  the  non-public  information  on  economic  operators,  to  which  the 
Commission  has  no  access,  an  economic  operator  must  continue  to  refer  to  the  relevant 
competent authority. 

Article 21 – Data retention 

This Article establishes that all information stored within EMCS should remain available for 
at least 3 years, depending on the retention policy of the competent authority, and additionally 
that  this  information  should  be  available  on-line  to  other  Member  States.  This  is  to  avoid 
excessive delays when Member States are running risk analyses of historical data. 

Under  Data  Protection  legislation,  after  expiry  of  the  retention  period  such  data  should  be 
deleted or should be modified in order to remove information which could be used to identify 
individuals. 

Article 22 – Implementing provisions for stored information 

Article 22 provides for implementing provisions for the storage and corrections of data. 

Chapter V – Common conditions governing assistance 

This  Chapter  groups  together  a  number  of  mutual  requirements  and  limitations  on  the 
provision of assistance. 

Article 23 – Language Regime 

This Article has been re-worded in the proposal to express its meaning more clearly. Less use 
of translations should be necessary due to better support for multi-lingual interfaces in EMCS. 

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Article 24 - Quality of Service 

A new obligation is proposed on both the Commission and the Member States to maintain the 
computerised  system,  so  that  corrections  and  upgrades  will  be  developed  and  applied 
according to agreed planning milestones. The details of these arrangements will be contained 
in  a  service  level  agreement,  specifying  the  mutual  obligations  of  the  Commission  and  the 
Member States. The Commission and the Member States will also maintain a security policy 
for the computerised system. 

Article 25 - General limits to the duties of the requested authorities 

Under this Article the requested authority has the right to refuse to carry out enquiries or to 
provide information where the requesting authority has failed to exhaust its usual sources of 
information, where the legislative or administrative practices of the Member State requested 
to provide the information do not authorise its tax authorities either to carry out such enquiries 
or  to  gather  or  use  this  information  for  its  own  purposes,  or  where  transmission  of  this 
information  would  be  contrary  to  public  policy  or  lead  to  the  disclosure  of  a  commercial, 
industrial or professional secret or of a commercial process. The Article has been updated to 
make  clear  that  this  exclusion  does  not  include  information  simply  because  it  is  held  by  a 
financial institution. 

Article 25(5) of this proposal provides that the requested authority must inform the requesting 
authority and the Commission of the reasons for refusing a request for mutual assistance. 

Article 26 - Expenses 

This  Article  has  been  reworded  in  comparison  with  its  equivalent  in  Regulation  (EC)  No. 
2073/2004.  To  allow  the  requested  authority  to  ask  for  costs  beyond  the  costs  of  outside 
experts  contradicts  the  general  obligation  on  the  requested  authority  to  treat  administrative 
cooperation requests as if the requested enquiry were being conducted on their own behalf. 

Article 27 - Minimum Amount 

This Article gives the Committee on Excise Duty the power to set a minimum threshold for 
the excise duties due, in order to avoid disproportionate use of the Regulation. 

Article  28  -  Official  Secrecy,  Data  Protection  and  Use  of  the  information  communicated 
under this Regulation 

This Article clarifies the uses to which information collected may be used. Data protection has 
been  extended  to  the  protection  of  information  that  may  not  be  related  to  the  actions  being 
carried out, to which an official has had access during the performance of his duties. In other 
respects, there is no substantial change from the existing provision apart from the update of 
references to other legislation. 

The  information  exchanged  is  covered  by  official  secrecy  provisions  and  may  only  be 
disclosed for defined purposes. These purposes include judicial or administrative proceedings 
involving sanctions initiated because of infringements of tax law. The information may also 
be used for the purposes of establishing the assessment base, collection and control of excise 
duties and monitoring of movements of excise goods. Such information may also be used to 
determine  other  duties  or  taxes  covered  by  Directive  2010/24/EU  of  16  March  2010.  This 

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Article also provides a legal basis for exchanges between the excise authorities and other tax 
authorities in the same Member State. 

As  in  the  existing  Regulation  Member  States  shall  restrict  the  scope  of  the  obligations  and 
duties defined in Articles 10, Article 11(1) and Articles 12 and 21 of Directive 95/46/EC to 
safeguard where it is necessary the financial interests of the Member States and the European 
Union  following  Article  13  of  Directive  95/46/EC.  These  exemptions  allow  for  non-
disclosure  of  the  investigation  and  re-use  of  excise  data  collected  originally  from  the 
economic operator or from other parties for other purposes. 

Article 29 Access to information under Commission authorisation 

This Article establishes the basis for access to data by persons authorised by the Commission, 
to restrict it to the minimum necessary for maintenance and operation of the system. 

Article 30 - Evidential Value of Information Obtained 

The  text  of  this  Article  is  the  same  as  that  of  Article  32  in  the  existing  Regulation,  which 
establishes  the  equivalence  of  evidential  value  between  information  obtained  through 
information  exchange  and  evidence  obtained  by  other  authorities  within  the  same  Member 
State. 

Article 31 - Obligation to Cooperate 

The text of this Article is the same as Article 33 in the existing Regulation. The purposes of 
this  provision  is  to  ensure  effective  coordination  at  national  and  European  Union  level  by 
requiring Member States to take all measures necessary to this end. 

Article 32 – Relations with Third Countries 

This  Article  allows  a  member  State  to  forward  information  from  a  third  country  to  other 
Member  States  if  the  information  is  useful  and  also  allows  information  to  be  forwarded  to 
third  countries,  if  the  third  country  has  an  agreement  to  treat  information  according  to  the 
principle of Directive 95/46/EC. 

Article 33 – Assistance to economic operators 

This Article covers the service provided in Article 24(3) of the existing Regulation where a 
Member  State  may  ask  another  Member  State  to  conduct  an  administrative  enquiry  to  trace 
missing documentation. 

Chapter VI – Evaluation and Transitional and final provisions 

Article 34 - Evaluation of Arrangements, Collection of Operational Statistics and Reporting 

As  with  the  existing  Regulation,  the  aim  of  the  proposal  is  to  put  in  place  effective 
arrangements for mutual assistance and information exchange, which will prevent fraud in the 
movement  of  excise  goods  within  the  Union.  It  gives  the  Commission  responsibility  for 
overseeing  administrative  cooperation  but  does  not  give  the  Commission  in  any  way  an 
operational role in the detection and combating of tax fraud. However, because of the internal 
dimension of fraud within the Union involving excise duties, it is essential that it should be 
tackled at European Union level through the combined efforts of the Member States and the 

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Commission.  Responsibility  for  the  measures  required  to  prevent  fraud  in  movements  of 
excise  goods  within  the  Union  lies  with  the  Member  States,  but  the  Commission  plays  a 
coordinating  and  facilitating  role.  Consequently,  Member  States  provide  all  the  statistical 
information  needed  for  the  mutual  evaluation  of  the  effectiveness  of  administrative 
cooperation. The data to be collected and the method of evaluation through reporting now that 
EMCS  is  in  operation  will  be  redefined  by  an  implementing  act  after  the  conclusion  of  on-
going discussions with Member States. This Article will also provide the legal basis for the 
direct collection of movement data for the production of statistical reports using the CS/MISE 
application,  thus  largely  removing  the  need  for  Member  States  to  collect  such  statistics 
manually, thus improving the accuracy and timeliness of reporting. 

