2020 e-customs annual progress report.
Date: 2021-10-04
Institutions: Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union
Subjects: EU initiative, community resilience, customs, decision (EU), electronic government, governance, information technology, report

2020 E-CUSTOMS ANNUAL 
PROGRESS REPORT 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2020 E-CUSTOMS ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union 
Directorate B — Digital delivery of Customs and Taxation Policies 
Unit B1. — Processes & data, customer relationship and planning 
E-mail: TAXUD-E-CUSTOMS@ec.europa.eu 

European Commission 
B-1049 Brussels 

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ISBN 978-92-76-40038-7 

ISSN 2600-3813 

doi: 10.2778/336296     KP-AG-21-001-EN-N 

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Table of Contents 

TABLE OF FIGURES ......................................................................................... 5 

LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. 5 

1.  OVERVIEW OF E-CUSTOMS PROGRESS PERFORMANCE .................. 6 

2. 

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 10 

3.  BACKGROUND ....................................................................................... 10 

3.1  e-Customs Initiative ........................................................................ 10 
3.2  Tasks and Coordination .................................................................. 10 
3.3  Governance of the e-Customs Implementation ............................... 10 
3.4  The Commission’s and Member States’ Responsibilities ................ 11 

4.  E-CUSTOMS KEY MILESTONES AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2020 ......... 11 

4.1  Union Customs Code (UCC) and core legislative framework .......... 11 
4.2  Revision  of  Annex  B  to  the  UCC  DA  and  UCC  IA  and  Change 
Management .................................................................................. 14 
4.3  EU Single Window Environment for Customs (EU SWE-C) ............ 15 
4.4  Preparation Activities for UK Withdrawal from the EU ..................... 17 
4.5  e-Customs Governance .................................................................. 18 
4.6  Customs IT Collaboration ............................................................... 20 
4.7  e-Customs Project Groups ............................................................. 21 
4.8  Supporting Instruments................................................................... 24 
IT Modernisation ............................................................................. 27 
4.9 
4.10  IT Business Continuity Management System (IT BCMS) ................ 29 
4.11  Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Terms of Collaboration (ToC) 32 
4.12  Innovative Technology Solutions .................................................... 33 
4.13  The Recovery and Resilience Facility ............................................. 34 

5.  COSTS .................................................................................................... 35 

5.1  Costs incurred by DG TAXUD on IT systems development in 2020 35 
5.2  Costs incurred by the Member States in 2020 ................................ 37 

ANNEX 1 – IT SYSTEMS PROGRESS ACTIVITIES ....................................... 46 

1  MASP-C PROJECTS ............................................................................... 46 

1.1  MASP-C Group 1 - Customs European Information Systems ......... 46 
1.1.1  UCC Customs Decisions (1.2)........................................... 46 
1.1.2  UCC Binding Tariff Information (UCC BTI) (1.4) ................ 48 
1.1.3  UCC AEO and impacts of MRA (1.5)................................. 48 
1.1.4  UCC Automated Export System (AES) (1.6) ..................... 49 
1.1.5  UCC Transit System including NCTS (1.7) ........................ 51 
1.1.6  UCC Registered Exporter System (REX) (1.11) ................ 52 
1.1.7  COPIS (1.12) .................................................................... 53 
1.1.8 
EU  Single  Window  environment  for  customs  (EU  SWE-C) 
(1.13) ................................................................................ 54 
1.1.9  Classification Information System (CLASS) (1.14) ............ 56 
1.1.10  UCC  Economic  Operators  Registration  and  Identification 
subsystem 2 (EORI2) (1.15) .............................................. 56 

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1.3.1 
1.3.2 
1.3.3 

1.1.11  Customs Risk Management System2 (CRMS2) (1.16) ...... 57 
1.1.12  e-Commerce and CP 42/63 (1.17) .................................... 57 
1.1.13 
Import of Cultural Goods (1.18) ......................................... 58 
1.1.14  UCC Import Control System2 (ICS2) (1.19)....................... 59 
1.1.15  UCC Surveillance3 (1.20) .................................................. 61 
1.2  MASP-C  Group  2  -  Customs  European  initiatives  needing  further 
study and agreement ...................................................................... 62 
1.2.1  UCC  Notification  of  Arrival,  Presentation  Notification  and 
Temporary Storage (2.1) ................................................... 62 
1.2.2  UCC Guarantee Management (GUM) (2.5) ....................... 63 
1.2.3  UCC Special Procedures (2.6) .......................................... 64 
1.2.4 
Adjustments  of  the  existing  import  applications  under  the 
UCC (2.10) ........................................................................ 65 
1.2.5  Customs  Union  Performance  –  Management  Information 
System (CUP-MIS) (2.11) ................................................. 67 
1.2.6  UCC Proof of Union Status (PoUS) (2.12) ......................... 68 
1.2.7 
European Maritime Single Window environment (EMSWe) in 
relation to customs systems (2.13) .................................... 69 
1.3  MASP-C Group 3 - Customs International Information Systems ..... 70 
EU Implementation of UNECE eTIR System (3.1) ............. 70 
eATA Carnet Project (3.2) ................................................. 70 
Smart and Secure Trade Lanes (SSTL) (3.3) .................... 71 
initiatives  and 
technological  developments  to  facilitate  Customs  EIS  (including 
current CCN operations) ................................................................. 72 
1.4.1  National  Systems 
IT  Collaboration 
Implementation  by 
Projects (4.1) ..................................................................... 72 
1.4.2  Common Communication Network2 (CCN2) (4.5) ............. 72 
1.4.3  UCC  Uniform  User  Management  and  Digital  Signatures 
(UUM&DS) – Direct Trader Access to EIS (4.6) ................ 74 
1.4.4  High Availability DG TAXUD operational capabilities (4.7) 75 
1.4.5  Maintenance  and  Updates  of  Operational  IT  systems 
(4.8) .................................................................................. 76 
IT Business Continuity (4.9) .............................................. 78 
1.5  Other National Projects and Activities ............................................. 79 
1.6  Supporting activities ....................................................................... 80 
Supporting  tools  used  for  collaboration  and  communication 
between EU and EU Member State administrations .......... 80 
1.6.2  Consultations with economic operators ............................. 81 
Training for Customs officials and other stakeholders ....... 82 
1.6.3 
Promotion and other activities ........................................... 87 
1.6.4 
1.6.5  Coordination  of  e-Customs  with  other  e-Government 
systems or activities .......................................................... 89 

1.4  MASP-C  Group  4  -  Customs 

IT  cooperation 

1.4.6 

1.6.1 

ANNEX 2 – PLANNING OVERVIEW OF MASP-C PROJECTS ....................... 93 

Explanatory Note on the Planning Overview of MASP-C Projects ............ 93 

ANNEX 3 – ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS & KEY TERMS .......................... 98 

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Table of Figures 

Figure 1: DG TAXUD UCC IT Implementation progress ................................................ 8 

Figure  2:  Commission  and  Member  States’  total  expenditure  on  IT  Development  and 
Maintenance in 2020 ............................................................................................. 9 

Figure 3: Commission and Member States’ grand total on e-Customs activities in 2019-
2020 ...................................................................................................................... 9 

Figure 4: Professionals trained with EU eLearning portfolio ........................................ 26 

Figure 5: Distribution of EU eLearning portfolio at national level ................................. 27 

Figure 6: Evolution of CCN message quantities/volume .............................................. 30 

Figure 7: System message evolution .......................................................................... 31 

Figure 8: CCN messages distribution per system application ...................................... 31 

Figure 9: Commission’s costs in year 2020 (expressed in €) ....................................... 36 

Figure 10: Main categories of the Commission costs in year 2020 .............................. 37 

Figure 11: Commissions’ costs for customs IT systems, 2008-2020 ........................... 37 

Figure 12: Member States’ costs of customs IT systems in 2020 ................................ 38 

Figure 13: Costs on IT systems in Operation and in Development as part of all systems 
in 2020 ................................................................................................................ 39 

Figure 14: Cost per MASP-C Revision 2019 Project Groups ....................................... 40 

Figure 15: Distribution of Member States’ expenditure ................................................ 41 

Figure 16: Member States’ costs, 2008-2020 .............................................................. 42 

Figure 17: Average Member States' costs, 2008-2020 ................................................ 42 

Figure 18: Total costs over the years 2008-2020 for 7 MS that reported in all years ... 43 

Figure 19: Member States’ man-hours for Customs IT systems in 2020 ..................... 44 

Figure 20: Member States’ man-hours consumed in 2020 .......................................... 45 

Figure 21: NCTS - Volume of movements and error rate per year since 2012 ............ 77 

Figure 22: ECS – Evolution of movements and error rate per year since 2012 ........... 77 

Figure 23: ICS – Evolution of number of movements and error rate per year since 2012
 ............................................................................................................................ 78 

Figure 24: Evolution of number of Customs trainees in national administrations ......... 83 

Figure 25: Number of trainees for the UCC eLearning Programme 2019-2020 ........... 85 

List of Tables 

Table 1: Abbreviations and acronyms ....................................................................... 105 

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1.  OVERVIEW OF E-CUSTOMS PROGRESS PERFORMANCE1 

During the course of 2020, the Commission achieved several fundamental milestones 
related to the successful implementation of the ongoing e-Customs reform. The transition 
to a paperless environment is a priority for the Member States and the Commission, a 
commitment  reflected  in  the  completion  of  several  legislative,  business,  IT  and 
operational activities in the e-Customs domain. 

In  2020,  the  Commission  continued  amending  the  existing  legislation  and  introducing 
additional  measures  to  strengthen  the  e-Customs  framework  for  a  modern  Customs 
Union. Preparations for amendments to both the UCC DA and UCC IA were made with 
the  objective  to  harmonise  the  common  data  requirements  of  the  electronic  customs 
systems across all Member States. Notably, the amendment to the UCC DA, which 
was adopted on 7 December 2020, introduced the revised Annex B, thus ensuring the 
alignment  between  the  legal  provisions  relating  to  the  data  requirements  and  the 
functional  and  technical  specifications  for  the  trans-European  systems.  An  additional 
amendment  was  drafted  concerning  the  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  2019/1026, 
which  covers  technical  arrangements  for  the  information  exchange  through  the  UCC 
UUM&DS, UCC CDS, UCC BTI, UCC EORI and UCC AEO projects. In particular, the 
proposed amendment, which was thoroughly discussed during 2020, extends the scope 
of  the  regulation  to  cover  the  following  projects:  UCC  ICS2,  UCC  AES,  UCC  NCTS 
(Phase  5),  UCC  INF,  UCC  CCI,  EU  CTP  and  CRMS.  In  parallel,  the  Commission 
delivered  on  14  December  2020  the  second  annual  UCC  progress  report,  in 
pursuance of  Article 278a of the UCC. As indicated in the report, tangible progress 
was  achieved  notwithstanding  the  challenges  posed  by  the  COVID-19  pandemic 
outbreak. 

In 2020, DG TAXUD in collaboration with JRC continued the analysis of the Foresight 
Study on the Future of Customs in the EU for the 2040 horizon which was launched in 
2019 and was designed as a structured process to better comprehend the trends and 
drivers impacting the EU Customs and to gather collective intelligence for the long-term 
future. As a result, the “Future of Customs in the EU 2040” was published by the 
Commission’s JRC on 10 December 2020. The study envisaged how the world might 
look by 2040, and how policymakers can take actions now to ensure the EU Customs 
Union continues to benefit citizens, the environment, and the economy. The findings of 
the foresight process fed into the Commission’s Customs Action Plan launched on 
28 September 2020, which puts forward a vision and a plan of ambitious actions to take 
the Customs Union to the next level. 

A  significant  contribution  to  the  implementation  of  the  e-Customs  framework  and  the 
overall modernisation of the customs domain is the EU Single Window Environment for 
customs.  A  trade  facilitation  measure,  the  EU  SWE-C  also  intends  to  meet  the 
Commission’s commitment for a digitalised approach to EU customs controls. Following 
the  preparation  of  the  draft  impact  assessment,  the  Commission’s  Regulatory 
Scrutiny Board (RSB) adopted the report on 15 July 2020, paving the way towards 
the preparation of a pertinent legislative proposal. The legislative proposal foresees the 
development  of  the  EU  SWE-C  on  the  basis  of  a  twofold  digital  administrative 
cooperation  (G2G  and  B2G),  promoting  collaboration  between  customs  and  partner 
competent authorities, and at the same time, enhancing trade facilitation in the EU. The 
legislative proposal was included in the Customs Action Plan and on 28 October 2020 
it was adopted by the College of Commissioners. 

In view of the impending UK withdrawal from the EU on 31 December 2020, as stipulated 
in  the  Withdrawal  Agreement,  the  Commission  continued  the  transformation  and  the 

1 From a timeline perspective, the information of the report reflects the author’s perspective on 1 January 
2021. 

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preparation of the customs systems in alignment with the legal requirements provided 
for  in  the  UCC  and  the  IE/NI  Protocol.  Numerous  activities  were  conducted  with  the 
participation of the Member States as well as economic operators to ensure a successful 
and smooth transition. 

Cooperation between the Member States, the Commission and the economic operators 
through a range of specialised project groups remained a key area of activity in 2020 
despite the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 crisis. Active project groups continued 
to  impel  progress  on the  UCC  CDS,  UCC  CCI,  UCC  ICS2,  UCC  NCTS Phase  5  and 
UCC AES, UCC PoUS and Import of Cultural Goods. A new project group on the UCC 
INF  SP  system  was  launched  in  2020  in  view  of  the  anticipated  deployment  of  the 
system,  aiming  to  further  analyse  the  business  functionalities  of  the  system.  Notable 
progress  was  accomplished  in  the  scope  of  customs  IT  collaboration  through  the 
activities of the ETCIT group. Following the establishment of ETCIT I in 2018, the second 
expert team ETCIT II was established, focusing on further expanding the collaborative 
ways of delivering customs IT in the future, aiming to increase the efficiency and quality 
of  the  Customs  IT  delivery  and  operations  for  strategic  collaboration  post  2025.  An 
extension of the work under a third phase is considered necessary and useful in order to 
take the possibilities of IT collaboration further. 

2020  was  a  very  active  year  as  concerns  the  MASP-C  projects  progress.  Substantial 
efforts were invested in the implementation of various systems. In particular, the UCC 
INF SP, CCN2ng Release 1.1 and CCN2ng Release 1.2, UUM&DS Release 2 for ICS2 
and COPIS eAFA, REX2 v2.4 OCTs, EU CSW-CERTEX (CHED-PP, CHED-D, ODS), e-
Commerce  &  CP  42/63,  UCC  CDS  v1.24  and  CLASS  (corrections)  entered  into 
operations. The systems deployed were AES Central convertor application Release 1.0, 
UCC INF SP, UUM&DS Release 2 for ICS2 and COPIS eAFA and EU CSW-CERTEX 
(CHED-PP, CHED-D, ODS). The systems that received “go decision” were UCC ICS2 
Release 2, UCC CCI Phase 2, UCC REX3, EU CSW CERTEX Dual Use and UCC PoUs 
Phase  1  T2L/T2LF.  In  addition,  conformance  testing  was  performed  for  UCC  ICS2 
Release 1, while for the UCC AES and UCC NCTS Phase 5 projects the completion date 
is foreseen in 2021. Equally important activities were the creation of the Business Cases 
for  the  Import  of  Cultural  Goods  (ICG),  UNECE  eTIR  and  UCC  GUM,  as  well  as  the 
Vision  Documents  for  ICS2  Release  2,  UCC  CCI  Phase  2,  UCC  REX3,  EU  CSW 
CERTEX Dual Use, UCC PoUs Phase1 T2L/T2LF and UCC PoUS Phase 2 CGM. An 
overview of the MASP-C projects progress can be found in Annex 2. 

Figure  1  below  depicts  the  evolution  of  the  UCC  IT  Implementation  progress  by  the 
Commission, notably by DG TAXUD B since 2016. The initial development of the UCC 
IT  implementation  was  planned  to  be  completed  in  2020  based  on  the  MASP  2016. 
However, it was considered to be a very ambitious planning resulting in a re-evaluation 
during MASP 2017 and MASP-C Revision 2019 with a more realistic approach of the IT 
implementation  of  the  systems.  A  significant  progress  of  79%  of  the  total  UCC  IT 
implementation has been reached in 2020 by DG TAXUD. 

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Figure 1: DG TAXUD UCC IT Implementation progress 

As the e-Customs environment continues to develop and entails greater responsibilities, 
the Member States and the Commission face an evolving set of challenges in relation to 
e-Customs implementation. The effective identification, preparation and management of 
these challenges remains a high priority. To this end, the Commission launched an IT 
modernisation  programme  focusing  on  the  enhancement  of  the  IT  service 
provided  to  the  Member  States  through  five  tracks,  addressing  different  IT  related 
objectives. In addition, business continuity remained a core objective of the Commission. 
In  2020,  several  business  continuity  measures  were  adopted,  and  activities  were 
conducted, the most notable being the initiation of Phase III of the IT BCMS Revamping 
project. Among the main objectives pursued by the project is the implementation of the 
necessary requirements in order to be able to support the new Gold service level. The 
deployment of new electronic systems and the continuous evolution of the existing ones 
has also led to the update of the Service Level Agreement and Terms of Collaboration 
documents by the Commission. Driven by the need to further align these documents with 
the MASP-C Revision 2019, they were validated and accepted by all Member States in 
summer 2020. 

Furthermore, following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and in view of the substantial 
impact the pandemic exerted on the EU societies and economies, the Commission, the 
Parliament  and  the  EU  leaders  agreed  on  the  creation  of  the  Recovery  and 
Resilience Facility. Under this temporary financial instrument, the Member States can 
receive  financial  support  to  help  them  mitigate  the  economic  repercussions  of  the 
pandemic and to lay the ground for a more sustainable EU. 

It  is  evident  that  the  emerging  challenges  cover  a  wide  scope  of  topics,  including  the 
strengthening  of  controls  to  tackle  fraud  and  security  risks,  the  need  for  greater 
monitoring  of  the  EU  customs  legislation,  the  imperative  of  improving  efficiency, 
harnessing innovation and continuing to work with international partners in the field of 
customs.  The  e-Customs  reform  remains  a  dynamic  process  as  the  Commission 
continues to consolidate a new legal framework for the Customs Union with new working 
methods and IT tools, in partnership with the Member States. 

In  line  with  this  commitment,  the  Member  States  and  the  Commission  allocated  a 
significant number of resources to e-Customs activities, both in terms of personnel and 
of investments. Figure 2 depicts the 2020 budget dedicated by the Member States and 
the  Commission,  showing  that  similar  to  2019  and  2018,  the  new  IT  system 
development  remained  the  core  focus,  recording  more  than  two-thirds  of  their 

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2020 E-CUSTOMS ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 

overall  combined  budget.  The  remaining  one-third  of  combined  expenditure  was 
dedicated to maintenance activities. 

Figure 2: Commission and Member States’ total expenditure on IT Development and 
Maintenance in 2020 

Lastly, Figure 3 shows the combined cost during 2020 by the Member States and the 
Commission  increased  by  13.77%  relative  to  the  previous  year.  The  total  amount 
dedicated to e-Customs activities in 2020 was 245,291,612.32 €. 

Figure 3: Commission and Member States’ grand total on e-Customs activities in 2019-
2020

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2020 E-CUSTOMS ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 

2. 

INTRODUCTION 

The 2020 e-Customs annual progress report is the thirteenth report prepared pursuant 
to  Article  12  of  the  e-Customs  Decision  (Decision  70/2008/EC)2,  under  which  the 
Member  States  are  required  to  assess  the  progress  made  towards  coordinating  the 
implementation of the e-Customs initiative. The Commission3 prepares a comprehensive 
report covering the annual operational (from a technical viewpoint) and financial strategic 
goals of the Member States within the scope of the e-Customs projects and supporting 
initiatives. 

This year the Commission received 26 national e-Customs progress reports. 

3.  BACKGROUND 

3.1  e-Customs Initiative 

In  2003,  the  Commission  issued  an  e-Customs  Communication4  that  contained 
proposals about a new simplified paperless environment for customs and trade. The e-
Customs  Communication  carved  out  an  important  path  towards  radically  simplifying 
customs  regulations  and  procedures  and  integrating  modern,  efficient  and  uniform 
techniques  within  the  EU  Customs  Union.  The  subsequent  2003  Council  Resolution5 
endorsed the objectives formulated in the e-Customs Communication, thus establishing 
the  framework  for  the  e-Customs  initiative.  Decision  70/2008/EC6  on  a  paperless 
environment for customs and trade, also referred to as the e-Customs Decision, is the 
key legislation related to the e-Customs initiative, promoting a shift to an interoperable 
electronic customs environment with a unified data system to facilitate communication 
between economic operators and customs authorities and to enhance security at EU’s 
external borders. 

3.2 Tasks and Coordination 

Articles  5,  6  and  7  of  the  e-Customs  Decision  define  the  main  components  of  the  e-
Customs  systems  and  regulate  the  cooperation  between  the  Member  States  and  the 
Commission by specifying the tasks of both stakeholders for the development and the 
synchronised implementation of IT projects. 

3.3  Governance of the e-Customs Implementation 

Article  8(2)  of  the  e-Customs  Decision  provides  that  the  Member  States  and  the 
Commission should jointly establish a Multi-Annual Strategic Plan for Customs (MASP-
C)7  to  ensure  the  effective  management  and  coordination  of  all  activities  and  tasks 

2 Decision No 70/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15/01/2008 on a paperless environment for 
26/01/2008, 
customs 
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32008D0070%2801%29. 

21–26, 

trade, 

and 

23, 

OJ 

p. 

L 

3 The European Commission is referred as ‘the Commission’ throughout the document. 

4 Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social 
Committee  -  A  simple  and  paperless  environment  for  customs  and  trade  /COM/2003/0452  final,  https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A52003DC0452%2801%29. 

5 Council Resolution of 05/12/2003 on creating a simple and paperless environment for customs and trade, OJ C 305, 
16/12/2003, p. 1–2, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1591292437326&uri=CELEX:32003G1216(01).  

6  Decision No 70/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15/01/2008 on a paperless environment for 
26/01/2008, 
customs 
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32008D0070%2801%29. 

21–26, 

trade, 

and 

23, 

OJ 

p. 

L 

7 Since 2018, the Multi-Annual Strategic Plan is abbreviated as MASP-C, with the suffix of ‘C’ denoting the specific focus 
on customs IT systems. This change is due to the elaboration in parallel of a MASP-T for taxation IT systems. Alignment 

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2020 E-CUSTOMS ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 

related  to  ongoing  and  future  e-Customs  projects.  As  an  overall  project  management 
and planning tool, the MASP-C lays out the strategic framework and milestones for the 
implementation of the e-Customs initiative. It is an essential instrument for ensuring a 
smooth and coordinated implementation of all e-Customs IT projects, while reflecting a 
detailed operational planning. This implementation is based on a three-tier governance 
model, which consists of the Customs Policy Group (CPG) acting as a steering body at 
the policy level, the Electronic Customs Coordination Group (ECCG) at the coordination 
level and several groups consisting of specialists from the Member State administrations 
at  the  expertise  level.  The  objective  of  this  governance  scheme  is  to  enhance 
transparency and coordination among all stakeholders. 

3.4  The Commission’s and Member States’ Responsibilities 

The Member States and the Commission equally share the responsibility of facilitating 
the  customs  communication  and  information  exchange  systems  by  coordinating  the 
setup, deployment and operation of the electronic systems at both European Union and 
national level. 

4.  E-CUSTOMS KEY MILESTONES AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2020 

4.1  Union Customs Code (UCC) and core legislative framework 

In  2020,  the  EU  Customs  Union  remained  a  unique  example,  where  all  EU  Member 
States work together as one by applying a uniform legislative framework for handling the 
import, export and transit of goods. The Commission continued to fulfil an active role in 
optimising  the  customs  legal  framework  and  procedures  to  meet  the  demand  of 
increasing  trade flows,  new  business  models,  and  a  constantly  evolving  technological 
environment. In this climate, where significant changes are needed, the emphasis of the 
EU  customs  modernisation  over  the  last  two  decades  shifted  away  from  traditional 
business processes, towards the creation of a paperless environment for customs based 
on electronic exchange. In pursuit of this goal, in 2012 the Commission outlined a course 
of action for a more robust and unified Customs Union by 2020. Following the impact of 
the  substantial  legal  changes  introduced  by  the  Treaty  of  Lisbon8,  the  UCC9    was 
adopted in October 2013. The UCC serves as the legal basis for a modern and electronic 
customs  environment,  allowing  for  an  enhanced  level  of  uniformity,  efficiency,  and 
communication between the economic operators and customs administrations. 

The UCC legislation consists of a package of legal acts laying out requirements for the 
comprehensive  functioning  of  the  EU  Customs  Union.  During  the  elaboration  of  this 
legislation, the Commission, national customs administrations and economic operators 
provided valuable contributions through consultations related to the development of the 

between MASP-C and MASP-T will facilitate a more coherent approach to the implementation of IT systems where the 
customs  and  taxation  domains  interact.  Due  to  this  transition,  MASP-C  and  other  variations  referring  to  the  MASP 
framework are used interchangeably. The MASP-C Revision 2019 v1.1 serves as the baseline for this report. Nonetheless, 
its  predecessor,  MASP  Rev.  2017  v1.4  remains  a  fundamental  reference  point  for  the  implementation  planning  of  e-
Customs projects.  

8 Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community, 2007 
OJ 
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/ALL/?uri=OJ%3AC%3A2007%3A306%3ATOC. 

17/12/2007, 

1–271, 

306, 

p. 

C 

9  Regulation  (EU)  No  952/2013  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  09/10/2013  laying  down  the  Union 
Customs 
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A32013R0952. 

10/10/2013, 

1–101, 

Code, 

269, 

OJ 

p. 

L 

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UCC  Implementing  Provisions,  which  were  adopted  as  the  Delegated  Act10  (DA), 
Implementing Act11 (IA), and Transitional Delegated Act12 (TDA) to the UCC. The UCC 
DA,  IA,  and  TDA  came  into  force  in  May  2016,  and  provided  the  legal  basis  for  the 
Commission to take measures to facilitate the transition to electronic customs systems 
and uniform application of the customs legal framework in the EU. 

The digitalisation of the process of exchanging and storing information via the use of the 
UCC  electronic  systems  proved  to  be  quite  complex  during  the  preparation  for  the 
systems’  deployment.  Hence,  Regulation  (EU)  2019/63213  was  adopted  in  2019 
amending Article 278 of the UCC. The new Regulation provided for an extension to the 
initial deadline for the continued transitional arrangements, entailing that the deployment 
of  the  UCC  electronic  systems  shall  be  extended  to  2022  and  to  202514.  In  addition, 
Article  278a15  was  introduced,  stipulating  the  Member  States’  reporting  obligation 
towards  the  Commission  and  Commission’s  towards  the  Parliament16.  Within  this 
context, an annual report shall be submitted to the Parliament and the Council to inform 
on  the  UCC  electronic  systems’  development  progress  and  planning,  based  on  the 
related information provided by the Member States twice per year. Pursuant to Article 
278a  of  the  UCC,  the  second  annual  report17  on  the  implementation  of  the  UCC  IT 
projects was drafted throughout 2020 and it was published in December 2020. Similarly 
to the procedure followed during the preparation of the first annual report in 2019, the 
second UCC annual report was based on the national planning of the Member States 
but also on a survey launched by the Commission, circulated among the Member States. 
The  purpose  of  the  survey  was  to  gather  and  consolidate  up-to-date  information 
concerning the progress of the different projects. The Member States were required to 
indicate any possible delays against the deadlines included in their national planning as 
well as to describe the possible challenges that may emerge in the implementation of 
the projects. The 2020 report reveals that the challenges reported by the Member States 

10 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 of 28 July 2015 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of 
the European Parliament and of the Council as regards detailed rules concerning certain provisions of the Union Customs 
Code, OJ L 343, 29.12.2015, p. 1-557, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32015R2446. 

Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  2016/651  of  5  April  2016  correcting  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  2015/2446 
supplementing Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards detailed rules 
concerning  certain  provisions  of 
the  Union  Customs  Code,  OJ  L  111,  27.4.2016,  p.  1–2,  https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2016/651/oj/eng. 

11  Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  2015/2447  of  24  November  2015  laying  down  detailed  rules  for 
implementing certain provisions of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying 
the  Union  Customs  Code,  OJ  L  343,  29.12.2015,  p.  558–893,  https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
down 
content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32015R2447. 

12 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/341 of 17 December 2015 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 
of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards transitional rules for certain provisions of the Union Customs 
Code where the relevant electronic systems are not yet operation and amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446, 
OJ L 69, 15.03.2016, p. 1-313, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32016R0341. 

13 Regulation (EU) 2019/632 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 amending Regulation (EU) 
No 952/2013 to prolong the transitional use of means other than the electronic data-processing techniques provided for 
in 
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32019R0632. 

the  Union  Customs  Code,  OJ 

25.4.2019, 

54–58, 

111, 

p. 

L 

14 The deadline of 2022 concerns the following national electronic systems: UCC Notification of Arrival (NA), Presentation 
Notification (PN) and Temporary Storage (TS), the UCC National Import Systems and the UCC Special Procedures. The 
deadline of 2025 concerns the six trans-European systems:  UCC Guarantee Management (GUM), UCC Import Control 
System (ICS2), UCC Proof of Union Status (PoUS), UCC Centralised Clearance for Import (CCI), UCC New Computerised 
Transit System (NCTS), UCC Automated Export System (AES). 

15 Article 278a UCC on Reporting Obligations introduced by Regulation (EU) 2019/632 of the European Parliament and 
of 
the  Council  of  17  April  2019,  OJ  L  111,  25.4.2019,  p.  54–58,  https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32019R0632. 

16 The European Parliament is referred as ‘the Parliament’ throughout the document. 

17 Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council, pursuant to Article 278a of the Union Customs 
Code,  on  progress  in  developing  the  electronic  systems  provided  for  under  the  Code,  https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A52020SC0339. 

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are related to the complexity and interconnectivity of the electronic systems, the limited 
availability of resources, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, 
tangible progress was also achieved. As indicated in the report, the projects, which have 
not  been  yet  deployed, are  planned  to  be  completed  in  accordance  with  the  planning 
defined  in  the  UCC  Work  Programme.  The  UCC  annual  report  reflects  all  the 
developments pertaining to the IT systems since the UCC entered into force. 

Since  the  entry  into  force  of  the  UCC,  ongoing  dialogues  about  relevant  legal  issues 
among various stakeholders have led to further additions and amendments to the UCC 
legal package. Throughout 2020, preparations for amendments both to the UCC IA and 
the  UCC  DA  were  made.  The  shared  objective  of  these  two  amendments  is  the 
harmonisation of the common data requirements of the electronic customs systems, by 
introducing  the  revised  Annex  B  of  UCC  DA/IA,  respectively.  Further  details  on  the 
amendments and the work on the revision of the Annex B can be found in section 4.2. 

Implementing  Regulation 

(EU)  2019/102618,  which  covers 

Apart  from  amendments  to  the  UCC  IA  and  DA,  the  Commission  has  enhanced  the 
existing 
technical 
arrangements  for  the  exchange  of  information  through  the  UCC  Uniform  User 
Management  and  Digital  Signatures  (UUM&DS),  UCC  Customs  Decisions  System 
(CDS), UCC BTI, UCC EORI and UCC AEO projects. To develop this existing legislation, 
the Commission continued its work and thorough discussions within the Customs Code 
Committee – General Customs Legislation section (CCC-GEN) it expanded the scope of 
the Implementing Regulation. The extended scope includes the following projects: UCC 
ICS2, UCC AES, UCC NCTS (Phase 5), UCC INF, UCC CCI, EU Customs Trader Portal 
(EUCTP),  and  Customs  Risk  Management  System  (CRMS).  In  addition,  the  new 
regulation contains rules on the data protection and arrangements related to the roles of 
the  Member  States  and  the  Commission  as  controllers  and/or  processors.  The 
consultations  between  the  Member  States  and  the  Commission  were  initiated  in 
September  2019,  continued  throughout  2020  and  substantial  progress  was  achieved.  
The  Regulation  is  expected  to  be  formally  adopted  in  2021.  Discussions  for  a  further 
extension of the scope of the Regulation with the view to include the UCC Registered 
Exporter system (REX) and the UCC Proof of Union Status (PoUS) are anticipated to 
continue during 2021. 

In  collaboration  with  the  Member  States,  the  Commission  is  coordinating  the 
implementation  of  the  UCC  through  the  UCC Work  Programme  (UCC  WP)19  and  the 
MASP-C.  The  UCC  WP,  as  defined  by  Article  280  of  the  UCC,  lays  down  the  IT 
architecture for the development and deployment of electronic systems, as well as the 
harmonisation and standardisation of interfaces. The UCC WP is of pivotal importance 
for  detailing  the  implementation  of  the  transitional  measures  related  to  the  electronic 
systems and its content is closely linked to the MASP-C. A new version of the UCC WP20 
v 8.1 adopted by the Commission in 2019 continued to be applicable in 2020. It sets out 
the  planning  for  the  development  and  deployment  of  the  17  essential  electronic 
systems21, as reflected in the amendment to Article 278 of the UCC. 

18  Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  2019/1026  of  21  June  2019  on  technical  arrangements  for  developing, 
maintaining and employing electronic systems for the exchange of information and for the storage of such information 
under the Union Customs Code, OJ L 167, 24.06.2019, p3-17, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2019/1026/oj.  

19 Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/2151 of 13 December 2019 establishing the Work Programme relating 
to  the  development  and  deployment  of  the  electronic  systems  provided  for  in  the  Union  Customs  Code,  OJ  L  325, 
16.12.2019, p. 168-182, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32019D2151. 

20 Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/2151 of 13 December 2019 establishing the Work Programme relating 
to  the  development  and  deployment  of  the  electronic  systems  provided  for  in  the  Union  Customs  Code,  OJ  L  325, 
16.12.2019, p. 168-182, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32019D2151. 

21 The UCC projects and related electronic systems included in the UCC WP are: UCC Registered Exporter System (REX), 
UCC  Binding  Tariff  Information  (BTI),  UCC  Customs  Decisions,  Uniform  User  Management  &  Digital  Signature 
(UUM&DS), UCC Authorised Economic Operators (AEO), UCC Economic Operator Registration and identification (EORI) 

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All  UCC  related  developments  required  remarkable  collective  efforts  throughout  the 
challenging period of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, which affected both customs 
operations as well as preparations related to the UCC electronic systems. 

Key elements 

•  Second UCC annual progress report was published on 14 December 2020. 
•  An amendment to the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1026 on technical 

arrangements is expected to be adopted by the beginning of 2021. 

4.2   Revision  of  Annex  B  to  the  UCC  DA  and  UCC  IA  and  Change 

Management 

Over  the  course  of  2020,  the  Commission  undertook  the  endeavour  of  drafting 
amendments  both  to  the  UCC  DA22  and  UCC  IA23.  The  key  objective  of  these 
amendments was the revision of the respective Annex B  with the view to achieve the 
harmonisation  of  the  common  data  requirements  between  the  different  electronic 
customs systems. 

The UCC DA amendment aims to harmonise the common data requirements for these 
systems in order to ensure interoperability and to facilitate the exchange of information 
between  customs  authorities,  as  well  as  between  customs  authorities  and  economic 
operators. The most recent amendment to the UCC DA, which introduces the revised 
Annex B, was adopted in December 2020. This amendment was the result of intensive 
work  on  the  harmonisation  of  the  common  data  requirements  for  declarations, 
notifications and proof of the customs status of Union goods that are set out in Annex B 
of the UCC DA. Besides the revision of Annex B, the amendment to the UCC DA includes 
legal provisions regulating the gradual incorporation of the revised Annex B to be aligned 
with the UCC Work Programme. The adoption of this amendment ensures the alignment 
between  the  legal  provisions  relating  to  data  requirements  and  the  functional  and 
technical specifications for the trans-European systems (TES). 

The  UCC IA  amendment concerns formats  and codes  of common  data  requirements, 
certain rules on surveillance and the competent customs office for placing goods under 
a customs procedure. This amendment is expected to be adopted and published in the 
beginning of 2021. 

The harmonisation process required remarkable efforts which were necessary to achieve 
harmonisation  of  the  data  requirements  for  the  trans-European  systems,  as  well  as 
national electronic systems and the systems used by economic operators. Therefore, the 
Commission  aspired  to  employ  this  significant  achievement  of  the  harmonisation 
exercise as a baseline for forthcoming evolutions, in order to alleviate such impact for 
the future. To this end, arrangements for the management of future changes have been 
prepared. These arrangements will be based on a yearly exercise for the revision of the 

system, UCC Surveillance3, UCC Proof of Union Status (PoUS), UCC New Computerised Transit System (NCTS), UCC 
Automated Export System (AES), UCC Information Sheets (INF) for Special Procedures, UCC Special Procedures, UCC 
Notification of Arrival, Presentation Notification and Temporary Storage, UCC National Import Systems, UCC Centralised 
Clearance for Import (CCI), UCC Guarantee Management (GUM) and UCC Import Control System 2 (ICS2). 

22  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  2021/234  of  7  December  2020  amending  Delegated  Regulation  (EU) 
2015/2446 as regards common data requirements, and Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/341 as regards the codes to be 
used in certain forms, OJ L 63, 23.2.2021, p. 1-385, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2021/234. 

23  Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  2021/235  of  8  February  2021  amending  Implementing  Regulation  (EU) 
2015/2447 as regards formats and codes of common data requirements, certain rules on surveillance and the competent 
customs office for placing goods under a customs procedure, OJ L 63, 23.2.2021, p. 386-531, EUR-Lex - 32021R0235 - 
EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu). 

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Annex  B.  The  Commission,  Member  States  and  economic  operators  will  have  the 
opportunity to submit change requests, which will be assessed in the Data Integration 
and  Harmonisation  section  of  the  Customs  Expert  Group  and  the  Customs  Code 
Committee.  By  involving  all  relevant  stakeholders,  the  assessment  of  the  change 
requests  will  seek  to  identify  the  impact  on  other  policies,  legislation  and  electronic 
systems.  A  Change  Management  document  has  been  agreed  in  order  to  detail  the 
process  for  changes  in  the  UCC  data  requirements.  This  unprecedented  document 
defines  a  planning  of  implementation  depending  on  the  impact  and  urgency  of  each 
change request, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders. 

Key elements 

•  The UCC DA amendment was adopted on 7 December 2020. 
•  The  amendment  to  UCC  IA  is  expected  to  be  adopted  by  the  beginning  of 

2021. 

•  A Change Management procedure for yearly revision of the Annex B has been 

established. 

4.3   EU Single Window Environment for Customs (EU SWE-C) 

Each  year,  the  Customs  Union  facilitates  the  trade  of  more  than  €3.5  trillion  worth  of 
goods.  Efficient  customs  clearance  and  controls  are  essential  to  allow  trade  to  flow 
smoothly while also protecting EU citizens, businesses and the environment. Currently, 
the  formalities  required  at  the  EU’s  external  borders  often  involve  many  different 
authorities in charge of different policy areas, such as health and safety, the environment, 
agriculture, fisheries, cultural heritage, market surveillance, etc. As a result, economic 
operators have to submit information to several different authorities, each with their own 
portal and procedures. This is cumbersome and time-consuming for economic operators 
and reduces the capacity of authorities to act in a unified way in combatting risks. 

In  recent  years,  ‘single  window’  initiatives  have  gained  momentum  as  a  way  of 
streamlining regulatory compliance in the EU. The ‘single window’ is a trade facilitation 
measure,  which  enables  the  economic  operator  to  fulfil  regulatory  requirements  for 
goods clearance by submitting data in a standardised manner to multiple recipients via 
a  single-entry  point,  thereby  reducing  duplication,  time  and  costs.  In  line  with  the  EU 
political  priorities  of  modernising  the  Customs  Union,  the  Commission  prepared  an 
initiative called the EU Single Window Environment for Customs (EU SWE-C) to facilitate 
trade  and  enhance  customs  controls  and  compliance  with  non-customs  regulatory 
formalities required for goods clearance. At the core of this vision is an improved digital 
collaboration between customs, competent authorities and economic operators allowing 
for a fully coordinated approach to goods clearance and a clearer overview at EU level 
of the goods that are entering or leaving the EU. 

The initiative arises from the long-standing commitment of the Commission to promote 
a digitalised approach to customs controls at EU level. The 2014 Venice Declaration24, 
endorsed by the Council Conclusions of 17 December 2014 on Electronic Customs and 
Single Window Implementation in the European Union, proposed a progressive action 
plan  to  implement  and  regulate  single  window  services  at  EU  level.  In  line  with  these 
commitments, the Commission launched a pilot project in 2015, the EU Customs Single 
Window-Common Veterinary Entry Document (EU CSW-CVED), jointly administered by 
the  Directorate-General  for  Taxation  and  Customs  (DG  TAXUD)  and  the  Directorate-

24 http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-16507-2014-INIT/en/pdf (The Venice Declaration is annexed to the 
December 2014 Council Conclusions). 

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General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE). The successor of the pilot project, the 
EU  Customs  Single  Window  Certificates  Exchange  project  (EU  CSW-CERTEX), 
the  scope  of  regulatory  requirements25  and  enhanced 
expanded 
the  pilot’s 
functionalities. 

To  further  support  the  initiative,  the  Commission  started  the  preparation  of  an  impact 
assessment, under the leadership of DG TAXUD. The draft impact assessment report 
was submitted to the Commission’s Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB) in March 2020 and 
was adopted in July 2020. Following the adoption of the impact assessment report by 
the RSB, the Commission worked closely with the Legal Service to prepare the legislative 
proposal. In addition, since December 2016, the Commission collaborated closely with 
the  Member  States  and  the  Trade  Contact  Group26,  through  the  EU  SWE-C  project 
group,  on  the  preparation  of  the  legislative  proposal.  This  project  group  collaborated 
extensively to provide input on different policy options for the EU SWE-C. The latter were 
taken forward as part of an external study27 to also support the impact assessment. This 
study was launched to further assess these options and impacts of the implementation 
of  this  environment  and  its  required  legislation.  Additional  collaboration  for  the 
development of the legislation was pursued via an interservice steering group, chaired 
by  the  Secretariat  General  (SG),  which  allowed  to  integrate  views  of  other  DGs  and 
services. 

In  the  legislative  proposal,  the  development  of  the  EU  SWE-C  rests  on  two  pillars  of 
digital administrative cooperation. The first includes government-to-government (G2G) 
digital  cooperation  between  customs  and  partner  competent  authorities  through  EU 
CSW-CERTEX  to  support  the  automated  verification  by  customs  of  the  non-customs 
formalities required for goods clearance. This would allow partner competent authorities 
to properly monitor and control the quantities of authorised goods imported or exported, 
while  enabling  customs  to  be  informed  in  real  time  of  the  decisions  taken  by  partner 
authorities.  The  second  pillar,  business-to-government  (B2G)  digital  cooperation, 
focuses  on  various  ways  of  streamlining  clearance  processes for  economic  operators 
when dealing with certain EU non-customs regulatory requirements. The proposal also 
foresees additional facilitation measures to support the G2G and B2G cooperation.  

Firstly, the measures involve extending the use of the Economic Operator Registration 
and  Identification  (EORI)  system  to  partner  competent  authorities,  as  defined  in  the 
legislative  proposal.  To  facilitate  their  collaboration  with  customs,  partner  competent 
authorities  will  be  granted  access  to  the  EORI  system  for  validation  purposes.  This 
means that they can request the EORI number from economic operators in the context 
of their regulatory formalities and validate it against the data stored in the EORI system. 
Secondly,  the  measures  related  to  the  appointment  of  national  coordinators  in  each 
Member  State  to  integrate  and  regulate  all  activities  associated  with  the  effective 
functioning of the EU SWE-C. 

The legislative proposal was announced in the new Customs Action Plan28 published in 
September 2020 as part of President von der Leyen’s commitment to take the Customs 
Union to the next level. The proposal was adopted by the College of Commissioners on 
28 October 2020 and submitted thereafter to the Parliament and the Council for review 
in line with the ordinary legislative procedure. 

25 Five new certificates were introduced as of 2020: Certificate of Inspection (COI) for imports of organic products, Forest 
Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) for imports of timber and the Common Health Entry Document for 
Plants and Plant Products (CHED-PP), Ozone-depleting Substance (ODS) and Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (F-GAS) 
licences. 

26 Register of Commission Expert Group: Trade Contact Group (TCG). 

27 Study to support the impact assessment of the initiative for developing an EU Single Window environment for customs. 

28 https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/general-information-customs/customs-action-plan_en 

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The  legislative  proposal  builds  on  the  UCC  customs  modernisation  and  digitalisation 
approach and expands it to digital collaboration between customs authorities and partner 
competent authorities to enhance trade facilitation in the EU. The implementation of the 
EU SWE-C offers a win-win situation for both the national authorities involved in goods 
clearance  and  economic  operators.  A  fully  coordinated  and  more  effective  clearance 
process will ensure that the regulatory formalities required for the international trade in 
goods are properly enforced, ultimately leading to substantial economies of scale and a 
better protection of the EU citizens in the single market. 

Key elements 

•  The legislative proposal was adopted by the College of Commissioners on 28 

October 2020. 

•  The legislative proposal is included in the new Customs Action Plan, which 

was published on 28 September 2020. 

4.4   Preparation Activities for UK Withdrawal from the EU 

Under the procedure outlined in Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union, the UK 
was  foreseen  to  complete  its  withdrawal  from  the  EU  by  1  February  2020  and  has 
become  a  ‘third  country’29.  The  end  of  the  transition  period  was  stipulated  in  the 
Withdrawal Agreement30, by 31 December 2020. Until that date, the EU law was applied 
in the UK31. During the transition period, the Commission started the negotiations for an 
agreement on a new partnership, providing notably for a free trade area. On this basis, 
the  Commission  continued  the  transformation  and  the  preparation  of  the  customs 
systems and conducted a series of technical seminars, assessments, and coordination 
activities with the Member States and the economic operators during 2020 to ensure a 
successful  and  smooth  transition.  The  Commission  also  reviewed  and  updated  the 
existing Customs guidance32 document, published on the Europa website, which referred 
to the end of the transition, as well as the “Guidance on the Use of GB and XI (Annex B) 
Geonomenclature codes for the implementation of the IE/NI Protocol”33. 

In  parallel,  coordination  meetings  were  organised  with  the  UK  Task  Force,  the 
Commission and the UK to discuss appropriate preparations, in particular pertaining to 
the  IT  implementation  issues  and  implications  of  the  Ireland/Northern  Ireland  (IE/IN) 
Protocol, technical discussions on IT systems for customs, VAT, Excise IT issues, “XI” 
prefix for EORI numbers and the CCN gateway. Additional meetings took place to assess 
the progress on the Withdrawal Agreement implementation work and to analyse the IT 
impact  of  the  Northern  Ireland  (XI)  Protocol  in  customs  area.  To  ensure  a  smooth 
transition, the Commission introduced legal and procedural questionnaires to assess IT 
readiness and progress made with the UK. Detailed technical questionnaires for each IT 
customs  system  were  also  prepared.  During  2020,  the  Commission  completed  the 
impact analysis of the Northern Ireland Protocol on the IT customs systems. 

After the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020, the EU rules in the field of 
customs, and in particular the Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament 

29 A third country is a country not member of the EU. 

30 Agreement on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union 
and the European Atomic Energy Community, OJ L 29, 31.1.2020, p. 7 (“Withdrawal Agreement”). 

31 Subject to certain exceptions provided for in Article 127 of the Withdrawal Agreement. 

32 https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/brexit_files/info_site/guidance-customs-procedures_en_0_0.pdf 

33 https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/use_of_gb_and_xi_codes_guidance.pdf 

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and of the Council of 9 October 2013 laying down the Union Customs Code (‘UCC’)8, 
including  its  supplementing  and  implementing  acts,  no  longer  applied  in  the  UK34, 
whereas the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (“IE/NI Protocol”) was applied35. The 
IE/NI Protocol is subject to periodic consent of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly, 
the  initial  period  of  application  extending  to  four  years  after  the  end  of  the  transition 
period36. 

Key element 

•  Flawless  delivery  of  the  Brexit  IT  systems  transition  of  31/12/2020  to 

01/01/2021. 

•  The  transition  period  for  the  UK  withdrawal  from  the  EU  ended  on  31 

December 2020 as per the Withdrawal Agreement. 

•  As  of  1  January  2021  the  Protocol  on  Ireland/Northern  Ireland  (“IE/NI 

Protocol”) was applied. 

4.5   e-Customs Governance 

information  between 

The  Customs  2020  programme  is  a  multiannual  action  programme  with  the  aim  to 
facilitate  and  enhance  cooperation  between  national  administrations  in  the  EU.  The 
programme  is  the  key  for  the  implementation  of  interoperable,  interconnected,  and 
unified customs IT systems that underpin the functioning of the EU Customs Union. The 
main  role  of  the  Customs  2020  programme  is  to  provide  a  secured  platform  for  the 
efficient  and  reliable  exchange  of 
the  national  customs 
administrations, as well as economic operators. Based upon the conclusions of the mid-
term evaluation of the programme conducted by the Commission in 201837 substantial 
gains  have  been  identified  in  the  efficiency  of  customs  IT  systems.  Greater 
harmonisation  of  customs  procedures,  more  uniform  implementation  of  the  legislative 
framework for customs, enhanced information sharing and the realisation of economies 
of scale in terms of system development and operation are all benefits stemming from 
the implementation of the customs IT programmes. The EU’s Customs programmes are 
crucial in supporting the implementation of the UCC. Aiming to further assist customs 
administrations  to  cope  with  the  increasing  trade  flows  and  the  emerging  trends  and 
technologies, the Commission adopted a new approach where the Customs programme 
actions under the Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) of seven years 2021-2027 
will be disseminated into Multi-Annual Work Programmes (MAWP) instead of an Annual 
Programme as it has been under previous MFF programmes. The preparations for the 
first  MAWP  covering  the  period  2021-2022  started  in  2020  and  is  expected  to  be 
approved  in  April  2021.  The  Customs  programme  supports  the  essential  cooperation 
between customs authorities across the European Union and protects the financial and 
economic interests of the EU and its Member States. It allows the joint development and 
operation  of  major,  pan-European  IT  systems  and  establishes  networks,  bringing 
together national officials from across the EU. 

The Commission is responsible for the implementation of the Customs 2020 programme 
and  allocates  appropriate  resources 
functioning  and 
modernisation of the EU Customs Union through joint actions such as project groups, 

the  effective 

to  ensure 

34 Regarding the applicability of the UCC in Northern Ireland, see Part B of this notice. 

35 Article 185 of the Withdrawal Agreement. 

36 Article 18 of the IE/NI Protocol. 

37 The Commission completed a mid-term evaluation of the Customs 2020 programme in accordance with Article 18(2) of 
the Customs 2020 Regulation in June 2018. 

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expert  teams,  trainings,  and  other  activities.  To  this  end,  157  e-Customs  related 
meetings  with  a  total  of  2,480  participants  were  convened  during  2020  under  the 
auspices of the Customs 2020 programme. More particularly, 28 meetings with a total of 
273 participants concerned trainings related to IT systems. Although the meetings held 
in  2020  were  reduced  by  approximately  25%  compared  to  2019  due  to  COVID-19 
travelling restrictions, many activities continued to take place online under the Customs 
2020 programme, ensuring business continuity. Further details on the training services 
for customs officials can be found in section 1.6.3 of Annex 1. 

In accordance with the overall e-Customs IT strategy, the yearly review of the MASP-C 
activities is an important factor in ensuring a well-coordinated approach to planning and 
project  management.  This  process  enables  the  relevant  stakeholders  to  scrutinise  in 
phases different business and IT documents and to coordinate in an efficient manner in 
various  domains, 
legislative  measures,  business 
requirements and technology advancements. The MASP-C Revision 2019 (v1.1) served 
as  a  baseline  for  project  activities  by  the  Member  States  and  the  Commission  during 
2020.  The  MASP-C  offers  a  comprehensive  overview  of  future  customs  projects 
including  a  timeline  for  the  project  delivery  dates  and  reflects  the  progress  made  in 
various policy areas, such as the UCC or the EU Single Window environment for customs 
(EU SWE-C). MASP-C Revision 2019 v1.1 was aligned to the UCC WP v 8.1. 

including  policy  development, 

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) in partnership with DG TAXUD launched a Foresight 
Study on the Future of Customs in the EU for the 2040 horizon38 in 2019, drafted under 
the mandate of the CPG. This foresight exercise is designed as a structured process to 
better  comprehend  the  trends  and  drivers  impacting  the  EU  Customs  and  to  gather 
collective intelligence for the long-term future. In December 2020, the “Future of Customs 
in the EU 2040”39 was published by the Commission’s JRC. The results of the foresight 
project  explored  how  the  world  might  look  by  2040,  and  how  policymakers  can  take 
actions  now  to  ensure  the  EU  Customs  Union  continues  to  benefit  citizens,  the 
environment, and the economy. The Customs Union is a foundation of the EU and an 
essential element of the single market. Customs has a significant role in protecting EU 
revenues  and  the  security,  health  and  prosperity  of  EU  citizens  and  businesses.  The 
findings of the foresight process fed into the Commission’s Customs Action Plan, which 
puts forward a vision and a plan of ambitious actions to take the Customs Union to the 
next level. The Customs Action Plan was launched in September 2020 with a view to 
ensure a more coherent, innovative and efficient Customs Union. While acknowledging 
the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on customs authorities as well as economic operators, 
17  actions  are  set  out  in  the  Customs  Action  Plan  responding  to  four  areas  of 
intervention:  risk  management,  e-commerce,  promotion  of  compliance  and  customs 
authorities acting as one. These actions, to be achieved in the period up to 2025, are 
intended as a first step towards the 2040 vision. 

Key elements 

•  The MFF activities in Customs will be split in Multi-Annual Work Programmes 

(MAWP). 

•  The preparations for the first MAWP covering the period 2021-2022 started in 

2020 and it is foreseen to be approved in April 2021. 

•  The “Future of Customs in the EU 2040” study was published on 10 December 

2020. 

38 The Future of Customs in the EU 2040, EU Policy Lab. 

39 https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/future-customs-eu-2040 

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•  157  e-Customs  related  meetings  with  a  total  of  2,480  participants  were 
convened during 2020 under the auspices of the Customs 2020 programme. 

4.6   Customs IT Collaboration 

While the UCC provides a single EU framework for customs rules and procedures, the 
development  and  upgrade  of  IT  systems  required  for  the  completion  of  customs 
formalities are a joint responsibility of the Member States and the Commission. The UCC 
systems  can  assume  diverse  forms,  being  either  decentralised,  central,  distributed  or 
hybrid systems. In addition, the Member States operate national IT systems which may 
require  further  upgrades.  The  Commission  therefore  works  closely  with  the  Member 
States to deliver on many aspects that are key to the realisation of customs IT systems, 
including common planning, analysis, and systems requirements documents. 

The Member States and the Commission share the objective of delivering customs IT 
projects  efficiently  and  in  accordance  with  the  national  budgetary  priorities.  In  this 
respect, measures are actively taken to avoid duplication of efforts by stakeholders in 
the development of electronic systems for customs. The scale of upgrades to existing 
systems and creation of new IT systems necessary to implement the UCC reinforces the 
need  for  cost-effective  allocation  of  resources  by  the  Member  States  and  the 
Commission. This is further provided for in the legislative framework underlying the EU 
Customs  Union  and  the  UCC,  establishing  the  flexibility  needed  for  a  diversified  IT 
delivery model. 

Throughout  2020,  the  Commission  reaffirmed  its  commitment  to  support  the  Member 
States in their collaboration on the IT planning and development, despite all difficulties 
in  the  fields  of  communication  and  cooperation.  The  Member  States  kept  their 
commitment to the customs IT collaboration and challenged the Commission to provide 
further support with regards to the hosting of their collaboratively built IT systems and 
the possibilities to work under joint procurement. Following the establishment in 2018 of 
the Expert Team on new approaches to develop and operate customs IT systems (ETCIT 
I) and based on the conclusions reached during the execution of the group’s tasks, the 
activities and the strategic work continued within the context of the second expert team 
ETCIT  II.  Led  by  SE,  the  16  participating  Member  States40  cooperate  towards  the 
objectives agreed in the Council Conclusions on the way forward to developing Customs 
IT systems41, by carrying out a study, including the scope of a pilot project, stakeholder 
analysis, financing options and possible involvement of a permanent structure or shared 
supplier for IT, in line with the Tallinn Declaration42 on eGovernment. The focus of the 
second phase of ETCIT II lies in identifying collaborative ways of delivering customs IT 
in the future, aiming to increase efficiency and quality of the IT delivery and operations, 
by studying novel approaches and analysing legal and governance frameworks. Further 
objectives 
for  new  pilots  and 
recommendations  for  the  way  forward  towards  the  implementation  of  a  long-term 
strategy  on  Customs  IT  and  delivering  a  vision  for  strategic  and  operational  IT 
collaboration  post  2025.  To  this  end,  a  survey  addressed  to  the  Member  States  was 

identification  of  suitable  options 

include 

the 

40 Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Estonia, France, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, 
Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden. 