Member  States  should  also  provide  any  other  information  concerning  the  methods  and 
practices used or presumed to be used to contravene excise duty legislation. The Commission 
will  report  on  all  such  information  to  the  other  Member  States  so  that  the  administrative 
cooperation  arrangements  under  this  Regulation  or  under  excise  legislation  can  be 
continuously  improved  and  so  that  Member  States  and  the  Commission  can  adapt 
administrative cooperation to deal with new threats that may present themselves. 

Article 35 - Committee on Excise Duty 

Article  35  of  the  new  proposal  updates  Article  34  of  the  existing  Regulation  to  take  into 
account new provisions concerning implementing acts under Regulation (EU) No. 182/2011 
of the European Parliament and of the Council.  

Article 36 – Repeal of regulation (EC) No. 2073/2004 

The explicit repeal of the existing Regulation and establishing that all existing references to it 
should be taken to refer to the new Regulation. 

Article 37 - Reporting to European Parliament and Council 

Article  37  on  reporting  reproduced  the  text  of  Article  35  of  the  existing  Regulation 
2073/2004. 

Article 38 – Bilateral Arrangements 

This  requires  Member  States  to  inform  the  Commission  of  any  additional,  bilateral 
agreements  that  may  exist.  The  Commission  will  then  inform  other  Member  States 
accordingly. 

Article 39 – Entry into force 

This specifies the date of entry into force and the date from which it will apply – 1 January 
2012.  

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2011/0330 (CNS) 

Proposal for a 

COUNCIL REGULATION 

Administrative Cooperation in the field of excise duties 

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 

Having  regard  to  the  Treaty  on  the  Functioning  of  the  European  Union,  and  in  particular 
Article 113 thereof, 

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, 

After consulting the European Data Protection Supervisor3, 

After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national Parliaments, 

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament4, 

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee5,  

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions6, 

Acting in accordance with a special legislative procedure, 

Whereas: 

(1) 

Regulation  (EC)  No 2073/2004 of  16  November  2004  on administrative cooperation 
in  the  field  of  excise  duties7  provides  for  a  common  system  whereby,  in  order  to 
ensure a correct application of excise legislation and, conversely, combat excise duty 
evasion and the ensuing distortions in the internal market, Member States assist each 
other and cooperate with the Commission. A number of changes need to be made to 
that  Regulation  in  view  of  experience  gathered  and  in  view  of  recent  developments. 
Given  the  number  of  changes  thus  necessary,  the  Regulation  should  be  replaced  for 
reasons of clarity.  

(2) 

The completion of the internal market continues to require a system of administrative 
cooperation in the field excise duties.  

3 
4 
5 
6 
7 

OJ C , , p. . 
OJ C , , p. . 
OJ C , , p. . 
OJ L 359, 4.12.2004, p. 1. 

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(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

(8) 

(9) 

In the interests of effectiveness and speed and on grounds of cost, it is essential that 
the role of electronic means in the exchange of information be enhanced. In view of 
the repetitive nature of certain requests and the linguistic diversity within the Union, it 
is important to ensure that standard formats be more widely used in the exchange of 
information  so  that  information  requests  can  be  more  rapidly  processed.  These 
requirements  can  be  best  met  through  a  more  systematic  use  of  the  computerised 
system  under  Decision  No  1152/2003/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the 
Council of 16 June 2003 on computerising the movement and surveillance of excisable 
products8. That system now offers broader possibilities than at the time Regulation No 
2073/2004 entered into force and will continue to be developed. Member States should 
thus be required to resort to it whenever possible. 

Exchange of information in excise matters is necessary to a very wide extent in order 
to establish a true picture of the excise affairs of some persons but at the  same time 
Member  States  are  not  at  liberty  to  engage  in  “fishing  expeditions”  or  to  request 
information  that  is  unlikely  to  be  relevant  to  the  excise  affairs  of  a  given  person  or 
ascertainable group or category of persons  

For  the  purposes  of  a  proper  coordination  of  information  flows,  it  is  necessary  to 
maintain  the  provisions  of  Regulation  No  2073/2004  on  a  single  point  of  contact  in 
each  Member  State.  Since  more  direct  contacts  between  the  authorities  and  officials 
may  be  needed  for  reasons  of  efficiency,  the  provisions  on  delegation  and  the 
designation of competent officials should equally be maintained. 

In  order  for  the  necessary  information  to  be  available  in  a  timely  manner,  the 
provisions  of  Regulation  No  2073/2004  requiring  the  requested  authority  to  act  as 
quickly  as  possible  and  at  the  latest  within  a  given  limit  should  be  maintained. 
However,  the  time  limit  for  the  provision  of  information  already  available  to  the 
requested Member State should be shorter than the standard time limit. 

For  the  effective  monitoring  of  excise  procedures  in  cross-border  movement,  it  is 
necessary  to  continue  to  provide  for  the  possibility  of  simultaneous  controls  by 
Member States and for the presence of officials of one Member State in the territory of 
another Member State, within the framework of administrative cooperation. 

Difficulties linked to the notification of administrative decisions and measures across 
borders should continue to be addressed by maintaining the provisions of Regulation 
No 2073/2004 in the matter.  

In  order  to  fight  fraud  effectively,  the  provisions  on  the  exchange  of  information 
without prior request should be maintained. To facilitate such exchange, the categories 
of information to be exchanged on a mandatory basis should be specified.  

(10)  Member  States  should  continue  to  be  able  to  optionally  exchange  information 
necessary for the correct application of excise legislation, in case this information falls 
outside the categories of information that is automatically exchanged. 

8 

OJ L 162, 1.7.2003, p. 5 

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(11)  Feedback  is an appropriate means to ensure continual improvement of the quality of 
the  information  exchanged.  A  framework  for  the  provision  of  feedback  should 
therefore be put in place. 

(12)  Electronic  storage  by  Member  States  of  certain  specified  data  on  authorisations  of 
economic operators and warehouses is indispensable for the proper functioning of the 
excise  duties  system  and  the  fight  against  fraud.  They  allow  for  rapid  exchange  of 
these data between Member States, and automated access to information. This can be 
achieved  by  making  use  of  the  information  already  contained  in  the  national 
computerised systems for excise, through the development of risk analysis enhancing 
the  information  held  nationally  on  excise  economic  operators  and  their  movements 
within  the  Union  and  through  the  inclusion  of  a  range  of  information  on  the  taxable 
persons and their transactions. 

(13) 

In order for the information stored in the electronic databases to be reliable, provision 
should be made for their regular update. 

(14)  Economic operators should be able to speedily operate the verifications necessary for 
movements of excise goods. They should be provided with the possibility to have the 
validity of excise numbers confirmed electronically through a central register operated 
by the Commission and fed by the information contained in national databases.  

(15)  National  rules  on  banking  secrecy  could  hamper  the  efficiency  of  the  mechanisms 
provided  for  in  this  Regulation.  Member  States  should  thus  not  be  entitled  to  refuse 
the provision of information on the sole basis of such rules. 

(16)  This  Regulation  should  not  affect  other  measures  adopted  at  Union  level,  which 

contribute to combating excise irregularities and fraud, but should complement them. 

(17)  The  provisions  on  the  exchange  of  information  with  third  countries,  under  certain 
conditions,  notably,  of  data  protection,  have  proven  beneficial  for  the  correct 
application of excise legislation and should thus be maintained. 

(18)  Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 
on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on 
the free movement of such data9 governs the processing of personal data carried out by 
Member States within the framework of this Regulation. Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 
of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection 
of  individuals  with  regard  to  the  processing  of  personal  data  by  the  Community 
institutions  and  bodies  and  on  the  free  movement  of  such  data10  governs  the 
processing of personal data carried out by the Commission pursuant to this Regulation  

(19)  For the purposes of an effective application of this Regulation, it may be necessary to 
limit  the  scope  of  certain  rights  and  obligations  laid  down  by  Directive  95/46/EC, 
specifically  the  rights  defined  in  Articles  10,  11(1),  12  and  21  thereof,  in  order  to 
safeguard  the  interests  referred  to  in  Article  13(1)  (e)  of  that  Directive,  ,  bearing  in 
mind  the  potential  loss  of  revenue  for  Member  States  and  the  crucial  importance  of 
information covered by this Regulation for the effectiveness of the fight against fraud. 

9 
10 

OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31. 
OJ L 8, 12.1.2001, p. 1. 

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Member  States  should  be  obliged  to  apply  such  limitations,  to  the  extent  they  are 
necessary and proportionate. 

(20) 

In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of Articles 8, 16, 19, 20, 
21  and  34  of  this  Regulation,  implementing  powers  should  be  conferred  on  the 
Commission. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) 
No  182/2011  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  16  February  2011 
laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by the 
Member States of the Commission's exercise of implementing powers11. 

(21)  The  examination  procedure  should  be  used  for  the  adoption  of  those  implementing 
acts given that those acts are measures of general scope within the meaning of Article 
2(2) (a) of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011. 

(22) 

It  is  necessary  to  monitor  and  evaluate  the  functioning  of  this  Regulation.  Provision 
should  thus  be  made  for  collection  of  statistics  and  other  information  by  Member 
States and for the preparation of regular reports by the Commission. 

(23)  Council Regulation (EC) No 2073/2004 of 16 November 2004 should be repealed. 

(24)  Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the simplification and the strengthening 
of  administrative  cooperation  between  Member  States,  which  requires  a  harmonised 
approach,  cannot  be  sufficiently  achieved  by  the  Member  States  alone,  and  can,  by 
reason of the uniformity and effectiveness required, be better achieved at Union level, 
the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set 
out in Article 5 of the Treaty of the European Union. In accordance with the principle 
of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what 
is necessary to achieve those objectives. 

(25)  This Regulation respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles which are 
recognised by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in particular 
the right to the protection of personal data (Article 8). In view of the limits set by the 
present  Regulation,  the  processing  of  such  data  carried  out  within  the  framework  of 
this  Regulation  does  not  go  beyond  what  is  necessary  and  proportionate  for  the 
purposes of protecting legitimate fiscal interests of the Member States. 

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:  

Chapter I 
General provisions 

Article 1 
Subject matter and scope 

1. 

This  Regulation  lays  down  the  conditions  under  which  the  competent  authorities 
responsible in the Member States for the application of the excise legislation are to 

11 

OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, p. 13. 

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18 

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cooperate with each other, and with the Commission, in order to ensure compliance 
with  that  legislation.  To  that  end,  it  lays  down  rules  and  procedures  to  enable  the 
competent  authorities  of  the  Member  States  to  cooperate  and  to  exchange 
information,  whether  by  electronic  means  or  otherwise,  that  is  necessary  to  the 
assurance of the correct application of excise legislation. 

2. 

This Regulation shall not affect the application in the Member States of the rules on 
mutual  assistance  in  criminal  matters.  It  shall  not  affect  the  fulfilment  of  any 
obligation  in  relation  to  mutual  assistance  ensuing  from  other  legal  instruments, 
including bilateral or multilateral agreements. 

For the purposes of this Regulation: 

Article 2 
Definitions 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

(6) 

(7) 

(8) 

(9) 

"competent  authority"  means  the  authority  designated  in  accordance  with  Article 
3(1); 

"requesting authority" means the central excise liaison office of a Member State or 
any  liaison  department  or  competent  official  of  that  Member  State  requesting 
assistance on behalf of the competent authority;  

"requested  authority"  means  the  central  excise  liaison  office  of  a  Member  State  or 
any liaison department or competent official of that Member State who receives the 
request for assistance on behalf of the competent authority; 

"excise  office"  means  any  office  at  which  some  of  the  formalities  laid  down  by 
excise rules may be completed; 

"event  driven  automatic  exchange"  means  the  systematic  communication  of 
information with a predefined structure concerning an event of interest, without prior 
request,  to  another  Member  State  as  and  when  that  information  becomes  available, 
excluding  the  exchange  of  information  provided  for  in  Article  21  of  Directive 
2008/118/EC; 

"regular  automatic  exchange"  means  the  systematic  communication  of  information 
with  a  predefined  structure,  without  prior  request,  to  another  Member  State  at  pre-
established regular intervals; 

"spontaneous  exchange"  means  the  communication  without  prior  request  of 
information to another Member State, not covered by points (5) and (6); 

"computerised  system"  means  the  computerised  system  for  the  movement  and 
surveillance of excise goods provided for by Decision No 1152/2003/EC; 

"person" means a natural person, a legal person, and any association of persons 
which is not a legal person but which is recognised under the law of the Union or 
national law as having the capacity to perform legal acts; 

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(10) 

(11) 

(12) 

(13) 

(14) 

(15) 

"economic operator" means a person who, in the course of his business, is involved 
in activities covered by excise legislation, whether authorised to do so or not; 

"electronic means" signifies electronic equipment of any kind capable of processing 
(including  transmission  and  compression)  and  storage  of  data  and  includes  the 
computerised system defined in point (8);  

"excise  number"  means  the  identification  number  assigned  by  Member  States  for 
excise  purposes  to  records  of  the  economic  operators  and  premises  referred  to  in 
Article 19(1) (a) and (b); 

"a movement of excise goods within the Union" means the movement between two 
or more Member States of excise goods under suspension of excise duty within the 
meaning of Chapter IV of Directive 2008/118/EC or of excise goods after release for 
consumption within the meaning of Chapter V, Section 2, of Directive 2008/118/EC; 

"administrative  enquiry"  means  all  the  controls,  checks  and  other  action  taken  by 
officials or the competent authorities in the performance of their duties with a view 
to ensuring the correct application of excise legislation; 

the  common 
"CCN/CSI  network"  means 
communication  network  (CCN)  and  common  system  interface  (CSI),  developed  by 
the  Union  to  ensure  all  transmissions  by  electronic  means  between  the  competent 
authorities in the area of customs and taxation; 

the  common  platform  based  on 

(16) 

"excise duties" mean the duties referred to in Article 1(1) of Directive 2008/118/EC; 

(17) 

(18) 

(19) 

1. 

2. 