41 Council Conclusions on the way forward to developing Customs IT systems. 

Ministerial 

42 
strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/ministerial-declaration-egovernment-tallinn-declaration. 

eGovernment 

Declaration 

Tallinn 

the 

on 

– 

Declaration, 

https://digital-

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launched in 2020 regarding the evaluation of the collaboration scenarios developed by 
ETCIT.  The  outcome  of  the  survey  confirmed  that  Member  States  are  interested  to 
collaborate in areas beyond those defined in the MASP-C and it highlighted pilot projects, 
which can serve as a basis for future discussions. The proposed pilot projects are related 
to e-Commerce, advanced analytics and application of artificial intelligence, Blockchain 
technology and the digital transformation of the customs administrations. Further to this, 
ETCIT II actively contributed to the future of the Customs Union through participation in 
the  Foresight  group  and  the  Customs  Action  Plan,  in  particular  in  points  16  and  17. 
Specifically, point 16 concerns deploying and deepening cooperation mechanisms under 
the Customs programme 2021-2027 and point 17 refers to a smarter management of the 
customs union. 

The activities of the ETCIT II team are expected to conclude at the end of 2021. However, 
the  extension  of  the  work  under  a  third  phase  is  considered  necessary  and  useful  in 
order  to  take  the  possibilities  of  IT  collaboration  further.  A  business  case  has  been 
elaborated in order to support this proposal under the new MAWP 2021-2022. 

Key elements 

•  Under the Customs IT Collaboration (ETCIT II), a survey conducted in 2020 
reconfirmed the Member States’ interest to collaborate in areas beyond MASP-
C. 

•  The areas indicated by Member States for future collaboration include, projects 
related  to  e-Commerce,  advanced  analytics  and  application  of  artificial 
intelligence,  Blockchain  technology  and  the  digital  transformation  of  the 
customs administrations. 

4.7   e-Customs Project Groups 

The  Commission  performs  a  managing  and  facilitating  role  to  ensure  the  proper 
implementation of the Customs 2020 Programme by linking its activities with the overall 
e-Customs  objectives.  This  programme  facilitates  the  sharing  of  the  knowledge  of 
experts  from  the  Member  States  who,  together  with  the  Commission,  collaborate  in 
project  groups43  to  analyse  national  customs  practices  and  identify  challenges  in  the 
correct implementation of EU customs legislation. In this context, various project groups 
continued their activities and new project groups were established to address specific 
concerns and render recommendation reports on IT system implementation. Chaired by 
DG TAXUD, several sessions of these project groups took place in 2020. 

The CPG has contributed expertise and advice to the Commission in the field of customs 
cooperation  for  more  than  five  decades.  The  crucial  role  fulfilled  by  the  CPG  in  the 
formation  of  EU  customs  legal  framework  and  procedures  was  formalised  through  its 
establishment as an expert group44 in 2018. The CPG expert group continues to be made 
up of director-level representatives of the Member State customs administrations, while 
formalisation endows it with a greater role in defining policy, strategy, and objectives for 
the EU Customs Union, in close coordination with the Commission. In 2020, the CPG 
assumed  an  active  role  in  view  of  the  outbreak  of  the  COVID-19  pandemic.  A  crisis 
coordination session of the CPG was organised in April 2020 to address the crisis and 
to provide coordinated answers to issues raised by the Member States. The Commission 
informed the Member States about the measures taken to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, in 

43 The UCC project groups are established at expertise level based on the governance model outlined in MASP-C/Annex3. 

44 Commission Decision of 7 June 2018 formalising the Commission Customs Policy expert group, C/2018/3530, OJ C201, 
12.6.2018, p. 3-7, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32018D0612%2801%29. 

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particular  in  the  areas  of  risk  management  and  controls,  while  ensuring  the  correct 
application of the customs legislation. 

Launched in January 2018, the UCC CDS project group continued convening throughout 
2020. The UCC CDS project group brings together the contributions of customs experts 
representing  19  Member  States45  with  the  objective  of  identifying,  analysing,  and 
developing solutions to operational business issues affecting the UCC CDS. Notably, the 
UCC CDS project group serves as a key intermediary in capturing lessons-learnt from 
the operation of UCC CDS v1.00 and applying these towards continuous improvement 
of the UCC CDS v1.22, which was deployed in operations on 29 June 2020. Over the 
course  of  2020,  the  UCC  CDS  project  group  discussed  open  business  issues  and 
potential improvements, including the incorporation of the UCC Guarantee Management 
(GUM) project as an extension of the UCC CDS, as well as the amendment of the UCC 
Annex A and the corresponding updates of the system. 

Given  the  significance  of  the  UCC  Centralised  Clearance  for  Import  (CCI)  project  for 
trade facilitation and the complexity of this endeavour, two different project groups were 
established to focus on UCC CCI development activities (UCC CCI IT Phase 1 and UCC 
CCI Phase 2). The UCC CCI IT project group, which initiated its work in July 2019, has 
been assigned the task of producing the technical specifications of UCC CCI Phase 1. 
The  IT  and  business  experts  representing  13  Member  States46  continued  having 
sessions during 2020. The technical specifications were prepared and approved in 2020 
in view of the planned deployment date of 1 March 2022 with the forerunner Member 
States. In view of this, the Commission initiated in September 2020 the UCC CCI Phase 
1 Forerunner meetings with the participation of two Member States47 to identify potential 
ΙΤ issues and ensure smooth deployment of the CCI system. The project group on UCC 
CCI Phase 2 is focused on the functional specifications of the system and held its first 
meeting  in October  2019.  Representatives  of  10  Member  States48  have  been  actively 
involved  in  identifying  and  developing  proposals  for  the  processes  and  the  new 
functionalities to be implemented in the UCC CCI Phase 2. The Business Case for the 
UCC CCI Phase 2 v0.5 was formally approved by the ECCG and TCG in October 2019. 
The business processes and functional specifications for Phase 2 were completed during 
2020 and the technical specifications are expected by June 2022 in view of the planned 
deployment date in October 2023. 

Regular meetings of two further IT project groups dedicated to the UCC ICS2 and the 
UCC NCTS and UCC AES systems were organised during 2020. The participants of the 
UCC ICS2 project group engaged in diverse activities related to the different releases of 
the UCC ICS2 system. The work on the common Operational Guidance for release v1.2 
was initiated in the beginning of 2020 and several sessions of the project group were 
dedicated  to  the  elaboration  of  the  End-to-End  organisation  document.  Preparations 
were  made for the migration  strategy from  Release  1  to  Release  2  as well  as  for  the 
Business  Continuity  Plan  (BCP),  which  was  discussed  extensively  during  the  project 
group meetings. Further to this, the project group participants contributed to the update 
of  the  common  functional  system  specifications  for  Release  3  through  the  creation  of 
business scenarios and the mapping of the data requirements. A number of webinars 
were  organised  with  the  view  to  address  Member  States’  questions  with  regards  to 
Release 1 and Release 2. 

45  Belgium,  Czechia,  Denmark,  Germany,  Estonia,  Ireland,  Spain,  France,  Italy,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Hungary,  the 
Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden. 

46 Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Hungary, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, 
and Finland. 

47 Spain and France. 

48  Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland.  

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Over  the  course  of  2020,  the  UCC  NCTS  and  UCC  AES  project  group  continued  to 
contribute to the update of the technical system specifications for the UCC NCTS Phase 
5  and  UCC  AES  systems  in  alignment  with  the  revision  of  the  UCC  Annex  B.  The 
technical system specifications were approved by the ECCG in August 2020. Intensive 
discussions  were  held  during  the  project  group  sessions  with  the  view  to  actively 
contribute to the quality of the UCC AES and UCC NCTS Phase 5 systems in operations, 
by  identifying  and  solving  potential  issues  that  could  arise  during  the  national 
deployments. Although the project group was initially foreseen to take place until the end 
of  2020,  it  is  being  considered  to  continue  the  work  done  within  this  context  until  all 
Member States enter into operations, thus helping with the improvements of the UCC 
AES and UCC NCTS Phase 5 specifications and testing. 

The project group on the Import of Cultural Goods, coordinated jointly by the business 
and policy units of DG TAXUD, met during several sessions throughout 2020. Comprised 
of 11 Member49 States with representatives from customs administrations and Ministries 
of  Culture  of  each  Member  State,  the  project  group  continued  to  pursue  its  two-fold 
objective. Firstly, to build an e-Licensing system to be used by the economic operators 
and  the  competent  authorities,  which  will  be  interconnected  to  the  customs  IT 
environment. Secondly, to establish the implementing provisions for the Implementing 
Regulation  that  will  support  the  system.  In  2020,  progress  was  made  towards  the 
creation of the Business Process Models (BPMs), reflecting the technical and functional 
requirements of the system and discussions were focused on the draft Implementing Act. 
The  Business  Case  was  completed  and  approved  in  September  2020  and  the 
preparation for Vision Document is expected to start within the first semester of 2021. 

The project group on the UCC Proof of Union Status System (UCC PoUS), formed by 
representatives of five Member States50, continued to meet periodically in 2020. Created 
in 2019, the project group has been given the mandate to identify and develop proposals 
for the processes and the new functionalities of the PoUS system in alignment with the 
UCC requirements. In 2020, the project group activities included the update and approval 
of the  Level  3  and  Level  4  BPMs,  as  well  as  of the  Vision  and  Architecture Overview 
documents related to the first  phase  of the  project. Work  on the  second  phase  of the 
project was also initiated in 2020, relating to the Customs Goods Manifest (CGM) and 
the alignment of the PoUS system to the Single Window. This is expected to continue in 
2021. 

In  line  with  the  legal  obligations  stipulated  in  the  UCC  DA  for  the  use  of  the  UCC 
Standardised  Exchange  of  Information  (INF)  system  for  Special  Procedures,  the 
deployment of the UCC INF system was planned for June 2020. In light of the anticipated 
deployment,  as  defined  in  the  UCC  WP,  the  UCC  INF  Special  Procedures  business 
project  group  was  launched  in  April  2020.  Representatives  of  12  Member  States51 
convened  periodically  during  2020  within  the  context  of  the  project  group  in  order  to 
further  investigate  the  business  functionalities  of  the  system  and  to  identify  possible 
inconsistencies in the legislation related to the implementation of the UCC INF project. 
The project group activities were focused on the creation of the Business User Guide 
and the drafting of the privacy statement, which is integrated in the electronic system. 
Discussions on further business issues will be carried out in 2021. 

In support of the continuous evolution of the UCC legal package, the Customs Expert 
Group  on  Data  Integration  and  Harmonisation  (CEG-DIH)  convened  periodically 
throughout 2020. Within this forum, the Member States and the Commission discussed 
extensively the amendment to the UCC DA with respect to the revision of Annex B. The 
work was focused mainly on the harmonisation of the common data requirements of the 

49 Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Romania. 

50 Denmark, Germany, Spain, Cyprus and Lithuania. 

51 Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Finland. 

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electronic systems for declaration, notifications and proof of the customs status of Union 
goods. This endeavour was completed with the adoption of the UCC DA amendment in 
December 2020. 

Key elements 

•  Several  already  existing  or  newly  created  Project  Groups  supported  the 

activities of the Customs 2020 Programme. 

•  The  UCC  INF  Special  Procedures  business  project  group,  created  in  2020, 

supported the on time UCC INF delivery in July 2020. 

4.8   Supporting Instruments 

The Business Process Modelling policy is considered as an essential instrument for the 
EU  Customs  Union  in  addressing  the  need  for  a  higher  level  of  uniformity  and 
harmonisation, thus enhancing efficiency. Given the complex business environment of 
EU  customs,  the  BPMs  aim  at  enhancing  the  common  understanding  of  the  customs 
process  flows  and  of  the  practical  implications  of  their  implementation.  As  such,  the 
enhancement  of  the  BPM  policy  remains  a  paramount  objective  for  the  e-Customs 
architecture. During 2020, the Level 1 to Level 4 BPMs for the second release of the re-
engineered EU CSW-CERTEX were updated and finalised. In addition, the Level 3 and 
Level 4 models of the EU CSW-CERTEX release adding Dual Use domain were finalised 
in the fourth quarter of 2020. Furthermore, updates were delivered for the UCC INF for 
Special Procedures, the UCC CCI, UCC CDS and the UCC PoUS projects, as well as 
for the Import of Cultural Goods eLicensing system. The relevant updates are elaborated 
in the corresponding project fiches under Annex 1 of the present report. 

ARIS,  a  software  tool,  is  used  as  a  facilitating  instrument  for  the  BPMs,  enabling  the 
reusability  and  continuous  improvement  of  business  processes  and  data.  All  EU 
Customs BPMs are available to the Member States and the economic operators via the 
ARIS  Business  Publisher.  In  2020,  the  ARIS  Platform  and  ARIS  Publisher  achieved 
99.9% availability rate for systems in production and 98.9% for conformance testing. An 
update (release 10) was performed with the view to have a version in production that is 
supported by the software vendor, while ARIS 9 Publisher remained accessible as an 
archive of publications. 561 new models were created for different modelling projects in 
2020,  for  a  total  number  of  18,467.  The  total  number  of  ARIS  users  is  636,  including 
Member States, economic operators and Commission staff. 38 “MSexportDB” services 
were provided for delivering BPM content to national authorities of 11 Member States, 
which represents a double increase of this type of service. 62 publications of BPMs were 
created for the Member States and DG TAXUD. 

Indispensable to the efficient functioning of the e-Customs architecture is data exchange. 
The objective is for trans-European IT systems and national customs clearance systems 
to  be  based  on  the  EU  Customs  Data  Model  (EUCDM).  The  EUCDM  serves  as  a 
technical  instrument  that  models  the  data  requirements  laid  down  in  EU  Customs 
legislation  and  presents  a  single  and  genuine  source  of  information  for  the  technical 
developments of the different IT systems that are used for data processing by customs 
in  the  European  Union.  Besides  the  legal  data  requirements  for  customs  data,  the 
EUCDM also contains the mapping of the EUCDM data elements against the WCO Data 
Model (version 3.8.1), thus allowing the understanding of the EU legal requirements for 
the  international  community  of  customs  professionals.  Over  the  course  of  2020,  the 
EUCDM  was  updated  several  times  resulting  in  the  current  version  5.2  which  was 
published in July 2020. Annex 21-01 and Annex 21-02 of the UCC IA are integrated in 
EUCDM v5.2. In parallel with the improvements carried out in EUCDM v5.2, EUCDM 6 
design (6d) was published in December 2020. This proof of concept (PoC) release of 
EUCDM is based on the draft legal texts of the UCC DA and UCC IA and contains only 

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limited  datasets.  In  addition  to  the  already  mentioned  releases,  the  Commission 
advanced the work on EUCDM 6. The EUCDM 6 will be based on the revised Annex B 
to  the  UCC  DA  and  to  the  UCC  IA  and  will  include  all  datasets.  Moreover,  the  data 
elements included in EUCDM 6 will be mapped against the WCO Data Model v3.10 and, 
once released, it will replace EUCDM 5.2 as well as EUCDM 6d. EUCDM 652 is foreseen 
to be published by the second quarter of 2021. In addition to all the updates, it has also 
been  noted  that  the  number  of  visits  to  the  platform  and  the  usage  of  the  EUCDM 
platform increased by 23.29% during 2020 in comparison to 2019. The total number of 
pages visited in 2020 was 417,504 compared to 331,200 in 2019. 

In 2020, the Commission continued supporting the electronic exchange of information 
through  the  Common  Communication  Network/Common  System  Interface  (CCN/CSI) 
and the CCN product services, which achieved a 99.98% availability rate in production. 
The high rate of availability supported a traffic volume of more than 42 terabytes (TBs) 
of  data  between  January  and  December  2020,  or  the  equivalent  of  more  than  8,373 
million messages exchanged. Traffic volume and number of exchanged messages both 
increased  between  2019  and  2020,  by  31%  and  21.3%,  respectively.  In  parallel  with 
ongoing  operation  of  CCN/CSI,  the  Commission  continued  to  develop  infrastructure 
enhancements  under  the  CCN2  project.  Several  trainings  on  the  CCN2  development 
and CCN2 testing took place throughout 2020. 

Equally important for the support of information exchange are diverse tools employed by 
the Commission in order to ensure the efficient coordination of the e-Customs projects 
and the effective collaboration between the Member States and the Commission. The 
Programmes Information and Collaboration Space (PICS) and the Communication and 
Information Resource Centre for Administrations, Businesses and Citizens (CIRCABC) 
are invaluable communication tools, designed to facilitate the flow of information. PICS 
is an online working platform dedicated to Customs 2020 Programme activities, which 
supports the exchange of information between the Member States and the Commission. 
CIRCABC is a web-based application developed by the Commission to share information 
and resources in workspaces over the web to Member States and other stakeholders. In 
2020, security of the PICS and CIRCABC tools was enhanced by introducing a two-factor 
authentication so as to obtain access to certain Commission services. 

The  Register  of  Commission  Expert  Groups  and  other  similar  entities53  is  further 
enhancing  communication  and  further  reaffirming  Commission’s  commitment  to  the 
transparency principle. The Register, which is publicly accessible, provides information 
on the diverse expert groups, which contribute to the preparation of legislative proposals 
by the Commission and the implementation of EU legislation. The mission of each expert 
group as well as information related to the expert groups’ activities are included in the 
Register. 

Taking into consideration the need for further modernisation in the collaboration between 
the Member States and the Commission for the future, the use of Microsoft 365, Microsoft 
Teams  and  WebEx  platforms  acquired  significant  growth  in  2020.  In  light  of  the 
challenges  posed  by  the  COVID-19  pandemic  and  the  increasing  need  for  online 
meetings,  the  Commission  took  immediate  steps  to  facilitate  the  cooperation  with  the 
Member States. 

In  addition  to  the  tools  and  instruments  employed  by  the  Commission  to  support  the 
digital transition of the EU Customs Union, DG TAXUD implemented an active training 
and capacity building programme during the course of 2020.  More than 320 eLearning 

52 EU Customs Data Model (EUCDM), https://bit.ly/EUCDM. 

53 Register of Commission Expert Groups and other similar entities. 

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courses54 were available to users from Member States and Customs 2020 participating 
countries  in  several  languages.  As  depicted  in  the  Figure  4  below,  a  survey  on  EU 
Customs  Training  activities  conducted  in  2020  showed  that  18,106  customs  officials 
were trained87 during the reporting year. 

Figure 4: Professionals trained with EU eLearning portfolio 

Furthermore, the English and localised versions of the eLearning courses available at 
the EUROPA website have been used to train more than 1 million economic operators, 
indicating the significance of the training possibilities for the economic sector across the 
EU.  In  2020,  a  new  “download  portal”  was  created,  offering to  users  the  possibility  to 
download several courses in parallel, which facilitated users to have effective multiple 
trainings.  Subsequently,  the  number  of  downloads  increased  enormously,  and  most 
users downloaded more than 3 eLearning courses at once.  

The users expressed their partial or complete satisfaction with the provided courses with 
respect  to  the  content  as  well  as  the  used  technology.  Specifically,  the  eLearning 
modules  of  UCC  BTI,  EU  Customs  Trader  Portal  for  UCC  BTI  and  UCC  INF  Special 
Procedures were efficiently used in 2020 and highly appreciated by customs officers and 
economic operators. A slight decrease of 14% in the use of the EU eLearning courses 
for the area of customs has been observed in 2020 compared to 2019, but the overall 
number  of  downloads  from  EUROPA  website  has  increased  from  10,529  in  2019  to 
34,347 in 2020. The AEO eBook continued to attract significant interest form customs 
officials and national administrations participated actively in CLEP (Common Learning 
Event Programme) events, which were offered in online settings during 2020 following 
the COVID-19 outbreak. 

The  significance  of  the  training  possibilities  offered  is  highlighted  by  the  fact  that  the 
national  administrations  have  integrated  the  EU  eLearning  portfolio  as  part  of  their 
national training. As detailed in the Figure 5, the implementation of the eLearning courses 
in  the  public  sector  is  mainly  achieved  at  national  level  through  the  national  Learning 
Management System (LMS) or the intranet of the relevant authorities. 

54 All data regarding training activities is based on the DG TAXUD’s training report accessible via Access to Documents 
procedure. 

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Figure 5: Distribution of EU eLearning portfolio at national level 

DG TAXUD intends to continue focusing on the localisation of the training courses in the 
various  official  EU  languages  under  the  ‘Centralised  Localisation’  scheme,  thus 
responding  to  the  increasing  request  by  the  national  administrations.  Furthermore, 
during  2020,  DG  TAXUD  has  worked  in  the  development  of  an  LMS  platform,  which 
would  facilitate  the  access  to  the  provided  material  for  all  stakeholders,  to  increase  a 
positive impact of the training initiative on the digitalisation of the EU Customs Union. 

Key elements 

•  The ARIS tool was updated to version 10 and achieved 99.9% availability rate 

for systems in production and 98.9% for conformance testing. 

•  EUCDM  was  updated  to  version  5.2  in  July  2020  and  EUCDM  6d  was 

published in December 2020. 

•  321 eLearning courses helped to train 18,106 customs officials and more than 
1 million economic operators. The focus of the training activities was to provide 
the  content  in  national  languages,  to  develop  shorter  and  multi-modulated 
courses and to use 3D and advanced branching scenarios. 

• 

In light of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing 
need for virtual meetings, the Commission took immediate steps to facilitate 
the cooperation with the Member States. 

4.9   IT Modernisation 

In 2020, an IT modernisation programme was initiated aiming at improving the IT service 
provided  to  the  Member  States,  as  well  as  to  internal  stakeholders.  This  initiative 
complements  the  systems’  and  infrastructure’s  upgrades,  as  defined  in  the  MASP-C, 
with the necessary reusable architecture components and with modern, agile and flexible 
software development approaches. The IT modernisation programme will allow Member 
States and DG TAXUD to reduce the time-to-operation for new and upgraded systems, 
to  increase  flexibility  in  addressing  new  challenges  and  to  remain  relevant  from  a 
technological  standpoint  in  today’s  IT  market.  DG  TAXUD’s  Directorate  B  is  having  a 
lead role and is closely involved in the management of this programme in an effort to 
ensure coherence in its implementation. 

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The Member States and the Commission have agreed on an IT strategy, as described 
in  the  Annex  555  of  MASP-C,  aiming  to  rationalise  the  total  cost  of  ownership  of  the 
customs  IT  systems,  without  altering  the  way  national  authorities  exercise  their 
responsibilities. The high availability and reliability of centralised IT services is identified 
as one of the key objectives of this IT strategy. Electronic customs systems, such as the 
UCC  Registered  Exporter  system  (REX),  Customs  Decisions,  UCC  UUM&DS,  CRS, 
CS/RD2 and UCC ICS2, which form the backbone of the EU movement systems in the 
context of the UCC, require adequate capacity and the ability to support a significantly 
increased number of external users. To achieve this, it is essential to design, develop, 
deploy, operate and maintain resilient and secure solutions, which are simultaneously 
flexible enough to provide short reaction times to new challenges. 

The IT modernisation programme is organised in five tracks, with each track addressing 
different IT related objectives: 

•  Track 1: IT governance, programme and project management; 

•  Track 2: IT architecture and infrastructure; 

•  Track 3: IT service continuity; 

•  Track 4: Agile software development; 

•  Track 5: Development, Security and Operations (DevSecOps). 

Track  1  touches  upon  horizontal  governance,  programme  and  project  management 
activities.  Those  activities  include  the  adoption  of  corporate  standard  PM2  project 
management methods, harmonisation of project templates and progress reporting, the 
streamlining of quality assurance processes and the implementation of comprehensive 
information security and data protection strategies. 

Track 2 concerns the IT architecture and infrastructure, as set out in MASP-C fiche 4.7. 
More specifically, track 2 aims at the implementation of all architecture and infrastructure 
layers that are required for the deployment and operation of central services by 2022 in 
order for the trans-European systems to be highly available, flexible and secure. A new 
“Gold”  service  level  with  a  99.8%  information system  availability  is foreseen  as  of  the 
third  quarter  of  2022,  which  increases  significantly  the  existing  Bronze  and  Silver 
services with the availability 99.4% and 99.6%, respectively. 

In pursuance of the objectives outlined in the MASP-C fiche 4.9, the revamping of DG 
TAXUD’s  IT  Business  Continuity  Management  System  (IT  BCMS),  initiated  in  2018, 
attempts  to  ensure  that  previous  investments  in  preparedness  will  be  effectively 
translated into recoverability, when required, in alignment with the business objectives 
and priorities of the Customs community. Track 3 aims to address these objectives by 
raising the  maturity  of  processes,  organisation,  standards  and guidelines  to  adequate 
levels. In particular, this is to be achieved through the update of various crucial IT BCMS 
documents, such as the IT Business Continuity Plan, the Disaster Recovery (DR) Plans, 
and the negotiation of new Service Level Agreements to support the new Gold service 
level. 

Agile software development is the focus of Track 4. To reduce time-to-market, costs and 
risks of obsolescence, the development teams from DG TAXUD and the Member States 
need to embrace the agile software development approach. With its recent SOFT-DEV 
Call  for  Tender,  DG  TAXUD’S  Directorate  B  has  unambiguously  taken  the  first  step 
towards  these modern  practices  by  transforming  its  Software  Development  Life  Cycle 
(SDLC). The agile methodology will initially be applied internally; nevertheless, it will be 
further  examined  how  the  collaboration  with  the  Member  States  can  benefit  from  the 

55 IT Strategy, MASP-C Annex 5 Revision 2019 

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agile methodology.  DG TAXUD IT project managers are already participating in training 
related to the Commission’s corporate “PM2 Agile” methodology. 

Unlocking  the  benefits  of  a  modern  architecture and  infrastructure,  DevSecOps  is  the 
key enabler to drastically reduce delays and to shorten implementation and deployment 
of services. As described under track 5, key DevSecOps capabilities are being built so 
as  to  improve  the  efficiency  and  effectiveness  of  its  end-to-end  SDLC.  The  aim  is  to 
foster a collaborative culture between development and operations contractors across 
the application and infrastructure landscape. Additionally, particular emphasis is given to 
embedding  security  aspects  throughout  the  process.  DG  TAXUD  Directorate  B  is 
currently  carrying  out  a  DevSecOps  pilot,  using  Transition  Network  Analysis  (TNA), 
Dispositions  d'Application  du  Code  6  (DAC6)  and  Tariff  Application  Technical 
Architecture  and  Framework  new  generation  (TATAFng)  systems.  The  pilot  aims  to 
identify  a  set  of  tools,  collaboration  processes  and  organisation  to  provide  the  new 
SOFT-DEV contractor with the appropriate environment at the start of its mission. The 
outcomes of this pilot are expected by mid-2021. 

Key elements 

•  The IT Modernisation programme was initiated in 2020, aiming at improving 
the  IT  service  provided  to  the  Member  States,  as  well  as  to  internal 
stakeholders. 

•  A  new  Gold  service  level  with  a  99.8%  information  system  availability  is 

foreseen as of the third quarter of 2022. 

•  The  IT  modernisation  programme  is  organised  in  five  tracks,  addressing 

different IT related objectives: 

o  Track 1: IT governance, programme and project management; 
o  Track 2: IT architecture and infrastructure; 
o  Track 3: IT service continuity; 
o  Track 4: Agile software development; 
o  Track 5: Development, Security and Operations (DevSecOps). 

4.10 IT Business Continuity Management System (IT BCMS) 

As set out in DG TAXUD’s Strategic Plan 2016-202056, ensuring the business continuity 
of  existing  electronic  customs  systems  in  an  increasingly  complex  IT  environment 
remains a core objective. In fulfilment of this ambition, DG TAXUD has invested in the IT 
modernisation  programme,  mentioned  under  section  3.9,  as  well  as  in  business 
continuity monitoring. 

Following  the  recommendations  made  on  the  IT  Business  Continuity  Management 
System (IT BCMS) revamping Phase II, the revamping of DG TAXUD’s IT BCMS Phase 
III project was initiated in summer 2020. The aim was to further raise the overall maturity 
of the system through the review, refresh and standardisation of the new Availability and 
Continuity Service levels as adopted in Phase II and the continuous update of various 
crucial  IT  BCMS  documents,  such  as  the  IT  Business  Impact  Analysis  and  Risk 
Assessment, the IT Business Continuity and Crisis Management Plans and the Disaster 
Recovery Plans. Additionally, further objectives are to support and improve the IT Duty 
Officer  initiative  by  ensuring  DG  TAXUD’s  IT  continuous  readiness  for  dealing  with 

56 Strategic Plan 2016-2020: DG TAXUD, Ref. Ares (2016) 1266241 – 14.03.2016. 

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disruptive incidents as well as the monitoring of the effectiveness of the continuity system 
through  the  implementation  of  new  Key  Performance  Indicators,  dashboard  and 
reporting.  Furthermore,  IT  BCMS  Phase  III  intends  to  develop  the  roadmap  to  the 
implementation of the required arrangements to support the new Gold Service Levels as 
of Q3 2022 including the alignment of the existing SLAs to new Service Levels adopted. 
More to this, extended Disaster Recovery exercises are conducted on an ongoing basis, 
to ensure the in-action effectiveness of the Disaster Recovery solutions in place. 