"mutual  administrative  assistance  document"  means  a  document  established  within 
the computerised system and used for the exchange of information under Article 8, 
Article 15 or Article 16 and used for follow-up under Article 8 or Article 16; 

"fall-back mutual administrative assistance document" means a document in a paper 
form used for the exchange of information under Article 8 or Article 15 , in case the 
computerised system is not available; 

"simultaneous  control"  means  coordinated  checks  in  regard  to  excise  legislation  on 
the  situation  of  a  economic  operator  or  related  persons,  organised  by  two  or  more 
participating Member States with common or complementary interests. 

Article 3 
Competent authorities 

Each  Member  State  shall  designate  the  competent  authority  in  whose  name  this 
Regulation  is  to  be  applied.  It  shall  inform  the  Commission  about  that  designation 
and about any subsequent change thereof without delay.  

The Commission shall make available a list of all competent authorities and publish 
this information in the Official Journal of the European Union. 

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1. 

2. 

1. 

2. 

Article 4 
Central excise liaison offices and liaison departments 

Each Member State shall designate a central excise liaison office to which principal 
responsibility shall be delegated for contacts with other Member States in the field of 
administrative  cooperation.  It  shall  inform  the  Commission  and  the  competent 
authorities of the other Member States thereof.  

The central excise liaison office may also be designated as responsible for contacts 
with the Commission. 

The  competent  authority  of  each  Member  State  may  designate  liaison  departments 
with  a  specific  territorial  competence  or  a  specialised  operational  responsibility, 
other  than  the  central  excise  liaison  office,  to  directly  exchange  information  under 
this Regulation. 

The central excise liaison office shall ensure that the list of these departments is kept 
up to date and made available to central excise liaison offices of the other Member 
States concerned. 

Article 5 
Competent officials 

The competent authority of each Member State may designate, under the conditions 
laid  down  by  the  Member  State,  competent  officials  who  may  directly  exchange 
information under this Regulation.  

The competent authority may limit the scope of such delegation.  

The  central  excise  liaison  office  shall  be  responsible  for  keeping  the  list  of  those 
officials up to date and making it available to the central excise liaison offices of the 
other Member States concerned. 

The officials exchanging information under Articles 12 and 13 shall be deemed to be 
competent  officials  for  the  purpose  of  those  Articles,  in  accordance  with  the 
conditions laid down by the competent authorities.  

Article 6 
Obligations of the central excise liaison office, liaison departments and competent officials 

1. 

The central excise liaison office shall have principal responsibility for exchanges of 
information on movements of excise goods and in particular, it shall have principal 
responsibility for ensuring: 

a) 

b) 

the exchange of information under Article 8; 

the  forwarding  of  notifications  of  administrative  decisions  and  measures 
requested by Member States under Article 14; 

c)  mandatory exchanges of information under Article 15; 

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d) 

optional spontaneous exchanges of information under Article 16; 

e) 

f) 

provision  of  reports  on  the  follow-up  actions  under  Article  8(5)  and  Article 
16(2); 

the  exchange  of  information  stored  in  the  electronic  database  provided  for  in 
Article 19; 

g) 

the provision of statistical and other information under Article 34. 

Where  liaison  departments  or  competent  officials  send  or  receive  requests  for 
assistance or responses to such requests for assistance, they shall inform the central 
excise  liaison  office  of  their  Member  State  under  the  conditions  laid  down  by  the 
latter. 

Where  a  liaison  department  or  a  competent  official  receives  requests  for  assistance 
requiring  action  outside  its  territorial  or  operational  area,  it  shall  immediately 
forward  them  to  the  central  excise  liaison  office  of  its  Member  State  and  to  the 
competent  official  of  the  liaison  department  in  charge  and  inform  the  requesting 
authority thereof. In such a case, the time limits laid down in Article 11 shall begin 
on the day following that on which the request for assistance was forwarded to the 
central excise liaison office and to the competent official of the liaison department in 
charge, but no later than one week following the reception of the request as referred 
to in the first sentence of this paragraph. 

2. 

3. 

Article 7 
Information or documents obtained with the authorisation or at the request of the judicial 
authority 

1. 

2. 

1. 

The  obligation  to  give  assistance  shall  not  exclude  the  provision  of  information  or 
documents  obtained  by  the  requested  authority,  where  it  has  acted  with  the 
authorisation or on the request of a judicial authority. 

The  communication  of  the  information  to  the  requesting  authority  shall  require  the 
prior  authorisation  of  the  judicial  authority  if  such  authorisation  is  required  under 
national law. 

Chapter II 
Co-operation on request 

Article 8 
General duties of the requested authority 

At the request of the requesting authority, the requested authority shall communicate 
the  information  necessary  to  assure  the  correct  application  of  excise  legislation, 
including  any  information  relating  to  a  specific  case  or  specific  cases,  especially 
concerning movements of excise goods within the Union. 

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2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

For  the  purposes  of  communicating  the  information  referred  to  in  paragraph  1,  the 
requested  authority  shall  arrange  for  the  conduct  of  any  administrative  enquiries 
necessary to obtain such information. 

The request referred to in paragraph 1 may include a reasoned request for a specific 
administrative  enquiry.  If  the  requested  authority  decides  that  no  administrative 
enquiry  is  necessary,  it  shall  immediately  inform  the  requesting  authority  of  the 
reasons for its decision. 

In order to obtain the information requested or to conduct the administrative enquiry 
requested,  the  requested  authority  or  any  administrative  authority  to  which  the 
requested authority has recourse shall proceed as though acting on its own account or 
at the request of another authority in its own Member State. 

The requested authority may request the requesting authority to provide a report on 
the  follow-up  action  taken  by  the  requesting  Member  State  on  the  basis  of  the 
provided  information.  If  such  a  request  is  made,  the  requesting  authority  shall, 
without  prejudice  to  rules  on  secrecy  and  data  protection  applicable  in  its  Member 
State,  send  such  report  as  soon  as  possible,  provided  that  it  does  not  impose  a 
disproportionate burden on it. 

Article 9 
Form of the request and the reply 

1. 

Requests for information and for administrative enquiries pursuant to Article 8 and 
replies to such requests shall be exchanged using a mutual administrative assistance 
document, subject to paragraph 4 of this Article. 

Where  the  computerised  system  is  unavailable,  the  fall-back  mutual  administrative 
assistance  document  shall  be  used  instead  of  the  mutual  administrative  assistance 
document. 

2. 

The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to determine: 

(a) 

the structure and content of the mutual administrative assistance documents; 

(b) 

(c) 

(d) 

the  rules  and  procedures  relating  to  the  exchanges  of  mutual  administrative 
assistance documents; 

the  model  form  and  content  of  the  fall-back  mutual  administrative  assistance 
document; 

the  rules  and  procedures  relating  to  the  use  of  the  fall-back  mutual 
administrative assistance document.  

The  Commission  may  also  adopt  implementing  acts  to  determine  the  structure  and 
content of the report referred to in Article 8(5). 

Those  implementing  acts  shall  be  adopted  in  accordance  with  the  examination 
procedure referred to in Article 35(2). 

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3. 

4. 

1. 

2. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

1. 

Each  Member  State  shall  determine  the  situations  where  the  computerised  system 
may be considered unavailable.  

Where  the  use  of  the  mutual  administrative  assistance  document  is  impractical,  the 
exchange of messages may be carried out in whole or in part by other means. In such 
exceptional  cases  the  message  shall  be  accompanied  by  an  explanation  of  why  the 
use of the mutual administrative assistance document was impractical. 

Article 10 
Provision of documents 

Documents of whatever content to be provided under Article 8 shall be attached to 
the administrative assistance document referred to in Article 9(1).  

However, in case this is impossible or impractical, the documents shall be provided 
through electronic means or otherwise.  

The requested authority shall have an obligation to provide original documents only 
where  such  documents  are  necessary  for  the  purpose  pursued  by  the  requesting 
authority and is not contrary to the provisions in force in the Member State in which 
the authority is established. 

Article 11 
Time limits 

The  requested  authority  shall  provide  the  information  referred  to  in  Article  8  as 
quickly as possible, and no later than three months following the date of receipt of 
the request.  

However, where the requested authority is already in possession of that information, 
the time limit shall be one month. 

In certain special categories of cases, time limits different from those provided for in 
paragraph 1may be agreed between the requested and the requesting authorities. 

Where the requested authority is unable to respond to the request  by the time limit 
provided for in paragraph 1, it shall inform the requesting authority using a mutual 
administrative assistance document within one month of the reasons for its failure to 
do so and indicate when it assumes to be able to respond. 

Article 12 
Participation of officials from other Member States in administrative enquiries 

By  agreement  between  the  requesting  authority  and  the  requested  authority  and  in 
accordance with the arrangements laid down by the latter, officials authorised by the 
requesting  authority  may  be  present  in  the  offices  where  the  administrative 
authorities of the Member State in which the requested authority is established carry 
out their duties, or any other place where those authorities carry out their duties, with 

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2. 

3. 

1. 

2. 

a view to exchanging the information necessary to assure the correct application of 
excise legislation.  

Where the requested information is contained in documentation to which the officials 
of the requested authority have access, the officials of the requesting authority shall 
be given copies thereof. 

By  agreement  between  the  requesting  authority  and  the  requested  authority  and  in 
accordance with the arrangements laid down by the latter, officials designated by the 
requesting authority may be present during the administrative enquiries carried out in 
the  territory  of  the  requested  Member  State  with  a  view  to  exchanging  the 
information necessary to assure the correct application of excise legislation.  

Where such agreement is reached, the officials of the requesting authority may have 
access  to  the  same  premises  and  documents  as  the  officials  of  the  requested 
authority,  through  the  intermediary  of  those  officials  and  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
carrying out the administrative enquiry. In any event, the officials of the requesting 
authority  shall  not  exercise  the  powers  of  inspection  conferred  on  officials  of  the 
requested authority. 

The  officials  of  the  requesting  authority  present  in  another  Member  State  in 
accordance  with  paragraphs  1  and  2  shall  at  all  times  be  able  to  produce  a  written 
authority indicating their identity and their official capacity. 

Article 13 
Simultaneous controls 

With  a  view  to  exchanging  the  information  necessary  to  assure  the  correct 
application of excise legislation, two or more Member States may agree, on the basis 
of  a  risk  analysis,  to  conduct  simultaneous  controls,  in  their  own  territory,  of  the 
excise duty situation of one or more economic operators or other persons, that are of 
common  or  complementary  interest,  whenever  such  controls  would  appear  to  be 
more effective than controls carried out by only one Member State.  

In order to initiate an agreement referred to in paragraph 1, the competent authority 
of a Member State shall submit a proposal to the competent authorities of the other 
Member States concerned.  

The proposal shall: 

(a) 

specify the cases proposed for simultaneous controls; 

(b) 

individually identify each person with regard to whom such control is intended 
to be carried out; 

(c) 

state reasons justifying the necessity of a common control; 

(d) 

specify the period of time during which such controls are intended to be carried 
out. 

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3. 

4. 

5. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

Upon receiving the proposal referred to in paragraph 2, the competent authorities of 
the Member States concerned shall decide on their participation in the simultaneous 
control and shall notify the proposing competent authority thereof as soon as possible 
but no later than one month of receipt of that proposal.. Any refusal of participation 
in simultaneous control shall be duly reasoned. 

If  agreement  referred  to  in  paragraph  1  is  concluded,  each  competent  authority 
participating  in  that  agreement  shall  appoint  a  representative  responsible  for 
supervising and coordinating the simultaneous control operation. 

After  having  carried  out  a  simultaneous  control,  the  competent  authorities  shall 
inform the central excise liaison offices of the other Member States without delay of 
any methods or practices discovered during the simultaneous control that were used 
or  suspected  of  having  been  used  to  contravene  excise  duty  legislation,  where  it  is 
deemed that such information is of particular interest to other Member States.  

Article 14 
Request for notification of administrative decisions and measures 

At  the  request  of  the  requesting  authority,  the  requested  authority  shall,  in 
accordance  with  the  rules  governing  similar  notifications  in  force  in  its  Member 
State, notify the addressee of all decisions and measures taken by the administrative 
authorities  of  the  requesting  Member  State  concerning  the  application  of  excise 
legislation.  

The  first  subparagraph  of  this  paragraph  and  paragraphs  2,  3  and  4  of  this  Article 
shall not apply to documents referred to in Article 8 of Directive 2010/24/EU. 

Requests for notification referred to in paragraph 1, shall mention the subject of the 
decision or measure to be notified and shall indicate the name, address and any other 
relevant information for identifying the addressee. 

The  requested  authority  shall,  without  delay,  inform  the  requesting  authority  of  its 
action on the request  for  notification  referred to in paragraph  1  and notify it of the 
date of transmission of the decision or measure to the addressee. 

Where the requested authority is unable to act on the request for notification referred 
to  in  paragraph  1,  it  shall  inform  the  requesting  authority  thereof  in  writing  within 
one month of receipt of the request.  

The  requested  authority  may  not  refuse  to  act  on  such  request  on  account  of  the 
content of the decision or measure to be notified. 

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Chapter III 
Exchange of information without prior request 

Article 15 
Mandatory exchange of information 

1. 

The competent authority of each Member State shall forward, without prior request, 
by means of regular or event driven automatic exchange, the information necessary 
to assure the correct application of excise legislation to the competent authority of all 
other Member States concerned, in the following cases: 

(a)  where an irregularity or an infringement of excise legislation has occurred, or 

is suspected to have occurred, in another Member State; 

(b)  where  an  irregularity  or  an  infringement  of  excise  legislation  which  has 
occurred, or is suspected to have occurred, in the territory of one Member State 
may have repercussions in another Member State; 

(c)  where there is a risk of fraud or a loss of excise duty in another Member State; 

(d)  where  an  exceptional  event  has  occurred  during  a  movement  of  excise  goods 
within  the  Union,  which  is  not  defined  in  the  provisions  of  Directive 
2008/118/EC and which may affect the calculation of liability to excise duty of 
an economic operator. 

Where  the  information  referred  to  in  paragraph  1  relates  to  a  movement  of  excise 
goods  within  the  Union  the  information  shall  be  forwarded  using  a  mutual 
administrative assistance document, subject to paragraph 3.  