DG TAXUD monitors business continuity in terms of the performance of core customs IT 
systems and infrastructure. One of the current measurements of the performance of the 
business  continuity  of  the  IT  systems  is  indicated  via  the  Common  Communication 
Network  (CCN),  which  experienced  noteworthy  growth  during  2020.  The  CCN 
applications exchanged 8.5 billion messages during the year, with an increase of 21.39% 
compared  to  2019,  when  7  billion  messages  were  exchanged.  This  increase  in  the 
quantity of messages exchanged has coincided with a volume growth of 21.72%, from 
11.2 TBs in 2019 to 13.6 TBs in 2020. Figure 6 below illustrates the evolution of CCN 
message quantities and volume exchanged since 2008. 

Figure 6: Evolution of CCN message quantities/volume 

Figure 7 depicts the progress of the exchanged message quantities since 2008 for the 
European  Binding  Tariff  Information  (EBTI),  Export  Control  System  (ECS),  Economic 
Operators  System  (EOS),  New  Computerised  Transit  System  (NCTS),  Import  Control 
System  (ICS),  Surveillance,  and  Specimen  Management  System  (SMS)  projects.  In 
comparison to 2019, a significant increase was observed for Surveillance up to 136.88% 
during 2020, whereas EBTI (57.41%), ECS (0.87%), EOS (5.2%), NCTS (1.45%), ICS 
(2.53%) and SMS (30.52%), experienced considerable decrease. 

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Figure 7: System message evolution 

Figure 8 presents the distribution of messages exchanged per system (EBTI, ECS, EOS, 
NCTS,  ICS,  COPIS57,  Surveillance  and  SMS)  in  2020.  The  quantity  of  messages 
exchanged by the movement systems, such as NCTS, ECS, and ICS represents 88.88% 
of the total number of messages exchanged by all systems, compared with 82.64% in 
2019. As noted, there was a 7.55% increase between 2019 and 2020 in the percentage 
of the messages exchanged. 

Figure 8: CCN messages distribution per system application 

57 Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Information System (COPIS) 

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Key elements 

•  The  revamping  of  DG  TAXUD’s  IT  BCMS  Phase  III  project  was  initiated  in 

summer 2020. 

•  The aim of the IT BCMS Phase III revamping was to further raise the overall 
maturity of the system through the review, refresh and standardisation of the 
new Availability and Continuity Service levels as adopted in Phase II and the 
continuous update of various crucial IT BCMS documents. 

•  The  CCN  applications  exchanged  8.5  billion  messages  during  the  reporting 

year, with an increase of 21.39% compared to 2019. 

4.11 Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Terms of Collaboration (ToC) 

Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Terms of Collaboration (ToC) documents define the 
rights and obligations of all parties and the success of the Customs TES depends upon 
their  proper  implementation.  The  documents  are  prepared  by  the  Commission  and 
adopted by the Member States. During 2020, the Commission updated all SLA and ToC 
documents for Customs TES, covering the new systems and the evolution of the existing 
ones. The upgrade of the documents was driven by the need to align the documents with 
the MASP-C Revision 2019. The new documents have been published to the ECCG in 
July 2020 for validation and they were finally accepted by all Member States. The set of 
documents were the following: 

  ToC for Customs TES 

The development and operation of the Customs TES is regulated by a ToC document, 
which outlines the terms and conditions under which the identified parties will collaborate 
to meet the defined scope. The objective is to provide a collaborative framework for the 
delivery of high-quality TES that meet the needs of the users. 

  ToC for Single Portal for Entry or Exit of Data (SPEED) 

The ToC document defines the mutual obligations of the Commission and the National 
Project  Teams  from  the  Member  States  and  the  Russian  Federal  Customs  Service 
(RFCS) within the SPEED Computerisation Project. The document presents a common 
basis  for  co-operation  and  identifies  the  conditions  under  which  all  involved  parties 
collaborate within the project. 

  SLA for Service Desk 

The  document  specifies  a  substantial  set  of  mandatory  requirements  that  all  National 
Service Desks (NSDs) and the Central Service Desk (CSD) must fulfil. This SLA defines 
the interface between the CSD and the NSDs, as well as between the NSDs of different 
National Administrations. In addition, this document sets the target and limit values for 
the call/incident acknowledgement and for the call/incident management to be performed 
by both the NSDs and the CSD and presents the call/incident flow for the CSD. 

  Service Catalogue 

The Service Catalogue for the National Administrations outlines the available services 
and specifies the way of ordering them. The services in scope are the services that are 
delivered by the Commission and its contractors. 

  Guidelines for NSDs 

The document proposes an adequate organisation for the NSD team and discusses the 
rules and procedures that could govern the daily operations of the NSDs. This includes 
the procedures for registering and following up the incidents, notifications and escalation 

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mechanisms, and gives details of the fall-back procedures for situations when the NSD 
tool  is  unavailable.  The  document  sets  the  target  and  limit  values  for  the  call/incident 
acknowledgement  and  for  the  call/incident  management  to  be  performed  by  both  the 
NSDs and the CSD and presents the call/incident flow for the CSD. The document also 
takes into account the various options offered to the National Administrations to organise 
the Service Desk(s) in the e-Customs context. 

Key element 

•  The  SLA  and  ToC  documents  were  updated  in  alignment  with  the  MASP-C 

Revision 2019. 

4.12 Innovative Technology Solutions 

In 2020, the Commission continued its efforts on the “Blockchain@TAXUD” initiative to 
explore  the  possible  use  of  blockchain  technology  in  the  context  of  e-Customs  and 
taxation  policies.  In  February  2020,  the  Proof  of  Concept  (PoC)  SEED-on-Blockchain 
was deployed over CCN and it was finalised in April 2020, having concluded the foreseen 
tests  with  the  six  participating  Member  States.  In  parallel,  DG  TAXUD  closely 
collaborated  with  DG  DIGIT  and  DG  CNECT  with  the  view  to  evaluate  whether  the 
European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) could be a suitable platform to build 
decentralised Trans-European systems, starting with the Import One-Stop Shop Value-
Added  Tax  (IOSS  VAT)  identifiers  sharing  system.  A  new  PoC  “EBSI  IOSS  VAT 
identifiers  Distributed  Registry  (IOSS-DR)”  was  launched  in  June  2020.  The  first  step 
was the creation of the high-level specifications and it was followed by the design of the 
first iteration of the PoC and the assessment for its implementation, which was completed 
in  November  2020.  Further  related  activities  included  the  cooperation  with  the  Joint 
Research  Centre  (JRC)  to  examine  architecture  solutions  in  order  to  ensure 
performance, security and resilience, as well as compliance to the GDPR. In addition, 
preparatory work was initiated jointly with DG DIGIT for the implementation of the first 
iteration, which is foreseen for the beginning of 2021. 

Throughout  the  year,  DG  TAXUD  continued  its  consideration  of  additional  innovative 
technology solutions, with a strong focus on data. Data is at the heart of DG TAXUD’s 
emphasis  on  shaping  policies  to  support  the  design  of  modern  and  interoperable 
electronic  systems.  As  such,  DG  TAXUD  and 
the  Member  States’  customs 
administrations  have  always  been  at  the  forefront  of  data  harmonisation  and  of  the 
compliance  with  international  standards.  Responding  to  the  Commission’s  strategic 
intent to become a data-driven organisation, DG TAXUD issued a document already at 
the end of 2019 presenting the DG TAXUD Data Strategy as a means to maximise the 
value  from  data  assets  while  remaining  in  alignment  with  the  Commission  Data 
Strategy58. This  data  strategy  is  intended  to facilitate  data  exploitation,  as  well  as  the 
integration  of  the  data  in  the  daily  operations  of  the  organisation.  Such  a  strategy  is 
deemed essential in order to deal with data in an efficient and effective manner. Within 
this context, people, data value and tools have been identified as the key enabling factors 
of  DG  TAXUD’s  data  strategy.  Particular  emphasis  has  been  placed  on  the 
operationalisation  of  the  right  roles  to  manage  and  exploit  data  as  well  as  on  the 
identification  of  existing  data  assets  and  the  management  of  data  in  an  adequate 
manner. Further to this, the creation of a Data Lab has been considered as a possible 

58 https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/data-governance  

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effective tool for exploiting data. Setting up the proper Data Governance and providing a 
platform that will facilitate data usage through analytical tools can support DG TAXUD 
towards the achievement of the objectives set by the Commission with regards to data 
driven policy making. 

In 2020, DG TAXUD marked remarkable progress towards the creation of a Data Lab, 
laying the foundation for a central data platform that will be used to distribute data across 
the  organisation.  DG  TAXUD  deals  with  a  large  amount  of  data  related  to  the 
establishment  and  facilitation  of  customs  procedures  and  the  development  and 
implementation of policies and legislation, among others. Creating a single data platform, 
where  all  this  information  is  accessible  to  everyone,  is  vital  for  any  data-driven 
organisation and contributes substantially to maximising the value of the data. To this 
effect, the Business Case on the Data Lab was approved in December 2020. The Data 
Lab is expected to become operational in the first quarter of 2021 and training sessions 
have already been planned for the future users of the platform. 

Key element 

•  The Business Case on the Data lab was approved in December 2020, laying 
the foundation for a central data platform that will be used to distribute data 
across the organisation. 

4.13 The Recovery and Resilience Facility 

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and its considerable impact both from 
a  social  and  an  economic  perspective,  the  Commission,  the  Parliament  and  the  EU 
leaders agreed on a recovery plan with the objective to alleviate the damage caused by 
the pandemic and to pave the way towards a more sustainable EU. The Recovery and 
Resilience  Facility  is  the  centrepiece  of  NextGenerationEU,  the  temporary  instrument 
designed to boost this recovery, and it aims to provide financial support for reforms and 
investments  undertaken  by  the  Member  States.  The  financial  support,  in  the  form  of 
grants  and  loans,  will  serve  a  two-fold  objective:  to  help  Member  States  mitigate  the 
economic repercussions of the pandemic and to make EU economies and societies more 
resilient and better prepared for the emerging challenges in view of the green and digital 
transitions. 

To gain access to the fund, which is expected to be operational as of 1 January 2021, 
Member  States  were  requested to  submit  draft national  recovery  and  resilience  plans 
concerning the electronic customs in October 2020. Those plans are meant to provide 
an overview of the envisaged reforms and investments, focusing on the green and digital 
transitions  and  in  alignment  with  the  country-specific  recommendations59,  as  defined 
under the 2020 European Semester, as well as the EU flagship areas. More specifically, 
the plans to be submitted by the Member States were requested to include a minimum 
of  37%  climate-related  and  20%  of  digital  expenditures,  respectively.  To  help  the 
Member  States  prepare  their  national  plans,  the  Commission  adopted  in  September 
2020  an  operational  guidance  document60,  reflecting  the  scope  of  the  Recovery  and 
Resilience Facility, the appropriate structure for the national plans and the assessment 
criteria. The Member States have started to elaborate their recovery and resilience plans 
at the end of 2020 with the support of DG TAXUD, as well of other DGs. With respect to 
customs aspects, those plans are expected to focus on the main priorities deriving from 
the  actions  indicated  in  the  Customs  Action  Plan,  as  well  as  on  the  UCC  IT 

59 2020 European Semester: Country Specific Recommendations/Commission Recommendations. 

60 Commission Staff Working Document, Guidance to Member States, Recovery and Resilience Plans. 

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implementation (e.g., UCC ICS2, UCC AES and UCC NCTS national components). The 
Member States were requested to present their plans by 30 April 2021. Following the 
submission  of  the  finalised  recovery  and  resilience  plans  by  the  Member  States,  the 
Commission  will  examine  whether  the  assessment  criteria  are  fulfilled  and  will  then 
proceed  by  setting  out  the  financial  contributions,  milestones  and  targets  for  each 
Member State. The Member States are required to implement the national designated 
reforms and investments by 2026. 

Key element 

•  The  Recovery  and  Resilience  Facility  will  provide  financial  support  to  the 
Member  States  to  help  them  mitigate  the  economic  repercussions  of  the 
COVID-19 pandemic and to lay the ground for a more sustainable EU. 

5.  COSTS 

5.1  Costs incurred by DG TAXUD on IT systems development in 2020 

Figure 9 outlines the Commission’s costs committed under the 2020 budget for IT system 
development and maintenance as well as customs coordination. The common Customs 
2020 joint action budget pertains to participation costs in the programme events, such 
as the ECCG and the technical sub-group meetings. Other costs associated with joint 
actions  that  cover  promotional  activities  and  IT  training  sessions  under  the  Customs 
2020 programme are also included in this category. 

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System/Activity

UCC Customs Decisions System (CDS)
UCC Prouf of Union Status (PoUS)
UCC BTI Phase 1
UCC Automated Export System (AES)
UCC Transit System including (NCTS)
COPIS eAFA
UCC CCI

UCC Customs Decisions/Generic Trader Portal

UCC Guarantee Management (GUM)
UCC Special Procedures (information sheets)
Surveillance3
UCC ICS2 (Common Repository & STI)

CLASS
Customs Union Performance (CUP-MIS)
CS/MIS2
EU Single Window environment for customs (EU SW-C)
T-REX
Cultural Goods e-Licensing system
IT Architecture Customs

Subtotal:

CCN2
Activities related to Business Process Modelling (BPM)
Studies and Development Subtotal
Maintenance (corrective/evolutive) of Customs systems
Operations of IT systems
Communication network CCN/CSI and other middleware (e.g. SPEED2)
Procurement of H/W & S/W COTS
Hosting

Common costs
Customs2020

E-customs joint actions - ECCG meetings
E-customs joint actions - Trainings
Promotion activity
Quality Assurance including TEMPO
Intra-muros services
Horizontal budget (e.g. PICS, ARIS, CMS, SMT)

GRAND TOTAL

Commission
budget for 2020 (EUR)

Committed

600.000,00
200.000,00
100.000,00

200.000,00
200.000,00
100.000,00

200.000,00

100.000,00
200.000,00
100.000,00
200.000,00

1.080.000,00
330.000,00
200.000,00
300.000,00
1.450.000,00
144.350,00

100.000,00
100.000,00
5.904.350,00
5.617.212,39
750.000,00
12.271.562,39
4.942.295,17
22.004.700,37
3.132.500,00
11.107.029,78
1.000.000,00
262.875,00
1.826.077,22
50.000,00
2.500.000,00
7.846.998,57
35.000,00

66.979.038,50

Figure 9: Commission’s costs in year 2020 (expressed in €) 

As  detailed  in  Figure  9,  the  Commission’s  2020  costs  for  e-Customs  have  reached 
66,979,038.50 €. In contrast with the overall costs allocated in 2019 (82,141,289.43 €), 
a decrease of 18.46% is observed in 2020. This is principally due to the reduction in the 
costs distributed to the category of studies and development, which compared to 2019 
decreased by 29%. A decrease was also observed in the maintenance and operation of 
IT systems categories. Nonetheless, the activities did not decrease, rather the budget 
needs were assured from the previous years (front-loading) and the enhancement of the 
systems’ operability led to their improved performance. 

Despite  the  decrease  of  the  cost  dedicated  to  the  “studies  and  development”  of  IT 
systems, this category  along  with “operations”  were the  two main  ones that  absorbed 
most of the Commission’s costs in 2020, as it can be observed in Figure 10 below. In 
addition, similarly to the Member States, the Commission has also increased the use of 
its internal resources compared to the previous years, which also tally to the decrease 
of the total expenditure in 2020. As concerns the IT systems operations' cost, it had an 
increase of 10% in 2020 compared to 2019. 

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Figure 10: Main categories of the Commission costs in year 2020 

The following Figure 11 exhibits the overall investment of the Commission in customs IT 
systems  for  the  period  2008-2020.  An  incremental  tendency  on  budget  increase  has 
been  noticed  throughout  the  years,  especially  in  2017,  when  a  number  of  systems 
entered into operations. From 2017, the Commission IT costs have remained at the same 
overall level range. 

Figure 11: Commissions’ costs for customs IT systems, 2008-2020 

5.2  Costs incurred by the Member States in 2020 

Total  expenditures  by  the  Member  States  on  customs  IT  systems  in  2020  were 
178,312,573.82€.  Figure  12  below  illustrates  Member  States’  investment  per  project 
according to the MASP-C Revision 2019, as reported in the national annual reports.

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Figure 12: Member States’ costs of customs IT systems in 202061

61 The CLASS (1.14), EU implementation of UNECE eTIR system (3.1), EU implementation of the eATA Carnet Project (3.2) and SSTL (3.3) projects represented less than 0.01% of the customs IT systems 
cost and have not been included in the figure. 

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Following  the  structure and  content-related  transformations that  took  place  during  the 
MASP-C Revision 2019, Member States have reported on 31 projects. 

According to Figure 12, the greatest share of the Member States’ budget62 in 2020 was 
consumed for the “Adjustments of the existing import applications under the UCC” (2.10) 
which  constituted  19.64%  of  the  total  expenditure.  This  increase  was  due  to  the 
preparation  of the  Member  States  to  develop  and  deploy  the first  phase  of the  import 
system  the  latest  by  2023.  In  addition,  the  “UCC  ICS2”  (1.19),  maintenance63  and 
updates  of  the  operational  IT  systems,  the  “e-Commerce  &  CP  42/63”  (1.17)  and  the 
“UCC NCTS” (1.7) absorbed from the overall expenditure 18.44%, 16.38%, 8.84% and 
7.55%, respectively. It was noticeable that the Member States minimised the allocation 
of their budget to upgrade their national systems to the new UCC requirements and focus 
more on the development of the new systems. This can be observed from the decrease 
in the maintenance as it has dropped to 16.38% in 2020 compared to 2019 (37.24%), 
which represents a 41.24% decrease. The expenditure of the “non-MASP-C Rev. 2019 
projects” holds an aggregate percentage of 1.86% of the total investment compared to 
4.01 % in 2019. 

Figure 13 shows the comparison between the operational and development IT systems 
costs, consuming 16.38% and 83.62%, respectively, of the overall system expenditure 
reported in 2020. A decrease of 20.86% has been reported for the operational IT systems 
in 2020 compared to 2019, which confirms again the fact that Member States allocated 
a considerable part of their budget to the new systems development. 

Figure 13: Costs on IT systems in Operation and in Development as part of all systems in 
2020 

Figure 14 depicts the accumulated cost of the MASP-C Revision 2019 project groups. 
Group 1 refers to the Customs European Information Systems (EIS), Group 2 relates to 
Customs  European  initiatives  that  require  further  analysis  and  agreement,  Group  3 
encompasses Customs International Information Systems, and lastly, Group 4 presents 
Customs  cooperation  initiatives  and  technological  developments  to  facilitate  Customs 
EIS,  along  with  the  maintenance  of  existing  projects.  The  main  budget  consumption 

62 The data on budget amounts is not precise due to the aggregated information received from some Member States. 

63 The reported cost on maintenance of the systems in operation since 2017 has been included under the Maintenance 
(4.8) project fiche. 

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consisting in 52.44% was absorbed by Group 1, followed by Group 2 with 26.66% and 
by  Group  4  with  19.04%.  In  2020,  the  focus  of  the  Member  States  continued  on  the 
implementation  and  the  development  of  the  Group  1  projects.  As  in  2019,  due  to  the 
UCC  legislation,  the  Member  States  and  the  Commission  had  to  deploy  and  put  in 
operation a significant number of systems64. Group 3 remained at the same level of the 
overall budget consumption for MASP-C groups in 2020 as in 2019 with an increase of 
only  0.01%.  In  comparison  to  2019,  the  Member  States’  distributed  budget  for  “non-
MASP-C Rev. 2019 projects” in 2020 was mainly consumed for the maintenance and 
upgrades of their national systems, marking a significant decrease from 4.72% to 1.86%. 

Figure 14: Cost per MASP-C Revision 2019 Project Groups 

According to the cost figures reported in the Member States’ annual reports, it is noted 
that:  

  The number of Member States that contributed budgetary information is not the 
same throughout the years. Since 2008, between 22 and 28 Member States have 
reported  on  their  budget  allocation,  with  the  exception  of  2011,  when  only  12 
reports were received; 

  Various approaches pursued by the Member States result in diverse reporting for 
the  project  phases  and/or  costs  associated  to  them  (i.e.  project  progress, 
software/hardware costs). This expenditure is aggregated under the respective 
project as reported; 

  Member States’ national systems could be developed on common platforms and 
the  costs  of  numerous  systems  could  be  noted  only  under  one  reference 
baseline. Consequently, this affects the results and the accuracy of the data. 

64 Detailed planning can be found under ANNEX 2 – PLANNING OVERVIEW OF MASP-C PROJECTS of this report. 

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It is confirmed that the Member States reported less expenditures for the maintenance 
and  the  updates  of  the operational  IT  systems  in  2020.  As  depicted  in Figure  15, the 
primary  focus  was  directed  to  the  development  and  implementation  of  the  MASP-C 
projects, which accounted for 81.76% of total expenditures on electronic systems, while 
maintenance  costs  consumed  only  16.38%  of  the  overall  budget.  Maintenance 
represents  a  substantial  decrease  of  37.24%  in  2019.  In  the  same  manner,  Member 
States’ cost for the "non-MASP-C Rev.2019 projects" decreased to 1.86% of the total 
expenditure. 

Figure 15: Distribution of Member States’ expenditure 

Figure 16 below presents the total investment of Member States in customs IT systems 
for  the  period  2008-202065.  The  cited  figures  are  not  directly  comparable  due  to  the 
inconsistent  number  of Member  States  reporting  over  the  years,  which is  respectively 
presented at the top of each bar for every year in which data was collected. 

65 As of 2013, the total number of the Member States is 28. 

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Figure 16: Member States’ costs, 2008-2020 

Figure 17 outlines the average Member States’ cost through the years 2008-2020. The 
total  sum  allocated  by  Member  States  for  each  year  is  divided  by  the  number  of  the 
Member States that reported during this timeframe. 

Figure 17: Average Member States' costs, 2008-2020 

As  shown  in  the  figure  above,  the  average  Member  States’  dispensed  cost  has 
considerably increased by 33.6% in 2020 compared to 2019. As indicated in the graph, 
the total project expenditure dropped to its lowest levels (22.91%) in the period between 
2012 and 2013. However, the past six years were prominent by an increase of 66.5% 
compared to 2015. 

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This is also justified in the following Figure 18, which presents the total amounts utilised 
by seven Member States (FI, HU, LT, NL, PL, PT and SE) for the period 2008-2020. 

Figure 18: Total costs over the years 2008-2020 for 766 MS that reported in all years 

Moreover,  Member  States’  consumption  of  man-hours  is  illustrated  in  the  following 
Figure 19 for each project of the MASP-C Revision 2019.

66  United  Kingdom  has  been  excluded  from  the  graph  due  to  its  withdrawal  from  the  European  Union.  In  order  to  be 
consistent in comparison UK has been removed also from the previous years since 2008 as illustrated in the graph. 

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Figure 19: Member States’ man-hours for Customs IT systems in 202067

67 The EU implementation of the eATA Carnet Project (3.2) project represented less than 0.01% of the customs IT systems man-hours and have not been included in the figure. 

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Based on Figure 19, the main proportion of the utilisation of man-hours in 2020 was the 
“Adjustments  of  the  existing  import  applications  under  the  UCC”  (2.10),  incorporating 
18.71%  of  the  total  time  spent  following  by  the  “UCC  ICS2”  (1.19),  Maintenance  and 
Updates  of  Operational  IT  systems  (4.8),  “e-Commerce  &  CP42/63”  (1.17)  and  “UCC 
NCTS” (1.7) which  also employed a great share of the man-hours by consuming 17.58%, 
12.61%, 9.42% and 8.17% respectively. This consumption is proportional to the Member 
States’ cost that was absorbed by the aforementioned systems. 

Figure 20: Member States’ man-hours consumed in 2020 

In conclusion, Figure 20 displays the man-hours that the Member States have allocated 
to all MASP-C projects in 2020. As depicted in the figure above, the internal man-hours 
of the projects’ activities in 2020 were apportioned similarly to the external man-hours 
that  absorbed  50.38%  and  49.62%,  respectively.  Compared  with  the  internal  and  the 
external man-hours of the previous years (62.62% and 37.38% in 2019 and 55.23% and 
44.77% in 2018), the trend has shown a continuation of internal man-hours attribution 
compared to external. Due to budget restrictions, Member States assigned a greater part 
of the deployment and development of the systems internally rather than externally.

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ANNEX 1 – IT SYSTEMS PROGRESS ACTIVITIES 

1  MASP-C PROJECTS 

The MASP-C is a living document that is evolving continually in response to the effective 
implementation  of  the  Union  Customs  Code  (UCC)  and  the  e-Customs  projects.  This 
section summarises the efforts made by the Member States and the Commission in 2020 
towards  the  implementation  of  MASP-C  e-Customs  projects  and  achievements 
thereunder. 

1.1  MASP-C Group 1 - Customs European Information Systems 

1.1.1  UCC Customs Decisions (1.2) 

The UCC Customs Decisions System (CDS) allows the electronic processing and central 
storage of the applications, authorisations as well as publication of the list of holders on 
the  internet.  The  central  storage  of  applications  and  authorisations  will  allow  the 
consultation  and  validation  of  Customs  Decisions  by  the  declaration  systems  and 
customs  authorities  in  the  Member  States.  The  IT  system  facilitates  the  necessary 
consultations  between  Member  States’  customs  authorities  during  the  decision  taking 
period  and  the  management  of  the  authorisations  process.  This  system  has  been  in 
operation since 2017. 

2020 marked significant progress towards UCC CDS version 1.24 which was developed 
to be in line with the legal requirements and it was successfully deployed in operations 
in June 2020. Following this deployment, the use of the system by the Customs Officers 
and  the  traders  continued  seamlessly.  The  Commission  finalised  and  published  an 
update of the Business User Guide in October 2020 while the versions translated in all 
EU languages were published to the Member States for their linguistic validation until the 
end of 2020. 

The  UCC  CDS  project  group  continued  convening  throughout  2020  with  the  active 
contribution  of  customs  experts  from  19  Member  States.  The  goal  was  to  identify, 
analyse  and  solve  potential  issues  raised  by  the  Member  States  and  to  proactively 
provide solutions for the continuous improvements of the system. During the year, the 
UCC CDS project group analysed and identified solutions for different issues reported 
by the users of the system, while proposing various changes and features for improving 
the  user-friendliness.  In  addition,  the  UCC  CDS  project  group  members  prepared  the 
privacy statement68 for UCC CDS version 1.24, with the majority of the members being 
in favour of the common approach and the privacy statement drafted by the Commission. 
Hence, the Commission published a general privacy statement in June 2020, followed 
by a discussion and validation from the CCC-GEN. The Member States who opt to use 
their own privacy statement are being referred to in the EUROPA webpage69. 

68 Legal notice containing a disclaimer, a copyright notice and rules on both personal data protection and the use of the 
EU emblem by third parties. 

69 https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/customs-procedures/customs-decisions_en 

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As UCC CDS is a hybrid system for both development70 and operations71, the Member 
States  can  choose  how  to  implement  it  in  line  with  their  preferences  and  national 
requirements. Therefore, most Member States (BG, DK, EE, IE, IT, CY, LV, LT, LU, HU, 
MT, NL, PT, RO, SI and SE) are using the centrally developed system, with ES and AT 
having developed their own national hybrid solution. The remaining Member States (BE, 
CZ, DE, EL, FR, HR, PL, SK, FI and UK) have adopted a different approach and they 
are using both central and national systems. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, BG, DK, 
DE, EL, IT, LV, AT, PL and FI) or ‘Finished’ (CZ, EE, IE, ES, HR, CY and SE). Concerning 
the current phase, the majority of the Member States reported being in operations (BE, 
BG, CZ, DE, IE, ES, IT, CY, LV, PL, SK, FI and SE), in upgrade of the national system 
(DK and HR), in deployment activities (FR and AT) or in conformance testing (EL). EE is 
the only Member State who reported status ‘Other’, with activities such as participation 
in  the  project  groups  and  meetings,  development  and  testing  of  national  system  and 
provision  of  translations  for  the  system’s  user  interface.  In  addition,  several  Member 
States reported carrying out activities related to analysis and modelling (BE, CZ, DE, HR, 
IT, LV and PL), maintenance (BE, CZ, DE, HR, IT, SK and SE) and upgrades (CZ, DE, 
IE, ES, HR, IT, CY, AT, SK and SE). During the reporting year, some Member States 
communicated  their  preceding  phase  and  indicated  performing  national  acceptance 
testing activities (AT), upgrade of the national system (CZ and PL) and development of 
a national system (EL). 