However, where the use of that document is impractical, the exchange of messages 
may be, exceptionally, carried out in whole or in part by other means. In such cases 
the  message  shall  be  accompanied  by  an  explanation  of  why  the  use  of  the  mutual 
administrative assistance document was impractical. 

Where  the  computerised  system  is  unavailable,  the  fall-back  mutual  administrative 
document shall be used instead of the document referred to in paragraph 2. 

The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to determine: 

(a) 

the exact categories of information that shall be exchanged under Article 15(1); 

(b) 

the frequency of regular exchange for each category of information; 

(c) 

the structure and content of the mutual administrative assistance documents; 

(d) 

(e) 

the  form  and  content  of  the  fall-back  mutual  administrative  assistance 
document; 

the rules and procedures relating to the exchanges of the documents referred to 
in points (c) and (d). 

2. 

3. 

4. 

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The  Commission  may  also  adopt  implementing  acts  to  determine  the  situations 
where the competent authorities may consider the computerised system unavailable 
for the purposes of paragraph 3 of this Article.  

Those  implementing  acts  shall  be  adopted  in  accordance  with  the  examination 
procedure referred to in Article 35(2). 

Article 16 
Optional exchange of information 

1. 

2. 

The competent authorities of the Member States may, in any event, forward to each 
other,  without  prior  request,  by  means  of  spontaneous  exchange,  any  information 
necessary  to  assure  the  correct  application  of  excise  legislation  of  which  they  are 
aware and which is not covered by Article 15. 

To that end, they may use the computerised system where the system is capable of 
processing such information. 

The authority having forwarded information to another authority under paragraph 1 
may request that other authority to provide a report on the follow-up action taken by 
the  requesting  Member  State  on  the  basis  of  the  provided  information.  If  such  a 
request is made, the other authority shall, without prejudice to rules on secrecy and 
data protection applicable in its Member State, send such report as soon as possible, 
provided that it does not impose a disproportionate administrative burden on it. 

3. 

The Commission shall adopt implementing acts to determine: 

a) 

b) 

the structure and content of the mutual administrative assistance documents to 
cover the most common types of information referred to in paragraph 1; 

the rules and procedures relating to the exchanges of the mutual administrative 
document. 

The  Commission  may  also  adopt  implementing  acts  to  determine  the  structure  and 
content of the report referred to in paragraph 2. 

Those  implementing  acts  shall  be  adopted  in  accordance  with  the  examination 
procedure referred to in Article 35(2). 

Article 17 
Duty of Member States to facilitate exchanges of information without prior request 

Member  States  shall  take  the  necessary  administrative  and  organisational  measures  to 
facilitate the exchanges provided for in this Chapter. 

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Article 18 
Limitation of obligations 

Member  States  shall  not  be  obliged  to  impose,  for  the  purposes  of  implementation  of  this 
Chapter, any new obligations on economic operators related to collection of information, nor 
to bear any disproportionate administrative burden. 

Chapter IV 
Storage and exchange of electronic information on economic 
operators 

Article 19 
Storage and exchange of information on authorisations of economic operators and 
warehouses 

1. 

The competent authority of each Member State shall maintain an electronic database 
containing the following registers: 

(a) a register of economic operators belonging to one of the following categories: 

(i) 

authorised warehousekeepers within the meaning of point (1) of Article 4 
of Directive 2008/118/EC; 

(ii) 

registered  consignees  within  the  meaning  of  point  (9)  of  Article  4  of 
Directive 2008/118/EC; 

(iii)  registered  consignors  within  the  meaning  of  point  (10)  of  Article  4  of 

Directive 2008/118/EC. 

(b) 

a register of premises authorised as tax warehouses within the meaning of point 
(11) of Article 4 of Directive 2008/118/EC. 

2. 

The registers referred to in paragraph 1 shall contain the following information: 

(a) 

the  unique  excise  number  issued  by  the  competent  authority  in  respect  of  an 
economic operator or premises; 

(b) 

the name and address of the economic operator or premises; 

(c) 

(d) 

(e) 

the  excise  product  category  (CAT)  and/or  the  excise  product  code  (EPC) 
referred  to  in  Annex  II,  code  list  11  of  Regulation  (EC)  684/2009  of  the 
products covered by the authorisation; 

identification of the central excise liaison office or the excise office from which 
further information may be obtained; 

the  date  as  of  which  the  authorisation  is  valid,  is  amended  and  where 
applicable, ceases to be valid; 

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(f) 

(g) 

(h) 

(i) 

for  authorised  warehousekeepers,  the  tax  warehouse  or  the  list  of  tax 
warehouses to which his authorisation applies and, if applicable under national 
legislation,  an  indication  that  he  is  authorised  to  split  a  movement  in 
accordance with Article 23 of Directive 2008/118/EC or is authorised to have 
excise  goods  moved  to  a  place  of  direct  delivery  in  accordance  with  Article 
17(2) of that Directive; 

for registered consignees, if applicable under national legislation, an indication 
that he is authorised to have excise goods moved to a place of direct delivery in 
accordance with Article 17(2) of Directive 2008/118/EC; 

for registered consignees referred to in Article 19(3) of Directive 2008/118/EC, 
the  content  of  the  authorisation  regarding  the  quantity  of  excise  goods,  the 
identity  of  the  consignor  in  the  Member  State  of  dispatch  and  the  period  of 
time for which the authorisation is valid; 

notwithstanding point (h), for registered consignees referred to in Article 19(3) 
of  Directive  2008/118/EC  that  have  an  authorisation  to  receive  wine  from 
consignors who benefit from the derogation provided in Article 40 of Directive 
2008/118/EC,  the  identity  of  the  consignor  in  the  Member  State  of  dispatch 
shall  be  omitted.  An  indication  of  the  derogation  under  Article  40  of 
2008/118/EC shall be included in the record; 

(j) 

for  tax  warehouses,  the  authorised  warehousekeeper  or  list  of  authorised 
warehousekeepers for which this tax warehouse is authorised for use. 

The central excise liaison office or a liaison department of each Member State shall 
ensure that the information contained in the national registers is complete, accurate 
and up to date. 

The  information  contained  in  the  respective  national  registers  as  referred  to  in 
paragraph 2 shall be automatically exchanged via a central register.  

The Commission shall operate the register as a part of the computerised system in a 
manner that ensures at all times a correct up to date view of all national registry data 
provided by all Member States. 

The  central  excise  liaison  offices  or  liaison  departments  of  Member  States  shall 
communicate the content of the national register as well as any modification thereto 
to the Commission in a timely manner. 

Article 20 
Access to and correction of information 

The Commission shall ensure that persons involved in the movement of excise goods 
within  the  Union  are  allowed  to  obtain  confirmation  by  electronic  means  of  the 
validity of excise numbers held in the central register referred to in Article 19(4). The 
Commission  shall  forward  any  requests  for  correction  of  this  information  from  an 
economic  operator  to  the  central  excise  liaison  office  or  liaison  department  that  is 
responsible for the authorisation of that economic operator. 

3. 

4. 

1. 

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2. 

1. 

2 

The  central  excise  liaison  offices  or  liaison  departments  of  Member  States  shall 
ensure that economic operators are allowed to obtain confirmation of the information 
held under this Article 19(2) about them and to correct any inaccuracies.  

Article 21 
Data retention 

The  competent  authority  of  each  Member  State  shall  keep  the  information 
concerning movements of excise goods within the Union and the records contained 
in the national registers defined in Article 19 for at least three years from the end of 
the calendar year in which the movement began, in order that such information can 
be  used  for  the  procedures  provided  for  in  this  Regulation.  Information  collected 
through the computerised system shall be kept in that system in a way that makes it 
possible  to  retrieve  and  to  further  process  that  information  within  the  system  in 
response to a request for information referred to in Article 8. 

Member States shall at the expiry of the applicable data retention period either delete 
the content of the retained records, or archive them in a form that does not allow the 
identification of the economic operator or operators concerned. 

Article 22 
Implementation 

The Commission shall adopt implementing acts: 

(a) 

(b) 

to  specify  the  technical  details  concerning  the  automated  update  of  the  databases 
referred to in Article 19(1) and of the central register referred to in Article 19(4); 

to  specify  the  rules  and  procedures  concerning  the  access  to  and  correction  of 
information under Article 20(1); 

Those  implementing  acts  shall  be  adopted  in  accordance  with  the  examination  procedure 
referred to in Article 35(2). 

Chapter V 
Common conditions governing assistance 

Article 23 
Language regime 

Requests for assistance, including requests for notifications, and attached documents may be 
made  in  any  language  agreed  between  the  requested  and  requesting  authority.  The  requests 
shall only require an accompanying translation, into the official language or one of the official 
languages  of  the  Member  State  in  which  the  requested  authority  is  established,  if  the 
requested authority provides a justification explaining the need for translation.  

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1 

2 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

Article 24 
Quality of service 

The  Commission  and  the  Member  States  shall  ensure  that  the  parts  of  the 
computerised  system  necessary  for  the  exchange  of  information  described  in  this 
Regulation are operational, appropriately maintained and further developed.  

The  Commission  and  the  Member  States  shall  conclude  a  service  level  agreement 
and  agree  on  security  policy  for  the  computerised  system.  The  service  level 
agreement  shall  define  the  technical  quality  and  quantity  of  the  services  to  be 
delivered  by  the  Commission  and  the  Member  States  in  order  to  ensure  a  secure 
functioning of all parts of the computerised system and of electronic communication 
and the repartition of responsibilities for the further development of that system. 

Article 25 
General limits to the duties of the requested authority 

The requested authority in one Member State shall provide the requesting authority 
in  another  Member  State  with  the  information  requested  under  this  Regulation 
provided that the requesting authority has exhausted the usual sources of information 
which  it  could  have  used  in  the  circumstances  to  obtain  the  information  requested, 
without running the risk of jeopardising the achievement of the desired end. 

This  Regulation  shall  impose  no  obligation  on  the  competent  authorities  of  a 
Member  State  to  carry  out  enquiries  or  to  provide  information  if  the  laws  or 
administrative practices of that Member State do not authorise the authorities to carry 
out such enquiries or to collect or use such information for that Member State’s own 
purposes. 

The competent authority of a Member State may refuse to forward information if the 
requesting Member State cannot, for legal reasons, provide similar information. 

The provision of information may be refused where it would lead to the disclosure of 
a commercial, industrial or professional secret or of a commercial process, or where 
its disclosure would be contrary to public policy. Member States may not refuse to 
supply information on a economic operator on the sole grounds that this information 
is  held  by  a  bank  or  other  financial  institution,  by  a  nominee  or  a  person  acting  as 
agent or fiduciary or because it relates to the ownership interests in a legal person. 

The  requested  authority  shall  inform  the  requesting  authority  of  the  grounds  for 
refusing  a  request  for  assistance.  They  shall  also  inform  the  Commission  of  the 
categories of grounds for such refusals on an annual basis for statistical purposes. 

Article 26 
Expenses 

Member States shall mutually waive all claims for reimbursement of expenses in applying this 
Regulation, with the exception of claims related to fees paid to experts. 

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1. 

2. 

1. 

Article 27 
Minimum amount 

The  possibility  to  request  assistance  under  this  Regulation  may  be  subject  to  a 
threshold of minimum amount due in relation to excise duties. 

The Commission may adopt implementing acts to specify the threshold referred to in 
paragraph 1 of this Article.  

Those  implementing  acts  shall  be  adopted  in  accordance  with  the  examination 
procedure referred to in Article 35(2). 

Article 28 
Official secrecy, data protection and use of the information communicated under this 
Regulation 

Information  communicated  or  collected  by  Member  States  pursuant  to  this 
Regulation or any information to which an official or other employee, or contractor 
has  had  access  in  the  course  of  his  duties  shall  be  covered  by  the  obligation  of 
official  secrecy  and  shall  enjoy  the  protection  granted  to  similar  information  under 
the national law of the Member State receiving that information.  

2. 

Information referred to in paragraph 1 may be used for the following purposes: 

(a) 

establishing the assessment base for excise duties; 

(b) 

collection or administrative control of excise duties; 

(c)  monitoring of movements of excise goods; 

(d) 

risk analysis in the field of excise duties; 

(e) 

enquiries in the field of excise duties; 

(f) 

establishing of other taxes, duties and charges covered by Article 2 of Directive 
2010/24/EU. 

However,  the  competent  authority  of  the  Member  State  providing  the  information 
shall  permit  its  use  for  other  purposes  in  the  Member  State  of  the  requesting 
authority, if the legislation of the Member State of the requested authority allows the 
information to be used for similar purposes in that Member State. 

To the extent allowed by national law, the information referred to in paragraph 1 may 
be  used  in  connection  with  judicial  or  administrative  proceedings  that  may  involve 
penalties  initiated  as  a  result  of  infringements  of  tax  law,  without  prejudice  to  the 
rules governing the right of the defendants and witnesses in such proceedings. 

3. 

Where  the  requesting  authority  considers  that  information  it  has  received  from  the 
requested  authority  may  be  useful  to  the  competent  authority  of  another  Member 
State,  it  may  forward  it  to  that  authority.  It  shall  inform  the  requested  authority 
thereof.  

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The  requested  authority  may  make  the  communication  of  information  to  another 
Member State subject to its prior consent. 

4. 

All  storage  or  exchange  of  information  by  Member  States  referred  to  in  this 
Regulation  shall  be  subject  to  the  national  provisions  implementing  Directive 
95/46/EC. 

However,  Member  States  shall,  for  the  purpose  of  the  correct  application  of  this 
Regulation, restrict the scope of the obligations and rights provided for in Article 10, 
Article 11(1) and Articles 12 and 21 of Directive 95/46/EC to the extent necessary to 
safeguard  the  interests  referred  to  in  Article  13(1)  (e)  of  that  Directive.  Such 
restrictions shall be proportionate to the interest in question. 

Article 29 
Access to information under Commission authorisation 

Persons duly authorised by the Commission may be provided with access to the information 
referred  to  in  Article  28(4)  only  to  the  extent  necessary  for  care,  maintenance  and 
development of the CCN/CSI network and the operation of the central register.  

Such persons shall be subject to the obligation of official secrecy. The information accessed 
shall be protected as personal data under Regulation (EC) No 45/2001. 