BE, CY, RO reported using the central system developed by the Commission, while BE 
performed maintenance activities on the national system. BG completed the translations 
of the new labels of the system and corrected the old ones. In addition, BG reviewed the 
documentation  prepared  by  the  Commission  and  performed  all  1st  level  helpdesk 
activities.  CZ  performed  activities  related  to  the  improvement  of  the  CDS  national 
components  and  the  creation  of  new  validations  between  the  ICS  and  national  data 
storage  for  customs  decisions,  while  participating  in  the  UCC  CDS  project  group. 
Moreover, CZ created some manuals and organised different training sessions for the 
national  users,  which  have  been  published  on  the  national  webpages.  DK  actively 
participated  in  design  and  development  of  the  planned  CDS  releases.  DE  carried  out 
development and maintenance activities to the national CDS component, which will be 
deployed in operations in the first quarter of 2021. EE performed testing activities for the 
national  CDS  system,  developed  a  CRS  system  and  attended  the  various  meetings 
organised by the Commission. 

IE performed training sessions for the national users and tested the centrally developed 
system.  EL  focused  on  the  interoperability  between  the  national  customs  information 
system  and  UCC  CDS.  ES  carried  out  some  updates  mainly  for  improving  the 
communication  between  the  national  and  the  central  systems.  FR  allowed  to  more 
national users access to the central system for issuing authorisations involving another 
Member  States.  HR  reported  on  activities  related  to  upgrading  the  existing  national 
system  in  accordance  with  the  UCC.  IT  experienced  some  problems  related  to  the 
business  issues  and  the  misalignment  between UCC  CDS  and  the  legal  basis,  which 
were  solved  with  the  deployment  of  UCC  CDS  v1.24  in  operations.  However,  IT 
welcomed the Member States’ and the Commission’s initiative on resolving them as soon 
as possible with the new version of UCC CDS. HU tested the new UCC CDS versions 

70 Hybrid development refers to the development which gives MS the choice to either use the centrally developed and 
centrally operated system, or to develop and operate some of the components on their own national domain. 

71 Hybrid operation refers to the operation of a hybrid system. In these cases, central components coexist with national 
components operating in some or all MS. 

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and  actively  supported  economic  operators  and  national  users.  AT  successfully 
executed  the  conformance  tests  and  deployed  their  hybrid  system  aligned  with  UCC 
CDS  v1.24  in  operations  in  December  2020.  PL  continued  the  development  of  the 
national system during the reporting year, which is expected to be ready in the second 
half of 2021. SK indicated that central system is used for the multi-MS customs decisions. 
LV, LT, MT, NL, FI and SE reported no activities on the project. 

1.1.2  UCC Binding Tariff Information (UCC BTI) (1.4) 

UCC Binding Tariff Information is a decision issued by the customs administration that 
is  binding  on  all  Member  States'  customs  administrations  and  on  the  holder  of  the 
decision. It makes use of a central system by which applications are submitted and UCC 
BTI decisions are issued. This system has been in operation since 2019. 

During 2020, Phase 2 of the project, with both the EBTI Specific Trader Portal (EBTI-
STP) and the EBTI Central System (EBTI-CS), were closely monitored and any identified 
issues were resolved with no delay. The EU Customs Trader Portal (EUCTP) is used as 
a single-entry point for the traders. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, CZ, DK, 
DE and EL) or ‘Finished’ (BE, EE, IE, FR, HR, CY, HU, AT, PL, SK and SE). Concerning 
the current phase, the majority of the Member States reported being in operations (BE, 
BG, DE, IE, HR, CY, HU, AT, PL, SK and FI), in upgrade of the national system (CZ and 
DK) or in deployment activities (FR). EE is the only Member State who reported status 
‘Other’,  with  activities  such  as  participating  in  the  webinars  organised  by  the 
Commission. In addition, several Member States reported carrying out activities related 
to analysis and modelling (DE, HR and PL), maintenance (CZ, DE, HR, HU, PL, SK, FI 
and  SE)  and  upgrades  (CZ,  DE,  EL,  HR,  PL,  SK  and  SE).  During the  reporting  year, 
some  Member  States  communicated  their  preceding  phase  and  indicated  performing 
deployment activities (DE). 

BE,  BG,  CY,  RO  and  SK  reported  using  the  central  system  developed  by  the 
Commission, while BG, CZ and EE participated in the conformance testing activities for 
the EU/UK Withdrawal Agreement and IE/NI Protocol. DK identified some errors in the 
system during conformance testing, which will be corrected in subsequent releases. IE 
reviewed  the  arisen  issues  after  testing,  submitted  the  relevant  change  requests  and 
attended  the  monthly  meetings  organised  by  the  Commission.  ES  performed  several 
improvements in the national system after identifying some inconsistencies. HR carried 
out some minor upgrades and regular software maintenance of the national system. AT 
created several training documents for the national users and PL reviewed the updated 
system  specifications.  FI  attended  the  various  meetings  hosted  by  the  Commission, 
organised different training sessions for the Customs Officers and reported some errors 
identified by the national users. DE, FR, IT, LV, LT, NL and SE reported no activities on 
the project. 

1.1.3  UCC AEO and impacts of MRA (1.5) 

The  UCC  AEO  system  is  a  tool  for  the  management  of  UCC  AEO  applications  and 
authorisations  and  requires  standard  decisions  taking  processes  to  be  applied  to  all 
customs  decisions.    The  UCC  AEO  project  covers  four  main  components:  Minor 
Enhancement, Major Enhancement, Direct Trader Access and Mutual Recognition (MR) 
Enhancement. 

Each  of  the  components  will  be  applied  to  the  current  UCC  AEO  system.  The  Minor 
Enhancement  contains  updates  to  the  code  lists  managed  in  the  Central  Services  – 

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Reference Data 2 (CS/RD2) application and in the EOS-AEO applications’ user interface. 
The Major Enhancement is needed for the alignment of the existing EOS-AEO system 
to  the  applicable  UCC  legislation.  The  Direct  Trader  Access  allows  data  exchange 
between economic operators and customs authorities in a uniform and harmonised way 
and  the  Mutual  Recognition  Enhancement  provides  a  standard  interface  for  the  UCC 
AEO data exchange with partner countries. 

The activities for the EU UCC AEO Direct Trader Access continued in 2020 and were 
focused  on  monitoring  and  managing  the  eAEO-STP  module,  which  has  been  in 
operation in two phases since 2019. 

The  UCC  AEO  Mutual  Recognition  Agreement  (MRA)  Enhancement  component  was 
already in production for China, Japan, Norway, Switzerland and the United States of 
America. Business negotiations for an MRA with Canada were ongoing but they have 
been set on hold since 2019 as there was no further reaction from Canada. Discussions 
between the Commission and the Hong Kong for a possible MRA were stopped and no 
legal agreement has been signed. Finally, the Commission discussed with Moldova for 
creating the IT specifications for the MRA IT module. The acceptance of the Interface 
Control Document (ICD) will be done through exchange of letter between the directors 
of the Moldova’s Customs Authorities and the DG TAXUD’s. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, CZ, DE, 
EL, HU, AT and PL) or ‘Finished’ (BE, DK, EE, IE, ES, FR, IT, CY, LV, MT, RO, FI and 
SE).  Concerning  the  current  phase,  the  majority  of  the  Member  States  reported  on 
various national activities related to being in operations (BE, BG, CZ, DK, IE, EL, ES, IT, 
CY,  LV,  HU,  SK  and  SE),  in  upgrade  of  the  national  system  (DE,  AT  and  PL)  or  in 
deployment  activities  (FR,  MT  and  FI). The remaining  Member  States  reported  status 
‘Other’, with activities such as participating in the webinars organised by the Commission 
(EE)  and  provision  of  translations  for  the  system’s  user  interface  (EE  and  RO).  In 
addition, several Member States reported carrying out activities related to analysis and 
modelling (DE, IE and AT), maintenance (BE, DE, IT, HU, SK and SE) and upgrades 
(BE, DE, EL, IT, HU, AT, PL, SK, FI and SE). During the reporting year, some Member 
States communicated their preceding phase and indicated being in operations (DE, EE 
and PL), performing upgrades on the national system (IT) and conformance testing (EL). 

BG,  CZ,  HR,  CY  and  SK  reported  using  the  central  system  developed  by  the 
Commission, while BG, CZ, EE, HR and RO prepared and provided the translated labels 
for the system’s UI. BG conducted validation of the central system, organised the NSD, 
participated  in  the  various  meetings  and  review  of  the  specifications  prepared  by  the 
Commission.  DE  carried  out  development  and  maintenance  activities  to  the  national 
CDS component, which will be deployed in operations in the first quarter of 2021. EE 
participated  in  the  monthly  webinars  organised  by  the  Commission.  IE  analysed  the 
documentation  prepared  by  the  Commission  and  provided  proposals  to  the  proper 
development from a business perspective. ES started developing some IT tools to assist 
with the monitoring activities. HU reported on activities related to the testing of the new 
system versions and the support of the national users and customs officials. AT prepared 
for  the  implementation  of  the  newest  system’s  versions  and  PL  prepared  the  cost 
estimation  for  the  project.  BE,  ES,  FR,  IT,  LV,  LT,  MT,  NL,  FI  and  SE  reported  no 
activities on the project. 

1.1.4  UCC Automated Export System (AES) (1.6) 

The  UCC  AES  is  a  tool  that  aims  at  automation  of  the  completion  of  the  export 
procedures  (including  re-export)  and  exit  formalities  covering  common,  national  and 
external domains. 

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During 2020, the updated Functional System Specifications (FSS) have been initiated 
and  the  L4  BPMs  Iteration  1  have  been finalised.  Furthermore,  the Technical  System 
Specifications (TSS) have been approved by ECCG in August 2020, which include the 
Request For Change (RFC) List.31 alignment to UCC Annex B latest updates. The TES 
Architecture  Document  and  the  Transition  Implementation  Plan  were  published  and 
accepted by ECCG. Several workshops and web-conference sessions were organised 
by the Commission on a monthly basis with the forerunner Member States72, as well as 
joint  meetings  between  the  Commission, forerunner  Member  States  and collaborating 
Member States. As a result, the export processes have been analysed and the structure 
of the common domain messages was finalised. The forerunner Member States started 
the  conformance  testing,  following  the  deployment  and  rollout  in  the  conformance 
environment.  Moreover,  the  Central  Information  Exchange  Convertor  Application 
(C/ieCA) release 1.0 was delivered in July 2020, tested and deployed in the conformance 
environment in August 2020. 

Currently,  the  Export  and  Exit  formalities,  including  safety  and  security  features,  are 
covered by the functionality of the Export Control System (ECS) Phase 2. The UCC AES 
is  the  next  phase  of  ECS,  which  would  provide  the  complete  functionality  related  to 
export and exit of goods, as well as the required adaptations to be in line with the UCC 
and its implementing and delegated acts. By the end of 2020, the ECS system released 
14.74  million  indirect  export  movements.  The  system  had  an  average  availability  of 
99.52%. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, BG, CZ, 
DK, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, CY, LV, HU, MT, AT, PL, FI and SE), ‘Finished’ (DE and 
IT)  or  ‘On  hold’  (SK).  Concerning  the  current  phase,  several  Member  States reported 
being in design of the national system (BE, LV and HU), in analysis of the national user 
requirements  (DK,  EE,  IE,  EL,  CY,  MT  and  SE),  in  analysis  of  national  functional 
specifications (FR, HR and AT), in analysis of national technical specifications (CZ, ES, 
FR, IT and FI), in national acceptance testing (PL) or in operations (DE). BG is the only 
Member  State  who  reported  status  ‘Other’,  with  activities  such  as  reviewing  the 
documentation  prepared  by  the  Commission.  In  addition,  several  Member  States 
reported carrying out activities related to analysis and modelling (BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, 
EL,  FR,  HR,  CY,  AT,  PL  and  FI),  maintenance  (DE)  and  upgrades  (DE).  During  the 
reporting year, some Member States communicated their preceding phase and indicated 
performing analysis of the national user requirements (FR and AT), being in operations 
(DE) and preparing a call for tender (EL). 

BG  planned  the  necessary  measures  for  setting  up  the  UCC  AES  application  and 
reviewed all available documentation. Furthermore, BG prepared the national FSS and 
TSS related to the national export application. CZ and CY started working on the national 
specifications which are expected to be finished in 2021. DK finalised the procurement 
of a national Declaration Management System (DMS) to be used for both UCC AES and 
UCC  NCTS  Phase  5  and  clarified  all  necessary  details  for  the  tender  framework 
agreement. In addition, DK analysed and updated the national user requirements, while 
defining  the  national  project  plan.  Sub-releases  of  the  national  export  system  in  DE 
covered  the  implementation  of  UCC  AES  requirements  and  an  evolution  towards  a 
service-oriented architecture, with no risk imposed to meet the agreed target date to start 
operations.  Besides  attending  the  UCC  AES  project group  and reviewing the  relevant 
documentation, EE continued the preliminary analysis towards determining the project 
cost  and  the  schedule,  enabling  the  start  of  the  procurement  phase.  IE  defined  a 
transition  strategy  planning  and  EL  performed  analysis  on  the  Level  4  BPMs,  the 

72 DE and PL 

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common  specifications,  the  national  data  requirements  and  listed  the  differences 
between the UCC AES and ECS. FR continued the development of the national system 
and  initiated  a  scoping  phase  that  aims  at  an  overhaul  of  the  national  import-export 
system. 

Having  concluded  the  analysis  phase  and  the  contracting  funding,  HR  started  the 
elaboration  phase  of  the  project.  IT  decided  to  postpone  the  project  activities  for  two 
months  to  accommodate  the  challenges  posed  by  the  COVID-19  pandemic.  LV 
completed  the  elaboration  of  the  Vision  Document  for  UCC  AES  based  on  new 
technologies. Moreover, LV defined the national user requirements and initiated the agile 
development of the new functionalities. AT continued the analysis of the national user 
requirements in accordance with the TSS documentation prepared by the Commission. 
Besides  attending  all  UCC  AES  meetings  and  analysing  the  relevant  documentation 
prepared by the Commission, PL deployed the new National Export Control Application 
(NECA) which will be fully tested in 2021. PT indicated that the analysis of UCC AES has 
been  initiated  and  all  operational, maintenance  and  support  activities  were  performed 
through the contracted services. RO took all preparatory steps at the high management 
level, in view of the public tender procedure. FI initiated the technical planning and the 
business analysis with the contractor and participated in the UCC AES project group. BE 
and HU reported on designing the national system as their sole activity, while LT, MT 
and SE reported no project activities. 

1.1.5  UCC Transit System including NCTS (1.7) 

The UCC NCTS Phase 5 project updates the existing NCTS system which automates 
the  common  and  community  transit  procedure  and  controls  the  movements  covered 
under the International Road Transports (TIR) procedure within the EU. 

During 2020, the Technical System Specifications (TSS) have been approved by ECCG 
in August 2020, which include the RFC-List.31 alignment to UCC Annex B latest updates. 
The TES Architecture Document and the Transition Implementation Plan were published 
and  accepted  by  ECCG.  Several  workshops  and  web-conference  sessions  were 
organised by the Commission on a monthly basis with the forerunner Member States, as 
well  as  joint  meetings  between  the  Commission,  forerunner  Member  States  and 
collaborating Member States. As a result, the export processes have been analysed and 
the structure of the messages was finalised. 

Activities on the UCC AES and UCC NCTS ran in parallel during 2020. Therefore, the 
activities listed under UCC AES (1.1.5) also concern UCC NCTS Phase 5. 

By the end of 2020, the UCC NCTS system released over 11.2 million transit movements. 
The system had an average availability of 99.41%. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, BG, CZ, 
DK, EE, IE, EL, ES, HR, CY, LV, LT, HU, AT, PL, SI and FI), ‘Finished’ (DE and IT) or 
‘On  hold’  (FR,  MT  and  SK).  Concerning  the  current  phase,  several  Member  States 
reported being in analysis of the national user requirements (DK, EE, IE, EL, CY, MT 
and SI), in operations (DE and PL), in analysis of the national functional specifications 
(FR, HR and AT), in analysis of the national technical specifications (BE, CZ, IT and FI), 
in design of the national system (ES, LV and HU) or in deployment activities (LT). BG is 
the only Member State who reported status ‘Other’, with activities such as reviewing the 
documentation  prepared  by  the  Commission.  In  addition,  several  Member  States 
reported carrying out activities related to analysis and modelling (DE, IE, EL, FR, HR, 
CY, AT, PL and FI), maintenance (DE and PL) and upgrades (DE and PL). During the 
reporting year, some Member States communicated their preceding phase and indicated 
being in operations (DE and PL) and preparing the call for tender (EL). 
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BG  planned  the  necessary  measures  for  setting  up  the  UCC  NCTS  application  and 
reviewed all available documentation. Furthermore, BG prepared the national FSS and 
TSS  related  to  the  national  transit  application.  CZ  started  working  on  the  national 
specifications which are expected to be finished in 2021. DK finalised the procurement 
of a national Declaration Management System (DMS) to be used for both UCC AES and 
UCC  NCTS  Phase  5  and  clarified  all  necessary  details  for  the  tender  framework 
agreement.  DE  developed  a  new  national  transit  component,  while  maintaining  the 
existing  system.  Besides  attending  the  UCC  NCTS  project  group  and  reviewing  the 
relevant documentation, EE continued the preliminary analysis towards determining the 
project cost and the schedule, enabling the start of the procurement phase. IE defined a 
transition  strategy  planning  and  FR  continued  the  development  of  the  new  transit 
application  and  finalised  the  impact  study  for  designing  the  national  specifications. 
Having  concluded  the  analysis  phase  and  the  contracting  funding,  HR  started  the 
elaboration phase of the project.  

IT  decided  to  postpone  the  project  activities  for  two  months  to  accommodate  the 
challenges  posed  by  the  COVID-19  pandemic.  LV  completed  the  elaboration  of  the 
Vision  Document  for  UCC  NCTS  and  defined  the  national  user  requirements,  while 
initiating  the  agile  development  of  the  new  functionalities.  LT  reported  on  activities 
related to redeveloping the National Transit Control system for complying with modern 
technologies  and  initiated  the  preparatory  activities  for  production  deployment.  AT 
continued  the  analysis  of  the  national  user  requirements  in  accordance  with  the  TSS 
documentation  prepared  by  the  Commission.  PL  maintained  the  national  transit 
application and finalised the procurement of the supporting software and hardware for 
upgrading  the  system  in  accordance  with  UCC  NCTS  Phase  5.  PT  indicated  that  the 
analysis of UCC AES has been initiated and all operational, maintenance and support 
activities were performed through the contracted services. RO took all preparatory steps 
at  the  high  management  level,  in  view  of  the  public  tender  procedure.  FI  initiated  the 
technical planning and the business analysis with the contractor and participated in the 
UCC NCTS project group. 

1.1.6  UCC Registered Exporter System (REX) (1.11) 

The  main  purpose  of  the  system  is  to  replace  the  current  paper-based  certification 
process by an IT-supported self-certification process, including a central database that 
contains the registered exporters and provides the Member States with the opportunity 
to  enhance  their  national  systems  for  customs  declarations  with  an  automated 
verification of UCC REX numbers from the declarations against that central database. 

UCC  REX1  system  was  deployed  in  operations  since  2017,  while  UCC  REX2  was 
successfully deployed into production in 2018. UCC REX3 will implement the UCC REX 
Trader  Portal  and  will  be  based  on  the  EUCTP.  During  the  reporting  year,  the  Vision 
Document for the UCC REX Trader Portal has been accepted by the ECCG by written 
procedure. 

UCC  REX3  system  is  organised  in  two  phases.  Phase  1  will  introduce  the  general 
requirements of the UCC REX Trader Portal and will enable the registration of economic 
operators  and  the  modification,  consultation  and  printing  of  the  UCC  REX  numbers. 
Phase  2  will  enable  the  revocation  and  annulment  of  the  UCC  REX  numbers  while 
adding  new  features  and  functionalities  as  requested  by  the  Member  States  and  the 
economic  operators.  Both  phases  are  developed  in  an  iterative  approach,  with  2 
iterations  prepared  and  presented  to  the  Member  States  in  dedicated  webinars  in 
December 2020, while an additional webinar is scheduled for January 2021. The goal of 
these webinars was to prepare all activities before the go-live of the Phase 1 of the UCC 

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REX  Trader  Portal.  The  central  services  implementation  was  performed  in  the  fourth 
quarter of 2020 and UCC REX3 system is expected to be deployed in operations by the 
first quarter of 2021. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (DK, EE, FR, 
HR, HU, AT and FI), ‘Finished’ (BE, BG, CZ, IE, IT, CY, MT and PL) or ‘On hold’ (RO). 
Concerning the current phase, several Member States reported being in operations (BE, 
CZ, EE, IE, EL, HR, IT, CY, LV, AT, PL and SK), in conformance testing (BG, HU and 
FI),  in  deployment  (FR  and  MT),  in  upgrade  (DK)  or  in  analysis  of  the  national  user 
requirements (RO). The remaining Member States reported status ‘Other’. In addition, 
several Member States reported carrying out activities related to analysis and modelling 
(CZ,  HU  and  PL),  maintenance  (CZ,  IT,  HU  and  SK)  and  upgrades  (CZ,  IT  and  SK). 
During  the  reporting  year,  CZ  communicated  being  in  operations  as  their  preceding 
phase. 

BG,  DE  and  SK  indicated  that  the  central  system  is  used  by  the  national  users.  BG 
prepared  the  National  Project  Plan,  finished  the  translation  activities  and  successfully 
performed  all  connectivity  tests  to  the  central  system.  Moreover,  BG  finalised  the 
organisation of the NSD and reviewed all documentation distributed by the Commission. 
CZ initiated the development activities of UCC REX3 system and concluded the analysis, 
models  and  impact  studies  related  to  the  national  architecture.  DK  participated  in  the 
definition and design of the UCC REX3 release, while EE attended all project webinars, 
provided  the  translations  of  the  Graphical  User  Interface  (GUI)  and  performed  the 
necessary  testing  activities.  IE  reviewed  all  specifications,  participated  in  the  project 
meetings  and  executed  conformance  testing.  ES  finalised  all  project  activities  and 
attended all training sessions organised by the Commission. HR initiated the upgrade to 
UCC  REX3  during  the  reporting  year  to  submit  all  REX  requests  electronically.  IT 
maintained the current operational system and prepared for the upcoming UCC REX3 
system,  after  establishing  the  NSD  service.  HU  successfully  tested  and  deployed  the 
nationally  developed  system  and  resolved  all  issues  on  their  side.  AT  finalised  the 
configuration of the national users and performed all testing activities. PL analysed the 
implementation of UCC REX3 and provided all translations of the system. RO had placed 
the national project ‘On hold’ and announced that the development of the national REX 
component is part of the National Import Declaration System. Besides using the central 
REX  solution,  FI  performed testing  activities  and  training  sessions for  the  UCC  REX3 
system. NL, PT and SE reported no project activities. 

1.1.7  COPIS (1.12) 

COPIS is a system which supports the enforcement of EU rules on intellectual property 
rights  (IPR),  where  right  holders  can  ask  the  intervention  of  customs  in  order  to  take 
measures against goods infringing certain IPR. 

The COPIS project contains COPIS 3.3.0, COPIS Interface with Anti-Fraud Information 
System (AFIS), COPIS implementation of electronic Application for Action (eAFA) and 
Feasibility  study  on  the  interconnection  with  the  European  Union  Intellectual  Property 
Office (EUIPO) Enforcement Database (EDB). 

COPIS  eAFA  aims  to  provide  economic  operators  with  the  possibility  to  electronically 
submit  and  amend  an  application.  During  2020,  the  development  activities  of  COPIS 
eAFA have been continued, with the central services implementation finalised in the third 
quarter of 2020. The deployment and rollout will take place in the first quarter of 2021, 
as scheduled. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, CZ, DK, 
DE, IE, IT, HU, AT and PL), ‘Finished’ (BE, ES, FR and MT) or ‘On hold’ (PT and SK). 
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Concerning the current phase, most Member States reported being in operations (BG, 
CZ, DE, EL, ES, HU and PL) and in deployment activities (FR and MT). DK is the only 
Member State who reported status ‘Other’, with activities such as design of the national 
system and preparation for the conformance testing. In addition, several Member States 
reported carrying out activities related to analysis and modelling (BG, IT, AT and PL), 
maintenance (DE, IT and PL) and upgrades (CZ, DE, IT and PL). During the reporting 
year, BG communicated their preceding phase relates to analysis of the national user 
requirements. 

BG  reported  on  activities  related  to  development  of  a  national  application  for 
infringements  and  risk  information  which  will  be  integrated  with  central  COPIS.  CZ 
deployed a new release of the national system after successfully having performed the 
conformance  testing.  Furthermore,  CZ  and  DK  initiated  the  development  activities  for 
COPIS  eAFA  at  national  level.  IT  maintained  the  current  operational  system  and 
prepared for the upcoming COPIS eAFA, after establishing the NSD service. However, 
IT encountered some issues identified during the review of the documentation provided 
by the Commission. CY and MT indicated that the central system is used by the national 
users. AT analysed the national user requirements and started the upgrade activities of 
the  national  system  in  accordance  with  COPIS  eAFA.  PL  performed  a  conformance 
testing campaign and deployed the national application in operations. BE, EE, IE, EL, 
HR, LV, LT, NL, PT, RO, FI and SE reported no activities on the project. 

1.1.8  EU Single Window environment for customs (EU SWE-C) (1.13) 

EU SWE-C is defined as a facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to 
lodge standardised information and documents with a single-entry point to fulfil all import, 
export and transit-related regulatory requirements. 

Given  the  complexity  of  the  SW  concept,  the  initiative  contains  three  separate 
components: ‘EU CSW-CVED’, ‘EU Customs SW-Certificates Exchange’ and ‘Potential 
legislative  initiative  on  the  EU  SW  environment  for  Customs’.  The  first  component  is 
implementing  the  automatic  validation  of  the  Common  Veterinary  Entry  Document 
(CVED)  for  animals  and  animal  products,  as  well  as  the  Common  Entry  Document 
(CED).  The  second  component  builds  on  the  outcomes  of  the  EU  CSW-CVED  and 
foresees  expansion  of  its  scope  with  additional  certificates,  as  well  as  enhanced 
functionalities. Finally, the third component is about the definition of a broader scope of 
the  EU  Single Window  environment  for  Customs  (beyond  the  certificates’  exchange), 
preparation  of  the  legal  framework  to  cover  this  scope  and  the  action  plan  for  its 
implementation. 

Currently, the ‘EU CSW-CVED’ component is operational in 9 Member States, while it 
had several releases deployed in production during 2020. 

The ‘EU Customs SW-Certificates Exchange’ (EU CSW-CERTEX) component has two 
main  objectives.  Firstly,  it  enhances  the  EU  CSW-CVED  functionalities,  such  as  the 
quantity  management  and  the  possibility  to  generate  and  transmit  certificates  in  PDF 
format.  Additional  functionalities  will  be  introduced  in  subsequent  stages.  Secondly,  it 
expands the scope of the certificates, permits and other documents, currently available 
for exchange via EU CSW-CERTEX. The following certificates and licences are covered: 
FLEGT,  COI,  CHED, ODS,  F-GAS,  Dual  use  and  Cultural Goods Import  Licence  and 
Importer Statement. 

In 2020, EU CSW-CERTEX FLEGT and COI were maintained in production. However, 
in 2019 it has been decided that EU CSW-CERTEX was to be re-engineered to provide 
the Member States with the access to all Partner Competent Authority (PCA) documents 
covered by the scope of the project via a single interface. This approach is expected to 
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significantly facilitate the planning of the national integration in the Member States, as 
well as to reduce the efforts required for such an integration and maintenance. The first 
release  of re-engineered  EU  CSW-CERTEX,  covering  CHED-PP,  CHED-D  and ODS, 
was  developed  and  installed  in  the  conformance  environment,  allowing  the  Member 
States  to  initiate  their  testing  activities.  The  second  release  of  EU  CSW-CERTEX,  in 
which  CHED-A,  CHED-P  and  F-GAS  will  be  added,  is  under  development  and  the 
external review of the L1-L4 BPMs were finalised and published in June 2020, while an 
update  was  approved  at  the  end  of  the  year,  following  additional  comments  from  the 
Member States, along with the Business Guidelines. Finally, the Dual Use eLicensing 
system was further developed by DG TRADE and will be added in the scope of EU CSW-
CERTEX in the next deployment window in the fourth quarter of 2021. 