Article 30 
Evidential value of information obtained 

Reports,  statements,  and  any  other  documents  or  certified  true  copies  or  extracts  thereof 
obtained  by  the  officials  of  the  requested  authority  and  communicated  to  the  requesting 
authority pursuant to this Regulation may be invoked as evidence by the competent bodies of 
the Member State of the requesting authority on the same basis as similar documents provided 
by another authority of that Member State. 

Article 31 
Obligation to cooperate 

1. 

For the purposes of applying this Regulation, a Member State shall take all necessary 
measures to: 

(a) 

(b) 

(c) 

ensure  effective  internal  coordination  between  the  competent  authorities 
referred to in Article 3; 

establish direct cooperation between the authorities authorised for the purposes 
of coordination referred to in point (a); 

ensure the smooth operation of the information exchange system provided for 
in this Regulation. 

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2. 

1. 

2. 

1. 

2. 

The  Commission  shall  communicate  without  delay  to  the  competent  authority  of 
each  Member  State  any  information  necessary  to  assure  the  correct  application  of 
excise legislation, which it receives and which it is able to provide. 

Article 32 
Relations with third countries 

When the competent authority of a Member State receives information from a third 
country,  that  authority  may  pass  the  information  on  to  the  competent  authorities  of 
any  Member  State  which  might  be  interested  in  it  and,  in  any  event,  to  all  those 
which  request  it,  provided  that  it  is  permitted  by  assistance  arrangements  with  that 
particular third country. Such information may also be passed on to the Commission 
whenever  it  is  in  the  interest  of  the  Union  and  for  the  same  purposes  as  this 
Regulation. 

Provided  the  third  country  concerned  has  given  a  legal  undertaking  to  provide  the 
assistance  required  to  gather  evidence  of  the  irregular  nature  of  transactions  which 
appear  to  contravene  excise  legislation,  information  obtained  under  this  Regulation 
may  be  communicated  to  that  third  country,  with  the  consent  of  the  competent 
authorities which supplied the information, in accordance with their national law, for 
the  same  purposes  for which this information has been supplied and in compliance 
with  Directive  95/46/EC,  in  particular  provisions  on  transfers  of  personal  data  to 
third countries, and the national legal measures implementing the Directive. 

Article 33 
Assistance to economic operators 

The competent authorities of a Member State in which a consignor of excise goods is 
established may grant assistance to that consignor where the latter fails to receive a 
report  of  receipt  referred  to  in  Article  24(4)  of  Directive  2008/118/EC  or,  in  the 
situations referred to in Article 33(1) of that Directive, a copy of the accompanying 
document referred to in Article 34 of that Directive. 

Granting  of  such  assistance  shall  be  without  prejudice  to  the  tax  obligations  of  the 
assisted consigner. 

Where  a  Member  State  grants  assistance  pursuant  to  paragraph  1  and  considers  it 
necessary  to  obtain  information  from  another  Member  State,  it  shall  request  such 
information  in  accordance  with  Article  8.  The  other  Member  State  may  refuse  to 
obtain  the  information  requested  in  case  the  consignor  has  not  exhausted  all  the 
means available to him to obtain proof that the movement of excise goods has ended. 

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Chapter VI 
Evaluation and Transitional and final provisions 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

Article 34 
Evaluation of arrangements, collection of operational statistics and reporting 

The Member States and the Commission shall examine and evaluate the application 
of  this  Regulation.  To  that  end,  the  Commission  shall  regularly  summarise  the 
experience  of  the  Member  States  with  the  aim  of  improving  the  operation  of  the 
system established by this Regulation.  

The  Member  States  shall  communicate 
information: 

to 

the  Commission 

the  following 

(a) 

(b) 

any  available  information  relevant  to  their  experience  with  the  application  of 
this Regulation, including any statistical data needed for its evaluation; 

any available information on actual or suspected methods or practices used to 
contravene  excise  legislation  where  these  methods  or  practices  reveal 
shortcomings or gaps in the operation of procedures defined in this Regulation. 

With  a  view  to  evaluating  the  effectiveness  of  this  system  of  administrative 
cooperation  in  enforcing  the  application  of  the  excise  legislation  and  combating 
evasion and fraud concerning excise duties, Member States may communicate to the 
Commission any available information other than information referred to in the first 
subparagraph. 

The Commission shall forward the information communicated by the Member States 
to the other Member States concerned. 

The obligation to communicate information and statistical data shall not involve any 
unjustified increase of administrative burden. 

The  Commission  may  directly  extract  information  from  messages  generated  by  the 
computerised system for operational and statistical purposes, subject to Article 28. 

The information communicated by the Member States for the purposes of paragraph 
1 and 2 shall not contain individual or personal data. 

The  Commission  shall  adopt  implementing  acts  to  determine,  for  the  purpose  of 
implementing this Article, the relevant statistical data communicated by the Member 
States, the information to be extracted by the Commission and the statistical reports 
to be prepared by the Commission and by the Member States. 

Those  implementing  acts  shall  be  adopted  in  accordance  with  the  examination 
procedure referred to in Article 35(2). 

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Article 35 
Committee on Excise Duty 

1. 

2. 

The Commission shall be assisted by the Committee on Excise Duty established by 
Article 43(1) of Directive 2008/118/EC. That committee shall be a committee within 
the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011. 

Where  reference  is  made  to  this  paragraph,  Article  5  of  Regulation  (EU)  No 
182/2011 shall apply. 

Article 36 
Repeal of Regulation (EC) No 2073/2004 

Regulation (EC) No 2073/2004 is repealed. 

References to  the repealed Regulation shall  be construed as references to this Regulation in 
accordance with the correlation table in the Annex to this Regulation. 

Article 37 
Reporting to European Parliament and Council 

Every five years from the date of entry into force of this Regulation and based in particular on 
the information provided by the Member States, the Commission shall report to the European 
Parliament and to the Council on the application of this Regulation. 

Article 38 
Bilateral Arrangements 

1. 

2. 

This Regulation shall be without prejudice to the fulfilment of any wider obligations 
in relation to mutual assistance ensuing from other legal acts, including bilateral or 
multilateral agreements. 

Where the competent authorities as referred to in Article 3(1) conclude arrangements 
on  bilateral  matters  covered  by  this  Regulation  other  than  to  deal  with  individual 
cases,  they  shall  inform  the  Commission  without  delay.  The  Commission  shall  in 
turn inform the competent authorities of the other Member States. 

Article 39 
Entry into force 

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in 
the Official Journal of the European Union. 

It shall apply from 1 January 2012. 

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This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. 

Done at Brussels, 

For the Council 
The President 

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Correlation Table No. 1: Regulation (EC) No. 2073/2004 > New Regulation 

ANNEX 

Article 2073/2004 
1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 
14 
15 
16 
17 
18 
19 

New Article 
1 
2 
3, 4, 5, 6 
7 
8 
9 
7, 10 
11 
11 
11 
12 
13 
13 
14 
14 
14 
15 
15 
16 

Article 2073/2004 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36 
37 

New Article 
17 
18 
19, 20 
- 
33 
21 
34 
32 
9, 15,16, 22 
23 
25,27,28, 
28, 29, 32 
30 
31 
35 
37 
38 
39 

EN 

39 

   EN 

 
 
 
EN 

40 

   EN