The  ‘Potential  legislative  initiative  on  the  EU  SW  environment  for  Customs’  initiative, 
which is a third component, does not envisage the development of a new IT solution but 
rather  deals  with  the  interoperability  of  already  existing  solutions.  The  Commission 
continued  the  work  towards  the  completion  of  the  initiative.  More  information  can  be 
found under section 3.3. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, BG, CZ, 
ES, FR, IT, LT, MT, AT, PL, PT, FI and SE), ‘Finished’ (EE and CY) or ‘On hold’ (DK, 
HU, RO and SK). Concerning the current phase, several Member States reported being 
in  operations (BG,  EE, CY  and  PT),  in  design  of  national  system (BE,  HU  and  FI),  in 
analysis  of  the  national  user  requirements  (EL,  CY,  MT  and  SE),  in  analysis  of  the 
national functional specifications (AT), in analysis of the national technical specifications 
(ES),  in  upgrade  (CZ,  IE,  FR),  in  deployment  (LT)  and  in  national  acceptance  testing 
(PL). The remaining Member States reported status ‘Other’. In addition, several Member 
States reported carrying out activities related to analysis and modelling (BE, CZ, EL, ES, 
AT, PL, FI and SE), maintenance (CZ and ES) and upgrades (BE, CZ and IE). During 
the  reporting  year,  some  Member  States  communicated  their  preceding  phase  and 
indicated performing upgrade of the national system (CZ), preparing the call for tender 
(EL),  analysing  the  national  functional  specifications  (ES)  and  designing  the  national 
system (IT). 

BG reviewed all projects documents distributed by the Commission and maintained the 
national  EU  CSW-CVED  component.  CZ  focused  on  developing  a  national  EU  CSW-
COI component and on preparing a global impact analysis for implementing additional 
certificates. DK has put the project on hold and the planning will be evaluated the next 
year. DE announced that they followed up Commission’s activities on this project and 
plan to develop an interface to EU CSW-CERTEX in the coming years. EE kept working 
with the national EU CSW-CVED component and IE took the preparatory steps for the 
addition of COI. ES attended the EU SWE-C project group and actively participated in 
the discussions for tackling all identified issues in the nationally developed systems. FR 
implemented  a  new  certificate  and  upgraded  EU-CSW  CERTEX  but  reported  some 
budgetary  restrictions  that  can  delay  the  project’s  deployment.  IT  carried  out 
development  activities  to  connect  the  national  Customs  IT  system  with  EU  CSW-
CERTEX. LT updated the national SW system, implementing new or upgrading existing 
functionalities  according  to  the  national  Customs  needs.  AT  analysed  the  functional 
specifications  and  attended  the  various  meetings  organised  by  the  Commission.  PL 
prepared  all  national  project  documentation  related  to  the  national  SW  system  in  the 
context  of  the  national  ‘Electronic  Services  Platform  for  the  Revenue  and  Customs 
Services’ project and prepared for the conformance testing which will be started in 2021. 
In  addition,  PL  concluded  the  national  planning  and  roadmap  of  the  SW  system  after 
internal meetings with the managers responsible of other national systems. HR, LV, NL, 
PT, RO and SK reported no activities on the project. 

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1.1.9  Classification Information System (CLASS) (1.14) 

CLASS provides a single platform where all classification information (regardless of its 
nature) is published in a way that ensures transparency. 

The system has been deployed in production since June 2019, with the identified issues 
being thoroughly analysed. During 2020, incremental efforts have been made to resolve 
the technical issues in various releases deployed within the year. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG and HU), 
‘Finished’  (BE,  EE  and  MT)  or  ‘On  hold’  (PT  and  SK).  Concerning  the current  phase, 
some Member States reported being in operations (BG, EL and FI), in deployment (MT) 
and in design of the national system (HU). EE is the only Member State who reported 
status ‘Other’, with activities such as translating the CLASS user guide for the national 
users. 

IE  reported  on  activities  related  to  reviewing  all  identified  issues  and  submitting  the 
related  changes  requests  on  the  CLASS  system.  CY  declared  interest  in  using  the 
central  system  provided  by  the  Commission.  MT and  RO  indicated  that  their  customs 
officials are using the central CLASS system. The majority of the Member States (BE, 
BG, CZ, DK, DE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, LV, LT, NL, AT, PL, PT, SK and SE) reported no 
activities on the project. 

1.1.10 UCC Economic Operators Registration and Identification subsystem 

2 (EORI2) (1.15) 

The  objective  of  the  UCC  Economic  Operators  Registration  and  Identification  (EORI) 
system  is  to  establish  a  unique  system  of  registration  and  identification  of  economic 
operators and other persons for the purposes of applying the customs legislation of the 
Union. The UCC EORI2 project aims to update the existing EORI system and the EOS 
web services in alignment with the legal changes resulting from Annexes 12-01 to the 
UCC DA/IA. The system has been in operations since 2018. The system is stable and 
no activities were performed in 2020. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, DE, EL, 
LV, HU, PL and PT), ‘Finished’ (BE, CZ, DK, EE, IE, ES, FR, HR, IT and MT) or ‘On hold’ 
(AT). Concerning the current phase, the great majority of the Member States reported 
being in operations (BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, HR, IT, CY, LV, HU, PT, RO 
and  SK),  in  upgrade  (PL),  in  deployment  (MT)  or  in  analysis  of  the  national  technical 
specifications (AT). In addition, several Member States reported carrying out activities 
related to analysis and modelling (DE and AT), maintenance (BE, DE, HR, IT and SK) 
and upgrades (BE, DE and SK). During the reporting year, DE and SI indicated being in 
operations as their preceding phase. 

BG, DE, EE, HR, AT maintained and operated the national EORI systems. BG performed 
all  activities  related  to  the  EU/UK  Withdrawal  Agreement  and  IE/NI  Protocol  on  the 
national level. EE identified and corrected some bugs in their system, while updating the 
user manuals for their traders and customs officers. ES introduced several adjustments 
in  the  national  system  for  handling  the  EU/UK  Withdrawal  Agreement  impact  and  the 
removal of the UK EORI numbers. IT implemented some changes in the national EORI 
database  to  minimise  the  impact  of  the  EU/UK  Withdrawal  Agreement  and  IE/NI 
Protocol. AT had placed the national project ‘On hold’ because they focused their effort 
on  UCC  CDS.  During  the  reporting  year,  PL  prepared  some  changes  in  the  national 
system for optimising the registration of the economic operator and the assignment of an 
EORI  number.  PT  indicated  that  the  operational,  maintenance  and  support  activities 

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were delivered through the contracted services. LT, NL, FI and SE reported no activities 
on the project. 

1.1.11 Customs Risk Management System2 (CRMS2) (1.16) 

The  Customs  Risk  Management  System  (CRMS)  is  used  for  the  exchange  of  risk 
information, to support the implementation of priority control areas for crisis management 
purposes and as a means of communication between risk experts. The CRMS2 system 
reshapes  the  CRMS  system  created  in  2005  to  increase  the  clarity  of  the  different 
functions to be fulfilled. 

During 2020, the work on the business requirements and all the documents related to 
the  elaboration  phase  of  the  project  continued.  The  Application  and  Service 
Specifications have been prepared and special attention was given to the GUI, for which 
a prototype was developed for designing all screens’ details. 

The project has been put on hold by the great majority of the Member States, who did 
not  report  any  activities  for  the  reporting  year.  The  remaining  Member  States 
communicated very few activities during 2020 related to designing the functionalities of 
a national CRMS2 system and reconfiguration of the Customs Offices in view of the next 
phases. 

1.1.12 e-Commerce and CP 42/63 (1.17) 

The  objective  of  e-Commerce  and  Customs  Procedure  (CP)  42/63  is  to  automatically 
validate  the  individual  Value  Added  Tax  (VAT)  identification  numbers  for  the  Import 
scheme declared in the customs declarations and for the CP42 and CP63 declared in 
the customs declarations against VAT Information Exchange System (VIES). As a result, 
the e-Commerce and CP 42/63 captures and offers all relevant data to tax authorities 
that are needed for validation purposes. 

For achieving those objectives, the existing Surveillance Reception Application (SURV-
RECAPP) system is used with the proper updates, for allowing the information required 
by the VAT legislation to be captured from the customs import declarations in all Member 
States  and  subsequently  be  accessible  in  an  automated  manner  to  the  relevant  tax 
authorities.  The  new  legislation73  puts  in  place  the  Import  scheme  which  extends  the 
concept  of  the  mini  one-stop  shop  (MOSS)  to  small  consignments  of  goods  with  an 
intrinsic value not exceeding EUR 150. This new scheme is called the import one-stop 
shop (IOSS). 

SURV-RECAPP was deployed in operations on 17 January 2020 according to the plan, 
enabling  the  Member  States  to  send  CP42/63  Super  Reduced  Datasets  (SDRs)  with 
additional  data  elements.  Furthermore, the  updated  Functional  and Technical  System 
Specifications  for  IOSS  were  sent  to  all  Member  States  for  review,  as  the  amending 
regulations introduced new data elements in the system. The FSS and TSS are foreseen 
to be accepted in early 2021. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, BG, CZ, 
DK, DE, EE, IE, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, HU, MT, AT, PT, RO, SI, SK, FI and SE) or 
‘Finished’ (EL and PL). Concerning the current phase, several Member States reported 
on various national activities  and indicated designing the national system (CZ, DK, FR, 
IT, LV and LT), performing national acceptance testing (BE, EE, HR, MT, SI and SK), 
being in operations (EL, PL and PT), creating the national technical specifications (EL, 

73 Council Directive EU 2017/2455, OJ L 348, 29.12.2017, p. 7. 

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CY, AT and SE), developing the national user requirements (DE), creating the national 
functional specifications (RO), deployment activities (FI), conformance testing (BG and 
ES) or upgrade (IE). In addition, several Member States reported carrying out activities 
related to analysis and modelling (BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, IE, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, AT, PL, 
RO, SI and SE), maintenance (BE, BG, CZ, DK, FR, HU, SI, FI and SE) and upgrades 
(BE,  BG,  PL,  SI,  SK  and  FI).    During  the  reporting  year,  some  Member  States 
communicated  their  preceding  phase  and  indicated  creating  the  national  functional 
specifications (DK), designing the national system (DE and SI), performing conformance 
tests (EL) or creating the national technical specifications (FR). 

BG finalised the second phase of the project by upgrading the national import system 
and performing the necessary testing activities. CZ created a new web client for filling 
customs declarations for goods which will be tested and deployed in operations in 2021. 
DK  initiated  the  development  activities  for  their  DMS  with  a  new  national  import 
component for handling specific declarations and datasets. DE continued working on the 
national functional and technical specifications and started developing the new system. 
EE  determined  the  national  user  requirements,  integrated  the  national  e-Commerce 
component  into  the  national  import  system  and  performed  the  necessary  testing 
activities.  EL  reported  some  issues  with  the  configuration  of  the  conformance 
environment  but managed  to  complete the  conformance  testing  activities  on time.  ES 
confirmed that they have been fully prepared to meet the original deadline of the project. 
FR  successfully  validated  the  architecture  of  the  new  national  system  and  worked  in 
close  collaboration  with  the  economic  operators  for  facilitating  their  development 
activities.  HR  reported  no  major  issues  as  the  national  system  was  established  and 
tested internally. 

LV defined the national user requirements and specifications for the new system, while 
continued developing new functionalities. LT analysed, designed and developed the low 
value  declarations  and  postal  processes  in  the  national  Customs  Declarations 
Processing System (iMDAS). Moreover, LT implemented interfaces with other national 
information systems involved in the data exchange and connected the iMDAS with the 
central  IOSS  system.  HU  reported  being  in  the  elaboration  phase  of  the  national  e-
Commerce  Surveillance  system.  AT  developed  the  technical  specifications  of  the 
national  system  and  refined  the  national  user  requirements,  while  concluding  the 
implementation  strategy.  PL  analysed  the  project  documentation  and  upgraded  the 
national customs clearance system to fulfil the new requirements. PT indicated that the 
operational, maintenance and support activities were delivered through the contracted 
services and SK upgraded the national Surveillance system. FI successfully updated the 
national system to fulfil the IOSS requirements and carried out several preparatory steps 
for handling the increase in the amount of incoming declarations. MT and NL reported 
no activities on the project. 

1.1.13 Import of Cultural Goods (1.18) 

The project aims to introduce implementing measures governing the import of cultural 
goods and new customs business and IT processes and procedures in this area. Based 
on  the  agreed  approach,  the  project  will  be  divided  into  three  different  main  areas  of 
activity: the legislative process, the establishment of a central electronic licensing system 
and the development of a system interface within the EU Single Window environment for 
customs (EU SWE-C). 

The  legislative  process  component  includes  the  preparation  and  the  progressive 
refinement  of  the  draft  implementing  acts  to  the  Regulation  on  the  import  of  cultural 

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goods74,  stipulating  the  electronic  licensing  system  related  aspects.  The  central 
electronic  licensing  system  will  be  introduced  to  ensure  the  uniform  controls  for  the 
import of cultural goods upon their entry into the customs territory of the European Union. 
The  information  exchange  between  the  central  electronic  licensing  system  and  the 
national customs/import systems will be facilitated through the EU CSW-CERTEX. 

A dedicated project group has been established to act as a discussion platform where 
experts from national customs administrations and competent authorities will assist the 
Commission with the creation of the import licence template, and the development of the 
format  for  the  importer  statement.  During  2020,  the  project  group  discussed  the  draft 
Implementing Act and the necessary update of the BPMs, and the Business Case has 
been approved by the ECCG in July 2020 by written procedure. 

The project is in an early phase and few Member States reported activities for 2020. The 
Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, CZ, IE and ES) or ‘On 
hold’  (EE,  MT,  PT  and  SK).  Concerning  the  current  phase,  some  Member  States 
reported  on  various  national  activities  related  to  the  development  of  national  user 
requirements (CZ and MT), design of the national system (ES) or other activities related 
to the project (BG). 

Customs  Experts  from  BG  actively  participated  in  the  project  group  organised  by  the 
Commission. CZ expected the final documentation to initiate the development activities 
and prepared the call for tender, while DE started establishing the legal requirements at 
the national side. ES analysed the data model and the workflow of the application for an 
import  licence  and  the  submission  of  an  importer  statement  (ICGS)  to  customs,  as 
developed by the project group. MT announced that the project will be tackled along with 
the updates of the national EU CSW system. 

1.1.14 UCC Import Control System2 (ICS2) (1.19) 

The  UCC  ICS2  Programme  is  set  up  for  the  development  of  the  new  version  of  the 
current  Import  Control  System  (ICS)  system  that  is  used  for  the  lodgement  and 
processing of the Entry Summary declaration (ENS). The programme consists of several 
projects  and  activities,  including  the  Common  Repository  (CR),  CRMS2  link,  Trader 
Interface (National/Shared Trader Interfaces (STI)), National Risk Management systems, 
Risk Management support, e-screening, TES Helpdesk, National Declaration Processing 
Systems and Arrival/Presentation Notification controls for national systems. 

In  2020,  the  activities  of  the  construction  of  the  CR  and  the  STI  for  Release  1  were 
completed according to the plan. The conformance testing activities were launched in 
June  2020  and  were  ongoing  for  the  remaining  of  the  reporting  year.  The  global 
communication campaign for Release 1 started in August 2020, which included a website 
update, several social media posts, factsheet, direct communication to the stakeholders 
and  press  releases.  Significant  progress  was  achieved  on  the  UCC  ICS2  Trans-
European  co-ordination  activities  between  EU  Customs  Administrations  and  postal 
operators,  with  different  meetings  held  in  November  2020  to  prepare  the  Postal 
Operators  for  operational  implementation.  In  addition  to  that,  UCC  ICS2  TES  co-
ordination  plenary  meetings  involving  economic  operators,  national  customs  and  the 
Commission took place during the reporting year. Finally, UCC ICS2 TES co-ordination 
bilateral meetings were organised with UK for implementation of the IE/NI Protocol. 

74 Regulation (EU) 2019/880 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the introduction and the 
import 
goods, 
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2019.151.01.0001.01.ENG. 

7.6.2019, 

cultural 

1-14, 

151, 

OJ 

P. 

of 

L 

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The Common Operational Guidance of UCC ICS2 Release 1 air cargo security referral 
protocols  were  completed  in  February  2020  and  the  work  on  the  Business  Continuity 
Plan was continued and will be completed before the entry into operations in first quarter 
of 2021. 

The  FSS  and  TSS  for  Release  2  were  completed  and  sent  to  the  Member  States  for 
review  in  November  2020.  The  CR  Vision  document  was  updated  to  include  specific 
information  related  to  the  Safety  and  Security  Analytics  (SSA)  and  was  approved  by 
ECCG and endorsed by the CPG in December 2020. All activities of the construction of 
the CR and the STIs for Release 2 were started at the end of the reporting year. The 
kick-off meeting of the UCC ICS2 TES co-ordination activities for Release 2 took place 
in November 2020 and the next meeting is scheduled for the second quarter of 2021. 

The UCC ICS2 Release 3 common system specifications were delivered in the fourth 
quarter  of  2020  and  the  preparation  of  the  FSS  and  TSS  started  on  time,  with  their 
delivery planned for the first quarter of 2021. 

During 2020, the majority of the Member States informed about their current status as 
‘In Progress’ (BG, CZ, DK, EL, ES, HR, IT, CY, LV, LT, HU, MT, AT, PL, PT, SK, FI and 
SE) or ‘Finished’ (BE, DE, EE, FR, RO and SI). Concerning the current phase, several 
Member  States  reported  on  various  national  activities  related  to  national  acceptance 
testing (BE, BG, DK, MT, SK and FI), design of national system (EL, ES, FR, LV, PL and 
RO), being in operations (DE, IE and FR), conformance testing (CZ, HR, LT, HU and 
SE), deployment activities (CY, EE, PT and SI) or other activities related to this project 
(IT and AT). Furthermore, several Member States reported carrying out activities related 
to  analysis  and  modelling (BE,  CZ,  DK,  DE,  IE, EL,  ES,  FR, IT,  PL,  RO,  FI  and  SE), 
maintenance (BE, CZ, DE, FR and SI) and upgrades (BE, DK, DE, IE, FR and SI). During 
the  reporting  year,  some  Member  States  communicated  their  preceding  phase  and 
indicated  designing  the  national  system  (BE,  ES,  HU,  SI  and  FI),  performing 
conformance tests (BG and FR), creating the national user requirements (DK), creating 
the  national 
technical 
specifications (EL). 

functional  specifications  (RO)  or  creating 

the  national 

BG  reviewed  the  documentation  distributed  by  the  Commission,  completed  the 
elaboration and the construction phases of the project and tested the national system in 
the conformance environment. In addition, BG attended all meetings organised by the 
Commission  and  initiated  all  national  support  activities  related  to  the  project.  CZ 
developed the national ICS2 system and performed the necessary conformance testing 
during the reporting year. DE reported that the preparation for UCC ICS2 is ongoing in 
view of their Release 9.1 of the national ATLAS system. EE announced that they followed 
the project activities as indicated in the National Project Plan (NPP). EL proceeded to a 
resource allocation to tackle all project activities. FR developed and tested the national 
system  for  UCC  ICS2  Release  1  while  worked  in  close  collaboration  with  FedEx  for 
assisting them to prepare their system as well.  HR organised several workshops with 
their  contractor  for  facilitating  all  development  and  testing  activities  for  the  national 
system, which were carried out within the reporting year. IT developed the national ICS2 
system and connected it with the central CR, following closely the Commission’s plan 
about the project. 

LV defined the national user requirements and specifications for UCC ICS2 Release 1 
and successfully integrated it with the Risk Information System for providing automatic 
risk analysis. LT updated the National Risk Evaluation and Control System (RIKS) for 
meeting the UCC ICS2 Release 1 requirements and performed all activities related to 
analysis,  design,  development  and  conformance  testing.  Furthermore,  LT  developed 
some interfaces with other national information systems which are involved in the data 

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exchange. HU completed the design specifications and the development of the national 
system which was successfully connected to conformance environment. MT performed 
the national acceptance testing of the national system and defined the plan until the final 
deployment  in  operations.  AT  performed  analysis  and  modelling  for  the  national 
requirements and developed all functionalities of the new system, while preparing for all 
organisation  changes.  PL  continued  all  analysis  activities  with  their  contractor  and 
announced  that  the  implementation  of  their  system  will  be  delayed.  RO  initiated  all 
development  activities  on  October  2020  using  agile  methodology  and  managed  to 
complete the analysis and design of the National Entry System (NES). FI achieved great 
progress  towards  project  implementation  during  the  reporting  year  and  successfully 
concluded the national acceptance testing for the UCC ICS2 Release 1. 

1.1.15 UCC Surveillance3 (1.20) 

The  UCC  Surveillance3  system  collects  and  transmits  customs  declaration  data  to 
ensure the control and traceability of the import and export of specific goods throughout 
the  customs  clearance  and  warehousing  process  and  is  used  by  the  Member  States’ 
customs administrations to improve customs risk analysis, the fight against fraud, market 
analysis,  post-clearance  controls  and  statistical  analysis.  This  system  has  been  in 
operation since 2018. 

During  the  reporting  year,  multiple  quality  improvements  in  data  warehouse  and  data 
mart have been executed, resulting in an increase in the system’s performance. Further 
improvements and initiatives have been discussed that will be added in an update in the 
system’s specifications. 

During 2020, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, 
DE, IE, ES, LV, HU, SI, FI and SE), ‘Finished’ (CZ, EE, CY and MT) or ‘On hold’ (FR, 
HR, PL, PT, RO and SK). Regarding the current phase, several Member States reported 
on various national activities related to being in operations (BG, CZ, DE, EE, EL, CY and 
LV), design of national system (ES, PL and SI), in national acceptance testing (FR and 
FI),  analysis  on  the  national  user  requirements  (RO),  in  deployment  (HU  and  MT), 
upgrade (IE and SI) or other activities related to this project (HR and PT). In addition, 
several Member States carried out activities related to analysis and modelling (BG, DE, 
IE, ES, HR, PL, FI and SE), maintenance (BG, CZ, DE, EL and SE) and upgrades (BG, 
CZ, EL, ES, HR and SE).  During the reporting year, three Member States communicated 
their  preceding  phase  and  indicated  performing upgrade  to the  national system  (BG), 
being in operation (CZ) and conformance testing (EL). 

BG took all preparatory steps for improving the national surveillance system to allow data 
to be sent in accordance with the UCC requirements. CZ implemented some changes at 
the  national  level  regarding  generating  the  surveillance  reports.  EE  participated  in  all 
webinars held by the Commission and used the EUROFISC75 reports.  IE analysed the 
project’s  documentation  and  provided  proposals  from  a  business  perspective.  EL 
analysed the UCC Surveillance specifications and deployed the phase 1 of the national 
system  related  import  details,  which  was  made  accessible  to  taxation  authorities.  FR 
continued  the  development  of  the  national  system  which  will  be  fully  tested  in 
conformance  environment  and  then  deployed  in  operations.  Having  developed  the 
national  system  in  2017,  HR  announced  their  plans  to  implement  additional 

75  EUROFISC  is  a  mechanism  provided  for  Member  States  to  enhance  their  administrative  cooperation  in  combating 
organised  VAT  fraud  and  especially  carousel  fraud.  EUROFISC  allows  for  quick  and  targeted  sharing  of  information 
between  all  Member  States  on  fraudulent  activities.  The  EUROFISC  network  was  established  by  a  Regulation  on 
administrative cooperation and combating VAT fraud (Council Regulation 904/2010 (OJ L268 of 12/10/2010, p.1)) and 
officially launched on 10 November 2010. 

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functionalities  in  the  national  declaration  processing  system  related  to  H6  and  H7 
declarations.  PL  analysed  all  the  documentation  prepared  by  the  Commission  and  FI 
implemented the Surveillance within the national import project. Finally, several Member 
States reported no IT activities at this stage (BE, DK, IT, LT, MT, NL, AT and PT). 

1.2  MASP-C  Group  2  -  Customs  European  initiatives  needing  further 

study and agreement 

The second group contains projects for which further discussion will be required before 
they  can  be  mapped  on  the  IT  plan.  Group  2  can  include  Project  Fiches  on  bilateral 
international initiatives (between the EU and third countries). 

1.2.1  UCC Notification of Arrival, Presentation Notification and Temporary 

Storage (2.1) 

The  development  activities  related  to  this  project  are  a  purely  national  responsibility. 
However, the processes and data requirements for the external domain are to be defined 
and  agreed  on  the  EU-level.  The  goal  is  to  enable  the  automation  of  processes  at 
national level for the notifications of arrival of the means of transport and the presentation 
of goods and declarations for temporary storage as described in the UCC. This project 
aims  to  support  harmonisation  across  Member  States  for  data  exchange  between 
economic  operators  and  customs  and to  ensure traceability  of the goods  entering the 
European Union. The system is foreseen to be operational by 30/12/2022 at the latest. 

During 2020, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, 
BG, CZ, DK, EE, EL, ES, FR, HR, CY, LV, HU, MT, PL, PT and FI), ‘On hold’ (IT, AT and 
SK)  and  ‘Finished’  (LT).  DK  reported  on  IT  development  tasks  such  as,  requirement 
specification,  functional  and  technical  specifications,  development  and  testing  on  a 
national  context.  HR  reported  that  BPM  and  Use  Case  models  were  finalised  for 
presentation  of  goods  and  placing  into  temporary  storage.  Along  with  the  creation  of 
several documents, user interface for an IT application of the Presentation Notification 
and  Temporary  Storage  prototype,  a  conceptual  data  model  for  data  reuse,  the 
architecture for the beginning of application development and the design of application 
forms and screens. 

Concerning the current phase, the majority of the Member States reported on various 
national activities related to the development of national user requirements (EL, ES, IT 
and AT), creation of national functional specifications (CZ), national acceptance testing 
(DK, LT and FI), being in operations (BG, DK, IE, LV and SI), in deployment phase (EE), 
system  upgrade  (PL),  in  design  of  national  system  (BE,  FR,  HR  and  HU)  or  other 
activities  (SI).  CZ  planned  to  start the  development  of the  UCC  Notification  of  Arrival, 
Presentation Notification and Temporary Storage (UCC AN/PN/TS) in 2021. DK reported 
that  Notification  of  Arrival  and  Presentation  Notification  are  operating  in  an  existing 
system manifest, which was upgraded in 2020. ES reported that this process has been 
defined in the context of e-Commerce and that some principles can be extended to all 
types of entries. LV informed that the new functionality of electronic transport document 
(outgoing  flow)  was  developed  and  installed  into  production  environment.  The  new 
Temporary Storage functionality (based on new technologies) was under development 
to ensure e-Commerce requirements (volumes) in 2020. Further, LT analysed designed 
and developed the functionality of processing of Presentation Notification in the national 
Customs Declaration Processing System (MDAS). In addition, the interface with national 
Risk Evaluation and Control System (RIKS), was updated in order to meet UCC ICS2 
release  1  requirements  and  national  testing  activities  took  place.  FI  reported  that  the 
Presentation Notification and Temporary Storage declaration has been implemented as 
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part  of  the  UCC  ICS2  project  in  UTU-programme  (national  declaration  system)  and 
started the acceptance phase. During 2020 the National Import project continued and 
the first release in production was for private customers with 'mobile first' type of solution. 
SE upgraded the Presentation Notification for import system with the data requirement 
in Annex B of the UCC DA/IA. 

Lastly,  several  Member  States  reported  carrying  out  activities  related  to  analysis  and 
modelling (BE, DK, IE, EL, FR, HR, HU, SI and FI), maintenance (BE, BG, DK and SI) 
and upgrades (BG, DK). During the reporting year, some Member States communicated 
their preceding phase and indicated creating national technical specifications (FR and 
HR) and designing of national system (DK). 

1.2.2  UCC Guarantee Management (GUM) (2.5) 

The objective of this project is to ensure that the data of guarantees used for import and 
export  that  affects  more  than  one  Member  State  is  made  electronically  accessible  to 
Member States where the customs declarations are lodged and accepted. 

The updated Business Case has been approved by the Member States in September 
2020 with the preferred implementation option the Alternative C - Decentralised system 
architecture  with  light  central  IT  support.  The  option  was  decided  to  be  implemented 
through the UCC Customs Decisions System and it eliminates the requirement for the 
development of a national component. The central GUM component is expected to be 
operational  in  the  second  quarter  of  2025.  On  the  basis  of  the  systems  architectural 
change,  the  hybrid-Member  States  using  UCC  Customs  Decisions  system  should  be 
ready  and  test  their  systems  before  the  central  GUM  component  goes  live  in  2025. 
Member  States  with  hybrid  solutions  are  expected  to  start  the  operations  in  the  first 
quarter  of  2024.  This  creates  a  window  of  one  year  to  develop  their  system  after  the 
component specifications of the GUM central system are made available. 

During 2020, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, 
BG,  FR,  LT,  HU,  AT,  PL  and  SE),  ‘On  hold’  (CZ,  DK,  DE,  MT,  PT,  RO  and  SK)  or 
‘Finished’ (EE and ES). In addition, some Member States did not provide their current 
status (IE, EL, HR, IT, CY, LV, NL, SI and FI). DE reported that the preparation for the 
trans-European GUM system (component 1) was put on hold due to the envisaged time-
plan of updated UCC Work Programme. Currently the national GUM system (component 
1) is operated in the framework of NCTS project. HR stated that that the project has not 
started yet. 

As  regards  the  current  phase,  some  Member  States  reported  on  various  national 
activities  related  to  the  development  of  national  user  requirements  (BE,  MT,  AT,  and 
RO),  being  in  operation  (BG,  ES  and  PL),  design  of  national  system  (HU  and  LT), 
creation of national functional specifications (FR), in a deployment (SE) or other activities 
(CZ,  DK,  DE  and  PT).  PL  performed  changes  in  the  system  based  on  the  legal 
regulations.  PT  stated that  no IT  activities  were  carried out  during  2020.  SE  informed 
that  the  update  of  the  national  guarantee  management  system  is  part  of  the  National 
Import Declaration System project. 

In parallel, the Member States carried out activities related to analysis and modelling (BE 
and AT) and operations (BG). LT reported that analysis and preparation of the functional 
specifications, design and development of national Guarantee Management System was 
carried  out  during  2020.  The  development  of  the  system  has  been  extended  to 
implement changes and interfaces with external systems. 

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1.2.3  UCC Special Procedures (2.6) 

The implementation of the UCC Special Procedures project is divided in two approaches.  
UCC  Special  Procedures  Harmonisation  are  the  national  IT  developments  for  the 
harmonisation of special procedures and alignment with the legal provisions defined in 
the UCC IA/DA. UCC Standardised Exchange of Information for Special Procedures (INF 
SP)  are  central  services  provided  for  the  management  of  standardised  information 
developed for inward and outward processing procedures. 

During the reporting period, various improvements to the system implementation of the 
pilot project took place following Member States’ feedback. The conformance testing for 
business validation was initiated alongside with several WebEx training sessions in April 
2020.  Additionally,  the  Level  4  BPMs  were  updated  including  the  proposed  changes, 
leading  to  the  approval  by  the  Member  States  and  the  economic  operators  in  the 
beginning  of  April  2020.  Upon  Member  States’  request,  a  business  user  guide  was 
thoroughly discussed by the members of the UCC INF SP business project group, as 
well  as  various  business  issues  and related possible  legal  impact. The business  user 
guide was completed and submitted for translation in all 24 languages during the third 
quarter of 2020. 

Following  the  INF  business  project  group  request,  DG  TAXUD  prepared  a  general 
privacy  statement  which  was  thoroughly  discussed  with  the  Member  States.  Two 
approaches  were  offered,  either  to  have  a  common  privacy  statement  drafted  by  the 
Commission or to have a national privacy statement drafted by the Member State. The 
majority  of  the  Member  States  were  in  favour  of  the  common  approach.  Hence,  the 
Commission  published  a  general  privacy  statement  in  June  2020,  followed  by  a 
discussion  between  Member  States  and  the  Commission  and  validated  by  the  CCC-
GEN. The Member States who opt to use their own privacy statement were referred in 
the EUROPA webpage76. 

Concerning  the  access  to  the  INF  system  from  a  trader  perspective,  an  STP  access 
became available following the amendments of the UCC legal provisions. The STP for 
INF  function  was  designed  to  be  available  and  accessible  through  the  EU  Customs 
Trader  Portal  (EU  CTP),  which  is  the  single  point  of  access for  traders, and  currently 
operational for eAEO and EBTI. The UCC INF SP system and the INF STP have been 
deployed successfully in production on 1 June 2020 and became fully available to the 
economic operators. The INF business project group discussed further business issues 
and the solutions were logged as RfCs for implementation into the IT system following 
Member States’ validation. The first set of RfCs were accepted by written procedure by 
the  end  of  July  2020  and  the  second  set  was  accepted  in  October  2020.  An  updated 
version of the system with evolutionary changes was put in production on 28 October 
2020. 

In  2020,  the  majority  of  the  Member  States  informed  about  their  current  status  as  ‘In 
Progress’ (BE, BG, CZ, DK, EE, EL, ES, FR, HR, HU, AT, PL, FI and SE), ‘On hold’ (PT 
and SK) and ‘Finished’ (DE, IE and MT). Several Member States did not provide their 
current  status  (IT,  CY,  LV,  LT,  NL  and  SI).  With  reference  to  the  current  phase,  the 
Member States reported on various national activities related to the development of the 
national user requirements (EL, FR and HR), the national functional specifications (CZ 
and  ES),  the  development  of  national  technical  specifications  (SE),  as  being  in 
operations (BE, BG, DK, DE, IE, AT and FI), design of national system (EE and HU), 
deployment (MT) or other activities (PL, PT and RO). 

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BE  informed  that  Special  Procedures  for  Import  has  been  integrated  in  their  national 
system. BG reported that activities related to the national special procedures for import, 
aiming to provide the required national electronic solutions for the import related special 
procedures  activities,  are  part  of  a  project  to  implement  all  process  and  data 
requirements  deriving  from  the  UCC,  and  which  are  relevant  for  the  national  import 
system. The activities related to the component for national special procedures for export 
are implemented together with the UCC AES project. CZ informed that the development 
of the UCC Special Procedures is scheduled to start in 2021. DK stated that INF Special 
Procedures has gone live in 2020 and participated in the definition and the design of the 
planned release. DE reported that conformance testing was completed in April 2020 and 
the new INF system is currently used by customs officers and economic operators. EE 
reported that the national user requirements for the project Special Procedures for Import 
have been determined, the service has been integrated into the national import system 
and testing is in progress. Regarding the Special Procedures for export, EE stated that 
a preliminary analysis is taking place in order to determine the cost and schedule, while 
UCC  INF  is  in  production. Information  material  has  been made  available  to  economic 
operators and tests are being performed. EL informed that Special Procedures is part of 
the national import and export systems and reported that an analysis of the BPMs, Annex 
B and the interoperability with other systems is being performed. 

ES reported that the placement of goods under special procedures is being considered 
both from an import and export perspective. The project progresses together with AES 
and the national import system. FR reported that the work related to both IT and business 
aspects  of  the  project  is  currently  ongoing  and  intends  to  establish  the  link  between 
Annex  B  and  Annex  A.  Furthermore,  an  analysis  of  the  Customs  Reference  Services 
(CRS), the INF system and the national ROSA component is being carried out to ensure 
the consistency checks and to examine whether there is a need for a new webservice. 
AT  informed  that  the  national  acceptance  testing  was  concluded  in  May  2020  and  it 
included the testing of the central INF system. In addition, AT reported that they entered 
operations  in  June  2020  and  that  they  have  provided  information  and  trainings  for 
customs officials and economic operators. PL reported that the UCC INF SP system has 
been in use since June 2020 by Polish customs authorities and economic operators and 
that the national system for the settlement of the special procedures RPS was installed 
in a test environment by the end of 2020. In addition, PL informed that the national import 
and export systems are being expanded with the functionalities required within the scope 
of the UCC Special Procedures. 

RO stated that the component SPE Export will be implemented through the UCC AES 
project, while component SPE Import will be integrated in the project “Modernisation of 
the national Import System within the Custom Code of the Union”. The technical system 
specifications for  both  components  have  been  prepared  and  have  been submitted for 
approval  to  the  Ministry  of  Finance,  thus  implementing  all  data  requirements  deriving 
from  the  UCC  and  the  IA  and  DA.  FI  reported  that,  regarding  the  INF  system,  they 
participated in webinars, analysed documentation and performed hands-on testing and 
training both at EU and national level. FI validated various related documents, such as 
online help for INF SP and INF STP and CS/RD2 translations and created instructions 
for customs officers and economic operators. 

1.2.4  Adjustments of the existing import applications under the UCC (2.10) 

The project relates to required updates and further development of the national import 
systems  in  the  Member  States,  resulting  from  the  implementation  of  the  UCC.  The 
project  consists  of  2  phases:  UCC  National  Import  Systems  upgrade  and  UCC 
Centralised Clearance for import (CCI). 

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During 2020, the UCC CCI IT project group on Phase 1 has continued its sessions and 
conducted further analysis from a business point of view, as well as the preparation of 
the Technical Systems Specifications (TSS). The UCC CCI Phase 1 TSS were approved 
by  the  Member  States  and  the  economic  operators  on  9 October  2020  in  view  of  the 
planned  deployment  date  of  1  March  2022  with  the forerunner  Member States77. The 
Commission  initiated  in  September  2020,  the  UCC  CCI  Phase  1  Forerunner  weekly 
meetings with the participation of two Member States for the early implementation of the 
application and to identify potential ΙΤ issues, in order to ensure smooth deployment of 
the CCI system. In addition, various deliverables were prepared with the collaboration of 
the  project  group  members  and  the  Commission,  related  to  the  project  preparedness 
such as the Architecture Overview (AO), the Design Document for Common Operations 
and  Methods  (DDCOM)  for  the  Common  Communication  Network  2  (CCN2)  enabled 
systems and the Design Document for National Customs Application (DDNCA). 

In  reference  to  the  second  phase  of  the  UCC  CCI  project,  the  final  version  of  the 
Business  Case  following  the  Member  States’  acceptance  was  also  approved  by  the 
Information Technology and Cybersecurity board (ITCB) in January 2020. Similarly, the 
Vision Document was approved following the consultation with the Member States and 
the  economic  operators in  the fourth quarter  of  2020. The  project group on  UCC  CCI 
Functional Specifications Phase 2 was established in October 2019 to support the work 
on producing the UCC CCI Phase 2 Level 4 BPM/FSS package and in 2020 held several 
meetings.  During  these  meetings,  the  focus  was  given  to  the  business  processes  for 
import  of  goods  under  Entry  In  the  Declarant’s  Records  (EIDR)  with  and  without 
Presentation  Notification,  import  of  excise  goods,  Common  Agricultural  Policy  (CAP) 
goods, goods in the context of trade with special fiscal territories, temporary admission 
customs  procedure  and  recapitulative  supplementary  declaration  under  the  UCC  CCI 
Phase 2. The final agreements of the project group members and the Commission were 
implemented  in  the  functional  aspects  of  the  CCI  Phase  2.  In  addition,  the  modelling 
activities of the Level 4 BPMs under the UCC CCI Phase 2 were finalised and as a result 
twelve  new  Level  4  BPMs  were  produced,  fourteen  new  Information  Exchange  (IE) 
messages were created and twenty IE messages from UCC CCI Phase 1 were updated. 
Likewise, the Level 3 BPMs were updated for UCC CCI Phase 2, leading to the UCC 
CCI Phase 2 Level 3-Level 4 BPM/FSS package approval by the Member States and 
the economic operators in August 2020. The next steps of the UCC CCI Phase 2 will be 
initiated  in  2021  and  will  be  related  to  the  design  of  the  IT  system  and  the  Technical 
System Specifications (TSS). 

In  2020,  the  majority  of  the  Member  States  informed  about  their  current  status  as  ‘In 
Progress’ (BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, EL, ES, FR, IT, CY, LV, HU, MT, AT, PL, PT, RO, 
FI and SE) or ‘Finished’ (IE and SI). In addition, some Member States did not report on 
their current status (HR, LT, NL and SK). 

Concerning the current phase, the Member States reported on various national activities 
related to the development of  national  user  requirements  (FR, HR and MT), being  in 
operations (BG, DE, IE, LV, PT and SK), design of national system (DK and HU), creation 
of national functional specifications (BE, CZ, EE, EL, ES and RO), creation of national 
technical  specifications  (AT  and  SE),  system  upgrade  (PL),  performing  national 
acceptance testing activities (IT and FI) or other activities related to this project (SI). DK 
reported that the processing of the H778 declaration/dataset (phase 2) is developed as 
release 1 of the new national system for import (DMS). EE reported development and 

77 ES and FR 

78 H7 refers to the customs declaration for release for free circulation in respect of a consignment which benefits from a 
relief from import duty in accordance with Article 23(1) or Article 25(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009 

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testing  of  the  new  national  import  and  UCC  Special  Procedures  Harmonisation  (IMP) 
system. IT completed the development phase of the new reengineered system at import 
and aligned the system to the EUCDM v. 5.2 data model. 

Alongside, most of the Member States reported carrying out activities related to analysis 
and modelling (BE, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, AT and FI), maintenance (BG, 
DK, DE, IT, SI and SK), upgrades (BG, DK, DE, IT, SI and SK), operations (BG, DK, EE, 
IE, LV, SI and SK) and other activities (DK and IE). BG reported that during 2020, the 
national  import  system  was  upgraded  to  implement  the  VAT  e-Commerce  package, 
including the use of Customs Decisions as per Article 143(a) of the UCC DA and the new 
column  H7  in  Annex  B  to  be  deployed  and  used  as  of  1  July  2021.  DE  stated  that 
development and maintenance activities of the national import systems are carried out 
within the framework of the overall ATLAS system. ES reported to develop the national 
import system in parallel to the UCC CCI project. MT performed a gap analysis to identify 
the changes for its implementation planning of the import system. PL reported that they 
have performed an analysis of the UCC regulation, Delegated and Implementing Acts in 
respect  to  the  requirements  defined  in  the  contract  for  constructing  the  AIS/IMPORT 
system  and  an  analysis  of  the  projects  of  customs  regulation  changes.  PL  also 
participated in workshops and meetings with representatives of other projects related to 
AIS/IMPORT  (special  procedures,  Single Window  for  Customs  and  Surveillance)  and 
internal  workshops/meetings  of  experts  dealing  with  customs  declarations,  customs 
simplifications and customs debt. Lastly, SK reported that the national system has been 
in operations since October 2017 for standard and simplified procedures. 

1.2.5  Customs  Union  Performance  –  Management  Information  System 

(CUP-MIS) (2.11) 

CUP-MIS is a performance measurement system for the EU Customs Union. It supports 
the  improvement  of  the  functioning  of  the  EU  Customs  Union  by  assessing  the 
effectiveness, efficiency and uniformity of customs activities and operations. 

The CUP-MIS system is planned to be in operation in the third quarter of 2023. However, 
it has been decided to perform an early shadow run in conformance environment by the 
last quarter of 2021. In this view, the preliminary product backlog and the sprint backlog 79 
for  the  first  three  sprints  have  been  finalised  in  order  to  start  the  development  of  the 
system. In January 2020, a proof of concept has been established which enables the 
verification of the data upload by the Member States into the system. In this respect, it is 
planned to install a web application in the conformance test environment to receive the 
data from the Member States in the second quarter of 2021. 

During 2020, several Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ 
(BG, EE, ES, IE, LV and FI), ‘On hold’ (MT, PT and SK) or ‘Finished’(SE). Most of the 
Member States (BE, CZ, DK, DE, EL, FR, HR, IT, CY, LT, HU, NL, AT, PL, RO and SI) 
reported no activities and no specific status for this project. BG reported that activities 
were carried out within the CUP project group and ES reported to be part of the Customs 
Union  Performance.  IE  performed  analysis  of  the  data  through  meetings  which  took 
place  in  Brussels  or  via  WebEx  and  reported  on  the  findings.  LV  worked  on  the 
requirements  for  CUP-MIS  and  on  the  CUP-MIS  proposal  documents  in  detail  and  FI 
reported that modelling has been completed and testing has been launched.

79 Sprint is a set period of time during which specific work has to be completed and made ready for review and delivery. 
The sprint backlog is a repository of pending user stories/issues/tasks. These user stories/issues/tasks are logged into 
the sprint backlog according to their business value and their technical complexity. Each sprint begins with a planning 
meeting, in which tasks are selected from the sprint backlog. Each sprint ends with its retrospective. 

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1.2.6  UCC Proof of Union Status (PoUS) (2.12) 

The UCC PoUS system is a new trans-European system designed to store and manage 
the  electronic  T2L/T2LF80  documents  and  the  electronic  Customs  Goods  Manifest 
(CGM).  This  project  was  re-launched  in  2019.  The  approach  taken  on  system 
architecture involved a centralised system (under a hybrid approach). The Commission 
adopted a two-phased approach for the development of the UCC PoUS project. The first 
phase consists in implementing the electronic T2L(F) document with all the necessary 
functionalities, which is expected to be operational by 1 March 2024. The second phase 
involves the implementation of the electronic CGM, including the information exchange 
with the European Maritime Single Window environment. This component is anticipated 
to enter into production on 2 June 2025.  

The  project  group  on  UCC  PoUS  was  established  in  September  2019  to  assist  the 
Commission  with  the  preparation  and  the  analysis  of  the  two-phase  approach  of  the 
project. In light of the work of the project group on UCC PoUS, various meetings with 
Member  States  and  economic  operators  took  place  and  several  study  visits  were 
organised to examine the handling of the UCC PoUS system in different Member States. 
Alongside with both phases of the project, an analysis on the business processes and 
the  related  aspects  were  conducted.  The  Vision  Document  and  the  Architecture 
Overview were approved by the Member States in September 2020 for both phases. The 
Level 3 and Level 4 BPMs for phase one were updated and accepted by the Member 
States in March 2020. In relation to the preparation of the UCC PoUS phase two, the 
Business Statistics analysis was initiated. As there were no additional requests from the 
economic  operators  the  second  phase  of  UCC  PoUS  is  intended  to  begin  under  the 
current legislation. 

In 2020, several Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, 
EE, EL, FR, HU, AT, PL and FI) or ‘On hold’ (IT, MT, PT, RO, SI and SK). Concerning 
the current phase, most of the Member States reported on other national activities (BE, 
BG, EE, EL, MT, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI and FI), national user requirements (DE, FR and 
IT) and design of national system (ES and HU). Some Member States did not report on 
their current status (DK, IE, HR, CY, LV, LT, NL and SE). BE, DE and CY reported that 
they  participated  in  the  Customs  2020  Project  Group  on  the  Proof  of  Union  Status 
system. 

BG reported that they participated in the review process of the relevant documentation 
distributed by the Commission. DE stated that the national activities closely followed the 
project’s  progress  and  announced  that  the  central  system  will  be  used.  However,  an 
interface with the National Entry System is planned for the usage of the respective proof. 
In addition, DE informed that the implementation is planned within the scope of ATLAS 
Release  10.2,  which  is  scheduled  for  the  first  quarter  of  2024.  EE  plans  to  start  the 
analysis of the project in 2021, while EL reported to have studied documentation related 
to the project and to having prepared a call for tender. FR informed that they attended a 
workshop organised by DG TAXUD and that they plan to start working on the project in 
2021, whereas IT performed an analysis of the documentation produced at EU level. PL 
informed that the national e-service called “e-Status” was extended to include several 
new possibilities. The application process provides the option of addressing the control 
to a customs office other than the customs office of application. The control can also be 
handled by the customs office of presentation, by reading the directive and description 
of the control activities and by adding information that will be returned to the customs 

80 Means of proof of the Customs status of Union goods/ Means of proof of the Customs status of Union goods for goods 
transported to, from or between the non-fiscal areas (T2L/T2LF). 

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office  of  application.  A  further  functionality  included  is  the  possibility  of  performing  a 
search by the attribute of the customs office of the presentation and the visualisation of 
the  found  declarations  on  both  lists,  by  adding  a  column  with  the  customs  office  of 
presentation. RO informed that they plan to use the EU central solution for UCC PoUS, 
while FI reported that they analysed the documentation as well as the possible impact of 
the project on their national systems. 

1.2.7  European Maritime Single Window environment (EMSWe) in relation 

to customs systems (2.13) 

The  European  Maritime  Single  Window  environment  (EMSWe)  aims  to  improve 
administrative  procedures  in  maritime  transport  by  introducing  a  single  window  for 
reporting formalities for ships to harmonise processes and data exchange with economic 
operators.  In  2019,  DG  TAXUD  reviewed  the  amendments  to  the  Proposal  for  a 
regulation establishing the EMSWe made by the European Parliament and the Shipping 
Working Party of the Council. The concerned parties reached an agreement on the text 
of  the  regulation  following  a  series  of  trialogue  meetings  organised  by  the  European 
Parliament. Regulation (EU) 2019/123981 came into force on 15 August 2019. 

The MASP-C Revision 2019 introduced a new fiche (2.13) on the “European Maritime 
Single  Window  environment  (EMSWe)  in  relation  to  customs  systems”  to  develop  a 
harmonised  reporting  interface  module  for  the  national  single  windows  based  on  the 
provisions of Regulation (EU) 2019/123981. In close collaboration with DG MOVE, DG 
DIGIT  and  EMSA,  DG  TAXUD  will  develop  an  implementation  plan  to  address  all 
activities involving the application of the provisions laid down by the EMSWe Regulation. 
The processes and data requirements for EMSWe’s external domain will be defined at 
EU-level  based  on  the  Implementing  and  Delegated  Acts  that  will  be  prepared  in 
collaboration with DG MOVE. This initiative is examining the interconnections between 
future  system  development  introduced  by  Regulation  (EU)  2019/1239  and  national 
customs  systems.  According  to  this  Regulation,  the  latest  date  for  the  system  to  be 
operational is no later than 15/08/2025. 

During 2020, various meetings took place on the preparation of documentations related 
to the EMSWe. Several Customs Business Group (CBG) meetings were organised jointly 
with DG MOVE’s “HSLG Expert Subgroup on Single Window”. In particular, numerous 
meetings  with  the  EMSWe  “Data  thematic  team”  took  place,  focusing  on  the  data 
requirements stemming from EU and international legislation as well as on the national 
requirements. A deep analysis was conducted by DG TAXUD with the view to integrate 
customs and maritime processes and taking into consideration the alignment to the UCC 
DA/IA Annex B and the EUCDM. Additionally, DG TAXUD participated in a number of 
meetings  with  the  EMSWe  “Interfaces  thematic  team”,  where  topics  relating  to  the 
Message  Implementation  Guide  (MIG),  the  common  GUI  functionalities  and  the 
Reporting Interface Module (RIM) were discussed. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, EE, 
IE and HR), ‘On hold’ (BG, IT, MT, PT and SI) or ‘Finished’ (SE). Some Member States 
did not report on their current status (DK, DE, FR, CY, LV, LT, HU, NL, AT, PL, SK and 
FI). With reference to the current phase, the Member States reported on various national 
activities related to the development of national user requirements (IE and IT), operations 
(SE)  or  other  (BE,  BG,  CZ,  EE,  EL,  HR,  MT,  PT,  RO  and  SI).  BG  reported  that  the 

81 Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 establishing a European 
Maritime  Single  Window  environment  and  repealing  Directive  2010/65/EU,  OJ  L  198,  25/07/2019,  https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2019.198.01.0064.01.ENG. 

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undertaken activities aimed at providing advice and expertise to the Commission on the 
definition  of  the  data  set  and  maintenance  of  the  list  reporting  obligations  under  the 
provisions  of  the  Regulation  (EU)  2019/1239  of 20  June  2019.  BG  participated  in  the 
CBG meetings organised by the Commission and contributed to the preparation of the 
EMSWe  Delegated  Act  and  to  the  part-C  national  requirements  by  providing  their 
national  data.  DE  reported  that  the  national  customs  administration  coordinates  all 
customs-related  matters  with  the  transport  authorities  and  provides  all  technical 
specifications (e.g., Message Implementation Guide for external domain) to ensure that 
the maritime single window could establish the information exchange under the rules and 
conditions defined by customs. The EMSWe initiative has no impact on German customs 
systems and no modification is required. EE informed that they have attended meetings 
dedicated  to  EMSWe  and  stated  that  national  consultations  also  took  place.  EL 
collaborated with national port authorities. IT performed an analysis of the documentation 
produced  at  EU  level  and  FI  analysed  the  possible  impact  on  the  national  customs 
systems. 

1.3  MASP-C Group 3 - Customs International Information Systems 

MASP-C  Group  3  consists  of  projects  managed  by  international  organisations.  The 
Member States and the Commission play an active role in their development. 

1.3.1  EU Implementation of UNECE eTIR System (3.1) 

The  eTIR  system  aims to  secure  electronic  data  exchange  between  national  customs 
systems related to the international transport of goods under cover of TIR Carnets. This 
project  was  launched  by  the  contracting  parties  of  the  TIR  Convention  under  the 
auspices of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) to provide 
an  exchange  platform  for  all  actors  involved  in  the  TIR  system,  including  customs 
authorities, the guarantee chain and transport operators. 

The implementation scope of the eTIR system in EU is twofold: adaptation of UCC NCTS 
to  handle  TIR  operations  as  described  in  the  eTIR  Reference  Model  Document  and 
adaptation of SPEED to enable the exchange of the data between UCC NCTS and eTIR 
system.  The  Commission  will  facilitate  the  compatibility  and  data  exchange  between 
UCC NCTS and eTIR and the connection to eTIR through SPEED or another system. 
During 2020, the Commission finalised the Business Case, while continued working on 
the eTIR Proof of Concept and the production of the system specifications. 

During 2020, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, 
HR and HU) and ‘On hold’ (BG, ES, MT, PT, SI and SK). Concerning the current phase, 
the  majority  of  the  Member  States  reported  status  “Other”,  and  one  Member  State 
reported to be in design of national system phase (HU). No other activities were initiated 
by the Member States during the reporting year. 

1.3.2  eATA Carnet Project (3.2) 

The  objective  of  this  project  is  the  development  of  a  new  electronic  communication 
system  to  facilitate  information  sharing  between  a  series  of  stakeholders  (economic 
operators, chambers of commerce, customs administrations) involved in the temporary 
admission of goods procedure in various countries or customs territories. The aim of the 
project  is  to  replace  the  current  paper-based  ATA  Carnet  System  by  a  global  eATA 
Carnet System. 

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The ATA Carnet is an international customs document that allows the temporary export 
and import of goods for up to one year without payment of customs duty and value-added 
tax. It replaces national customs declarations and serves as “a passport for goods” to 
clear goods through customs, including professional equipment, commercial and testing 
samples and goods used at trade fairs, exhibitions, shows, or similar events. 

The  ATA  Carnet  System  is  administered  by  the  International  Chamber  of  Commerce 
World Chambers Federation (ICC/WCF) in line with the World Customs Organisation’s 
(WCO)  ATA  and  Istanbul  Conventions.  Over  the  years,  this  system  has  spread  to  78 
countries  and territories,  including  a growing  number  of  emerging  economies.  Around 
50% of the carnets issued annually concern goods’ movement across the EU. 

Since  the  current  system  is  almost  entirely  paper-based,  the  ICC  WCF  is  currently 
implementing  a  system  to  replace  paper-based  ATA  Carnet  modalities  using  a  digital 
solution  called  “Mercury  II”.  During  2020,  the  ICC  demonstrated  the  system 
underdevelopment  which  is  still  in  the  pilot  phase.  Moreover,  the  ICC  submitted  a 
proposal to the Contracting Parties of the Istanbul Convention for obtaining the approval 
for using the developed electronic data-processing techniques. 

The Commission further assessed the outcome of this pilot for deciding on the best way 
forward to digitalise ATA Carnets. Hence, having evaluated the presented ICC system, 
the Commission concluded that it is the most appropriate way to proceed considering 
that the core system is already developed and additional functionalities to increase its 
usability have been already planned. As a result, the Commission agreed to the proposal 
to promote the direct use of the ICC eATA Carnet system by the Member States. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘On hold’ (EE, ES, 
FR,  HR,  MT,  PT,  SI  and  SK)  and  ‘Finished’  (BG).  Concerning  the  current  phase,  HR 
reported focusing on the development of the national user requirements and five Member 
States  reported  on  other  activities  (BG,  EE,  ES,  FR,  MT,  PT  and  SI).  No  additional 
activities were initiated from the Member States during the reporting year. 

1.3.3  Smart and Secure Trade Lanes (SSTL) (3.3) 

The SSTL is a pilot project between the EU (BE, DE, ES, FR, IT, NL, PL), UK, CN and 
HK  customs  authorities  aiming  to  strengthen  end-to-end  supply  chain  security  and 
provide trade facilitation to participating economic operators through maritime, air and 
rail  trade  lanes  between  the  involved  territories.  This  project  consists  of  two  main 
components: international exchanges between the EU, CN and HK customs authorities, 
and internal exchanges between the Member States and the Commission. 

All activities on this project were put on hold since 2019 as a legal base and a possible 
scope expansion need to be defined. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (ES and 
HU) and ‘On hold’ (CZ, EE, FR, MT, PT, SI and SK). As regards the current phase, ES 
focused on upgrading the national system and carried out activities related to analysis, 
modelling  and  upgrades.  In  addition,  FR  reported  on  the  development  of  the  national 
user requirements and six Member States reported on other activities (CZ, EE, HU, MT, 
PT and SI). ES organised meeting with trade lane to promote their participation in this 
pilot  project  and  performed  operational  activities  related  to  Customs  Enforcement 
Network  Communication  Platform  (CENcomm).  No  further  project  activities  were 
reported by the Member States during the reporting year. 

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1.4  MASP-C  Group  4  -  Customs  IT  cooperation  initiatives  and 
technological  developments  to  facilitate  Customs  EIS  (including 
current CCN operations) 

MASP-C Group 4 consists of customs cooperation initiatives undertaken to strengthen 
the  cooperation  between  Member  States  and  to  accelerate  the  technological 
development of the European Information Systems. 

1.4.1  National Systems Implementation by IT Collaboration Projects (4.1) 

Within the context of an IT Strategy for the implementation of the UCC and e-Customs 
initiatives, a new working method was developed at EU-level already in 2018, which is 
depicted  in  the  joint  efforts  of  the  Member  States  towards  building  common  union 
components  for  customs  national  systems.  The  expert  team  on  new  approaches  to 
develop and operate Customs IT systems (ETCIT) was launched in 2018 following the 
Tallinn Declaration on eGovernment82 and concluded its activities in 2019. Based on the 
conclusions  reached  during  the  execution  of  the  group’s  tasks,  the  activities  and  the 
strategic  work  continued  within  the  context  of  the  second  expert  team  ETCIT  II 
throughout 2020. Led by SE, the 16 participating Member States (BE, CZ, DE, EE, FR, 
IT, CY, LT, LU, HU, MT, NL, PT, RO, SK and SE) cooperated towards the objectives 
agreed  in  the  Council  Conclusions  on  the  way  forward  to  developing  Customs  IT 
systems83,  by  carrying  out  a  study,  including  the  scope  of  a  pilot  project,  stakeholder 
analysis, financing options and possible involvement of a permanent structure or shared 
supplier for IT. The main objective of ETCIT II was the identification of suitable options 
for new pilots and recommendations for the way forward towards the implementation of 
a  long-term  strategy  on  Customs  IT.  A  survey  addressed  to  the  Member  States  was 
launched in 2020 regarding the evaluation of the collaboration scenarios developed by 
ETCIT. The outcome of the survey confirmed Member States’ interest to collaborate in 
areas beyond those defined in the MASP-C and highlighted the following pilot projects 
to  serve  as  a  basis  for  future  discussions:  e-Commerce,  advanced  analytics  and 
application of artificial intelligence, Blockchain technology and digital transformation of 
customs administrations. The activities of the ETCIT II team are expected to conclude at 
the end of 2021. However, the extension of the work under a third phase is considered 
necessary and useful in order to take the possibilities of IT collaboration further. 

During 2020, most of the Member States (BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, FR, HR, IT, CY, 
LV, LT, HU, NL, AT, PL, RO, SI, SK and FI) reported no specific status and activities for 
this project. PT and SE informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ and MT as 
‘On hold’. CY and PT reported participating in the ETCIT working group activities. SE 
reported  on  the  development  of  national  technical  specifications  as  well  as  on 
participating in ETCIT II and having a national designated working group analysing the 
outcome of this work. 

1.4.2  Common Communication Network2 (CCN2) (4.5) 

The CCN2 project is considered as the evolution of the current CCN architecture and 
services.  The  Common  Communication  Network  and  Common  System  Interface 
(CCN/CSI) operational infrastructure consists of a closed, secured network infrastructure 
that is provided by the Commission to facilitate the exchange of information between the 

Ministerial 

82 
strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/ministerial-declaration-egovernment-tallinn-declaration. 

eGovernment 

Declaration 

Tallinn 

the 

on 

– 

Declaration, 

https://digital-

83 Council Conclusions on the way forward to developing Customs IT systems. 

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national  administrations  of  the  customs  and  taxation  areas.  CCN2  applies  a  Service 
Oriented Architecture (SOA) architecture and provides a set of value-added services to 
support  the  evolution  of  new  application  development  and  deployment  paradigms. 
Applications to be developed will use this new CCN2 infrastructure. CCN2 evolution is in 
line  with  the  global  EU  architecture  consolidation,  encompassing  the  notions  of  the 
circles of trust and integrating with the shared services capabilities. 

2020  was  a  year  when  many  project  activities  were  completed.  CCN2ng  Release  1.1 
was successfully deployed in operations, after all Member States executed the needed 
tests  in  conformance  environment  in  the  first  quarter  of  2020.  This  release  was 
developed to cover additional functional requirements, mainly for UCC ICS2. In the third 
quarter of 2020, CCN2ng Release 1.2 was deployed in operations and included major 
improvements  in  the  design  of  the  platform,  delivering  better  performance,  increasing 
availability, extending capacity and enhancing governance. 

During 2020, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (CZ, 
DE, HU, AT, PL, PT, SI and FI) and ‘Finished’ (BG, DK, FR, HR and MT). In addition, 
some Member States did not report their current status (BE, EE, IE, EL, IT, LV, LT, NL, 
RO, SK, FI and SE). Concerning the current phase, most of the Member States reported 
on various national activities related to being in operations (BE, CZ, DK, FR, HR, CY, 
LV, MT, AT, PL, PT, SI and SK) and in national acceptance testing (BG and HU). DE 
reported  other  activities  related  to  this  project,  focusing  on  preparatory  work  for  a 
System-to-System (S2S) connection of TES, as well as maintenance and support when 
using central web applications. Furthermore, several Member States reported carrying 
out activities related to analysis and modelling (DE, HU and FI), maintenance (BE, CZ, 
HR, PL, SK and FI) and upgrades (HR, PL, SK and FI). During the reporting year, some 
Member States communicated their preceding phase and indicated being in operations 
(HR), designing the national system (HU) or performing upgrades (PL). 

BG performed all activities for the CCN2 project in close collaboration with UCC ICS2 
and  during  2020,  BG  developed  a  CCN2  bridge  and  successfully  tested  the  proper 
communication  between  various  TES  using  this  platform.  CZ  reported  that  all  project 
activities for CCN2ng Releases 1.1 and 1.2 were completed on time and that CCN2ng 
is  currently  being  used  in  conformance  and  production  environments  for  many 
applications.  DK  carried  out  some  minor  upgrades  and  highlighted  the  stability  in  the 
operation of CCN2. DE performed the preparatory steps for a S2S connection of various 
TES and concentrated on maintenance and support work for the use of the central web 
applications. In addition, DE reported some issues with the CCN2 user management tool 
and some difficulties experienced with the user creation. FR attended the IT Technology 
and  Infrastructure  project  group  and  followed  up  all  CCN2  project  activities.  HR 
performed  the  migration  CCN2ng  Release  1.2  in  both  conformance  and  production 
environments  and  configured  the  existing  Customs  CCN2  domain.  Furthermore,  HR 
introduced new applications (UCC ICS2, IOSS) for usage over CCN2. 

HU  completed  the  design  of  the  new  national  CCN2  gateway  and  most  of  its 
development,  while  participating  in  all  workshops  and  following  all  CCN2  project 
activities.  AT  deployed  CCN2ng  Releases  1.1  and  1.2  in  both  environments,  after 
successfully  executing  all  conformance  tests.  PL  reported  that  all  CCN2ng  Releases 
were  deployed  with  no  problems  and  preparations  have  started  for  the  next  planned 
release.  Besides  those,  PL  focused  on  the  CCN2  user  management  and  provided 
support  to  all  CCN2  users,  while  having  reviewed  the  specifications  and  attended  all 
meetings organised by the Commission. PT indicated that all operational, maintenance 
and  support  activities  were  delivered  through  the  contracted  services.  SI  reported  on 
activities related to user management, national service registration and development of 
CCN2 functionalities. FI announced that the integration of several TES with CCN2 was 

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completed  in  production  environment.  EE,  IE,  EL,  IT,  LT,  NL,  RO,  SE  reported  no 
activities on the project. 

1.4.3  UCC Uniform User Management and Digital Signatures (UUM&DS) – 

Direct Trader Access to EIS (4.6) 

The UCC UUM&DS project aims to implement a system that allows economic operators 
to access new EU-wide services, in line with the security policies, legal provisions and 
operational  responsibilities.  Therefore,  this  system  offers  economic  operators  unified 
access to a unique interface to several central services implemented by the Commission. 
The  economic  operators  are  able  to  electronically  submit  declarations  that  will  be 
forwarded to the competent national authority, for a number of supporting IT systems, 
such as UCC Customs Decisions, EOS-AEO, COPIS and UCC BTI. Furthermore, UCC 
UUM&DS provides a mandate capability, allowing economic operators to be represented 
by known mandated individuals and support the use of electronic signatures. 

During 2020, the work was focused on UCC UUM&DS Release 2.0, which will support 
additional functionalities for UCC ICS2 and COPIS eAFA projects, namely S2S secure 
connectivity,  certificates management  and  digital  signature services.  Release  2.0  was 
deployed  in  the  conformance  environment  in  the  first  quarter  of  2020  and  the 
conformance testing with the Member States performed at the second quarter of 2020. 
After  successful  validation  of  the  new  release,  it  was  deployed  in  operations  in  June 
2020. 

To enable user authentication and authorisation, the majority of the Member States have 
used their national Identity and Access Management (IAM) system(s) that can be directly 
interfaced with UCC UUM&DS and are categorised under type A, B, C and D solutions84. 
Most Member States (BE, BG, CZ, EE, IE, ES, FR, IT, LV, LT, HU, AT, SI and SE) are 
type A, EL and FI are type B, few Member States (DK, HR, CY, NL and PL) are type C 
and the remaining Member States (DE, LU, PT, RO, SK and UK) are type D. 

In 2020, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, DK, DE, 
EL, FR, HR, LT, HU, AT, PL, PT, SI and FI), ‘Finished’ (CZ, EE and IE) or ‘On hold’ (RO). 
Concerning  the  current  phase,  the  majority  of  the  Member  States  reported  being  in 
operations (BE, BG, CZ, DE, EE, IE, HR, LT, PL, PT, SI and SK), in conformance testing 
(EL, FR, HR and FI), in analysis of the national technical specifications (AT), in upgrade 
(DK), in design of the national system (MT) or in national acceptance tests (HU). RO is 
the only  Member State who reported status ‘Other’, as they are type D and using the 
central  solution.  In  addition,  several  Member  States  reported  carrying  out  activities 
related  to  analysis  and  modelling  (BE,  BG,  CZ,  DE,  IE,  FR,  HU,  AT,  PT  and  FI), 
maintenance (BE, BG, CZ, IE, EL, FR, HR, HU, PL, PT, SI, SK and FI) and upgrades 
(BE,  BG,  CZ,  IE,  EL,  HR,  PL,  PT,  SI,  SK  and  FI).  During  the  reporting  year,  some 
Member States communicated their preceding phase and indicated being in operations 
(CZ and FI), in analysis of the national user requirements (DE), in analysis of the national 
technical specifications (HR), in upgrade (PL and PT) or in conformance testing (SI). 

BG  enabled  the  S2S  communication  for  their  economic  operators  through  Secure 
Sockets  Layer  (SSL)  communication  with  the  central  system,  while  also  enabled  the 
delegation  process. In  addition,  BG  started the registration  process  of qualified  digital 

84 Type A: One consolidated IAM system that can be directly interfaced with the UCC UUM&DS. 

Type B: Two IAM systems, one of which is used as the single point of contact with UCC UUM&DS. 

Type C: Multiple IAMs –Member States shall provide a unified IAM to interface with UCC UUM&DS. 

Type D: No IAM system to interface with the UCC UUM&DS 

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seals and performed the conformance testing for UCC UUM&DS Release 2 in May 2020. 
CZ prepared a detailed analysis for UCC UUM&DS Release 2, concentrating on the S2S 
communication, the cross-border certificates and the Trusted Service List (TSL) usage. 
Moreover,  CZ  upgraded  the  business  profiles  and  roles for  UCC  ICS2, UCC  INF  and 
EUCTP. DK took all preparatory steps for the next major release and DE continued using 
the  central  solution  as  type  D,  since  no  national  IAM  has  been  developed.  Besides 
creating  guides  and  manuals  for  the  national  users,  EE  analysed  UCC  UUM&DS 
Release  2.0  and  made  progress  in  solving  various  bugs  in  the  current  system.  IE 
reported on activities related to development and integration of the national system and 
EL executed tests in conformance environment, while upgrading the current system in 
operations to support new business profiles. FR initiated the analysis of UCC UUM&DS 
Release 2.1 and performed the conformance testing for Release 2. 

HR indicated that the infrastructure for UCC UUM&DS Release 2 is operational, after the 
necessary tests were carried out. Furthermore, HR conducted the analysis for Release 
2.1 and 2.2, concentrating on the new features. LT performed all conformance testing 
activities  for  the  national  UUM&DS  application  (BAP)  which  is  aligned  with  UCC 
UUM&DS  Release  2.  HU  started  the  development  of  UCC  UUM&DS  Release  2  and 
configured  the  business  profiles  for  the  UCC  INF  STP,  while  having  reviewed  the 
documentation  and  participated  in  all  meetings  hosted  by  the  Commission.  AT 
announced  that  the  implementation  of  the  next  release  depends  on  other  national 
systems  and  identified  a  solution  for  the  second  level  delegation.  PL  deployed  UCC 
UUM&DS  Release  2  in  operations  on  time  and  initiated  all  activities  for  Release  2.1, 
while  having  implemented  the  fully  local  delegation  functionality.  SI  developed  all 
functionalities  for  UCC  UUM&DS  Release  2,  adapting  the  national  IAM  with  the 
certificates registration, and deployed the national system in operations. FI initiated the 
upgrade  of  the  national  system  to  UCC  UUM&DS  Release  2.1  and  performed 
maintenance  activities  in  the current  system. IT, CY,  LV,  MT,  NL  and  SE  reported  no 
activities on the project. 

1.4.4  High Availability DG TAXUD operational capabilities (4.7) 

Under  this  project,  the  Commission  intends  to  provide  high  availability  infrastructure 
capabilities  for  the  hosting  of  EU  customs  systems  components  and  IT  services.  The 
Commission has developed High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery capabilities in 
the  two  DG  TAXUD  data  centres  hosted  in  Luxembourg.  The  main  objective  of 
establishing standardised HA capabilities is to assign appropriate HA characteristics to 
all hosted applications. To this end, three distinct HA service levels are defined: Bronze, 
Silver and Gold. Bronze service level is the default and it has been in place since 2015. 
Silver  service  level  reflects  the  maximum  current  capability,  while  Gold  service  level, 
meaning  99,8%  availability,  is  expected  to  be  available  by  the  third  quarter  of  2022, 
provided that the necessary funds are available on time. 

The availability of production systems (ITSM-operated systems, the CCN/CSI network, 
as well as the CCN production services) in 2020 was 98.97% and of CCN gateway was 
99.95%. In scope of the replacement of the current CCN Infrastructure, the Commission 
performed several Proof of Concepts (PoCs) to validate the CCN gateways infrastructure 
on Nutanix HCI (Hyper-Converged Infrastructure) solution. During 2020, four releases of 
the CCN Gateway software, two releases of the CSI stack, one release of the application 
configuration tool (ACT) and two releases of the CCN Portal were specified, implemented 
and delivered to operations. The aim of this update is to ensure high availability and to 
make the platform more reliable, robust and capable of handling and conveying more 
business  messages,  in  order  to  support  new  applications  going  in  Production  in  the 
CCN2 Platform. 

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During 2020, two Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BG 
and MT) and one Member State as ‘On hold’ (PT). No specific information was reported 
by MT and PT. BG reported that an effective availability rate was provided according to 
the SLA for all Customs trans-European systems. In addition, economic operators were 
provided information on a daily basis about the current IT systems’ unavailability via the 
service  desk  platform  as  well  as  the  official  national  customs  website.  Lastly,  BG  has 
provided  information  about  the  upcoming  maintenance  and  upgrade  of  the  National 
Customs Agency Information systems. The rest of the Member States did not report any 
specific activities related to this project. 

1.4.5  Maintenance and Updates of Operational IT systems (4.8) 

This section provides an overview of the trans-European systems’ operations in 2020, 
including the error rate evaluation and system availability. The figures presented in this 
section depict the evolution of the message volume exchanged in the common domain 
within a certain timeframe. 

This section places emphasis on NCTS, ICS and ECS operations and maintenance in 
the  2020  national  progress  report  of these  systems. The  vast majority  of  the  Member 
States reported on ongoing maintenance and enhancements of the operational systems. 
Among  the  maintenance  activities  carried  out,  the  analysis  of  RfCs  and  the 
implementation of the Known Error Lists (KELs) were most common. 

1.4.5.1 New Computerised Transit System (NCTS Phase 4) 

During the year 2020, 11.2 million transit movements were released, indicating a small 
decrease compared to 2019. Figure 21 depicts the evolution of movements since 2013, 
the average number of which reached 44,270 movements released per business day (-
3.5% compared to 2019). This decrease is attributed to the successful completion of the 
EU/UK Withdrawal Agreement and IE/NI Protocol, as well as the conformance testing 
activities. In addition, the total number of messages exchanged in the common domain 
slightly decreased in 2020, after a relative stability between 2012-2015. The quality of 
operations was stable, with the average error rate in 2020 having a minor increase to 
0.12%,  due  to  some  temporary  issues,  whereas  the  improvement  in  the  quality  of 
operations has increased, without experiencing any issues imposing a major business 
impact throughout the year. Since 2014, the error rate is decreasing as a result of the 
continuous effort of the Member States (supported by the Commission) to improve their 
applications. 

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Figure 21: NCTS - Volume of movements and error rate per year since 2012 

1.4.5.2 Export Control System (ECS Phase 2) 

During 2020, the number of movements released for export (approximately 14.74 million 
electronic  messages  ‘IE501’)  decreased  by  3.09%  compared  to  2019,  resulting  in  a 
decrease  of  0.41%  in  the  total  number  of  exchanged  messages.  The  evolution  of 
movements  depicted  in  Figure  2285  illustrates  that  the  number  of  ECS  messages 
annually exchanged between the Member States in the common domain grew by 20.9% 
from 2012 to 2020. The error rate in 2020 has decreased from 0.18% to 0.14% and was 
mainly impacted by the rejection of messages related to old (archived) movements. 

Figure 22: ECS – Evolution of movements and error rate per year since 2012 

85 The numbers presented in the figure are rounded up. 

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1.4.5.3 Import Control System (ICS Phase 1) 

An excellent quality of ICS operations was observed during the reporting year 2020. As 
depicted in Figure 23, approximately 50.2 million ENS were lodged in the EU in 2020, 
with  an  increase  of  6.2%  compared  to  2019.  In  addition,  about  64%  of  the  total  ENS 
movements were submitted for air transport. 

Figure 23: ICS – Evolution of number of movements and error rate per year since 2012 

1.4.6  IT Business Continuity (4.9) 

IT business continuity focused on IT service continuity in support and alignment with the 
overarching business continuity. The objective is to ensure that DG TAXUD investments 
in preparedness in the preceding years will be effectively reflected in recoverability when 
required,  in  alignment  with  its  business  aims  and  priorities.  In  this  respect,  the  IT 
Business  Continuity  Management  System  (IT  BCMS)  will  be  aligned  with  all  other 
existing  levels  of  business  continuity  management  arrangements  and  consider  all  the 
inter-dependencies  within  the  Commission  complex  ecosystem  to  effectively  meet  its 
stakeholders’ IT service continuity needs. 

Following  the  launch  of  the  IT  Business  Continuity  Management  System  (IT  BCMS) 
Revamping Phase II project in August 2019, DG TAXUD initiated a new Phase III project 
in Summer 2020. 

The aim of the third phase of the project was (a) to ensure the ongoing control, update 
and alignment of fundamental components, key parameters and documents of the BCMS 
as Impact Analysis, Risk Assessment, Continuity, Crisis and Disaster Recovery Plans, 
(b)  to  re-align  the  IT  Systems  Availability  Levels  categorization  to  the  new  adopted 
Availability and Continuity Standards, (c) to enhance the monitoring and control of the 
BCMS Scenery through the deployment of new Key Performance Indicators, dashboard 
adoption and reporting, (d) to prepare a base ground of information required to support 
future  considerations  on  managing  the  DR  Data  Centres  risk,  (e)  to  increase  the 
awareness around the BCMS of the engaged personnel and teams of B Directory staff 
and (f) to run extended DR tests and exercises on all IT systems on an ongoing basis 
ensuring IT TAXUD’s true capability to recover in cases of disruptive incidents. 

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During 2020, two Member States informed about their current status as ‘On hold’ (BG 
and PT) and two Member State as ‘In Progress’ (ES and MT). BG informed that update 
of the BCP Guidance for export and transit systems took place and ES reported that the 
business  continuity  plan  is  defined  in  parallel  with  all  IT  projects.  MT  and  PT  did  not 
report any specific information. The rest of the Member States did not report any specific 
activities related to this project. 

1.5  Other National Projects and Activities 

Along  with  the  UCC  projects,  the  Member  States’  annual  progress  reports  provided 
information about other national projects and activities related to the e-Customs domain. 
Most notably, EE performed upgrades, testing and implementation of changes to their 
national  IT  systems  related  to  Brexit.  In  addition,  new  TARIC  measures  and  national 
changes were introduced in the national Tariff system and modified the system with the 
required changes related to Brexit. FR improved the user experience (section B of the 
UCC  INF  system),  offered  e-learning  modules  and  identified  the  need  for  an  S2S 
approach.  In  2020,  CY  maintained  several  national  systems  including:  Import 
Declaration  System,  Integrated  Tariff  of  the  European  Communities  3  (TARIC3), 
Electronic  system  for  quota  management/allocation  (QUOTA),  National  Risk  Analysis 
(for  import  declaration),  Warehousing  System,  Penalties  System  and  Accounting  and 
Payment System. 

LV maintained and improved the national Electronic Customs Data Processing System 
modules,  containing  ICS,  ECS,  Trade  Customs  Solutions  (TCS),  electronic  cargo 
Manifests service (eMan)/Trading Services and UCC EORI. In addition, LV developed 
and  installed  two  new  functionalities  in  March  2020,  one  on  the  customs  import 
declarations to speed up the processing of declarations and the other on the Temporary 
Storage functionality related to usability improvements. 

LT  organised  an  e-Customs  pilot  activity  (EU4Digital)  between  their  Customs 
Department  under  the  Ministry  of  Finance  and  the  State  Customs  Committee  of  the 
Republic of Belarus (BY). During 2020, the pilot project was operating between the EU 
and  the  Eastern  partner  countries.  Following  the  completion  of  this  pilot  activity  it  is 
foreseen to use the same scenarios for the inter-Eastern partner pilot. In particular, the 
three  scenarios  are;  (a)  the  exchange  of  data  on  empty  means  of  transport,  (b)  the 
exchange of limited data set from transit/export declarations and (c) the exchange of full 
data set from export declarations. The goal of this pilot project is to enable the exchange 
of  the  electronic  customs  data  between  the  customs  authorities  of  Eastern  partner 
countries and the EU Member States as well as to provide recommendations for a full-
scale  solution  on  the  implementation  of  the  system  across  the  region.  During  the  e-
Customs pilot, SEED system was implemented by Customs Administrations of the six 
Western Balkan countries, which has been operational for more than 10 years. Another 
activity  performed  by  LT  in  2020  was  the  preparation  of  the  national  functional 
specifications,  design  and  development  of  national  Tax  Calculation  and  Validation 
System (iMAPS) enabling iMAPS to calculate taxes and duties for low value consignment 
declarations restated to Tariff IT systems group projects. 

NL  stated  that  the  UCC/MASP-C-developments  are  integrated  in  the  Electronic  Prior 
Informed  Consent  (ePIC)  application.  AT  performed  an  evaluation  of  methods  for 
engineering  requirement  and  technical  analysis  for  the  existing  and  new  customs 
systems.  AT  also  reported  on  the  development  continuation  of  the  Enterprise 
Architecture Model (EAM). Lastly, SE reported on the national project programme for e-
Customs.  It  was  noted  that  the  project  programme  is  managing  and  coordinating  the 
national  projects  that  are  launched  to  implement  e-Customs  covering  all  the  SE’s 

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ongoing national projects with an indirect relationship to the development of e-Customs 
and MASP-C. 

1.6  Supporting activities 

One of the objectives of the EU Customs Union in the area of e-Customs reform is the 
support for cooperation  between  the  different  customs  administrations  of  the  Member 
States at national level and the economic operators. This approach towards cooperation 
contributes to ensuring coherence of customs operations, by sharing best practices and 
increasing  coordination  between  customs  authorities  and  other  relevant  public 
authorities or economic operators. In addition, it has the potential to produce far-reaching 
benefits  in  terms  of  harmonising  working  methods  for  customs  control  and  improving 
governance structures. 

In 2020, the Member States and the Commission continued their activities related to the 
promotion  of  e-Customs  services,  training  for  customs  officials,  consultation  with 
economic  operators,  as  well  as  the  coordination  of  activities  between  e-Customs  and 
other e-Government services. 

1.6.1  Supporting tools used for collaboration and communication between 

EU and EU Member State administrations 

The Commission continued to take an active role in facilitating the supporting application 
tools to ensure the effective coordination of the e-Customs projects. PICS and the ARIS 
Publisher  are  the  two  primary  supporting  tools  that  have  been  developed  to  enhance 
information-sharing  and  optimise  business  processes,  respectively.  In  addition, 
CIRCABC  is  one  of  the  main  applications  utilised  by  the  Member  States  and  the 
Commission  as  a  tool  of  communication  for  all  customs  applications  and  revision  of 
documents. 

PICS is a dedicated collaborative online platform administered by the Commission, which 
provides  access  to  diverse  information  related  to  the  implementation  of  the  Customs 
2020  Programme  activities.  Similarly,  ARIS  Publisher  is  a  software  tool  designed  to 
facilitate  the  development  and  continuous  improvement  of  the  EU  Customs  Business 
process  modelling.  In  2020,  ARIS  Publisher  version  10  was  actively  maintained  for 
enabling  all  change  control  management  procedures,  while  ARIS  Publisher  version  9 
remained  accessible  as  an  archive  of  publications.    CIRCABC  version  4.1.4.2  is  a 
collaborative document management system, which offers a communication channel for 
exchanging  information  and  sharing  materials  between  the  Commission,  national 
administrations  and  other  stakeholders.  In  2020,  security  of  the  PICS  and  CIRCABC 
tools was enhanced by introducing a two-factor authentication so as to obtain access to 
certain Commission services. 

In  2020,  the  use  of  Microsoft  365,  Microsoft  Teams  and  WebEx  platforms  acquired 
significant growth to accommodate further modernisation in the collaboration between 
the Member States and the Commission. In consideration of the challenges posed by 
the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing need for online meetings, the Commission 
took immediate steps to facilitate the cooperation with the Member States. The WebEx 
and Microsoft Teams platforms proved to be valuable tools throughout the reporting year 
ensuring  business  continuity,  as  they  were  successfully  used  to  host  a  substantial 
number of online meetings. 

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1.6.2  Consultations with economic operators 

The  implementation  of  the  e-Customs  projects  requires  that  the  Member  States’ 
administrations  and  the  Commission  engage  in  a  regular  dialogue  with  the  economic 
operators  and  their  representative  associations  to  ensure  transparency  in  the 
implementation  of  national  and  European  measures.  Over  the  course  of  2020,  the 
Member  States  organised  a  series  of  seminars,  workshops  and  meetings  in  close 
cooperation with economic operators, to introduce recent developments related to the 
technical,  legal  and  business  requirements  in  the  area  of  e-Customs.  During  this 
process, careful consideration was given to the specific needs of economic operators to 
foster an environment conducive to collaboration. 

The  Member  States’  customs  authorities  and  the  Commission  regularly  informed  the 
representatives  of  economic  operators  of  the  potential  impact  of  the  UCC-related 
changes on the national IT systems. Consultation activities also took place with the view 
to notify economic operators about the present and anticipated developments in the field 
of e-Customs but also to gather in-depth knowledge about different business processes 
from  the  trade  sector’s  perspective.  Furthermore,  several  Member  States  published 
information on their national websites as well as guidelines about diverse systems and 
national Helpdesks were utilised as a means to provide support to economic operators. 

2020  marked  significant  progress  towards  launching  consultation  activities  that 
contributed  to  simplifying  procedures  for  economic  operators.  Common  challenges 
related to the UCC CDS, e-Commerce, UCC ICS2 and UCC UUM&DS  systems were 
proactively  tackled  by  the  majority  of  Member  States  through  online  meetings  and 
publications, while a substantial amount of work was devoted to developing and refining 
user manual and training modules for these systems. Likewise, several Member States 
carried out informational activities on the procedures pertaining to the UCC AN/PN/TS, 
“Adjustments of the Existing Import Applications under the UCC” and the “Maintenance 
and Updates of Operational IT systems”, as well as the deployment timeframe for UCC 
NCTS Phase 5 and UCC AES, and the EU CSW-CERTEX system upgrades. 

Specifically,  BG  reported  that  e-Commerce  &  CP  42/63  is  being  developed  in  close 
cooperation with the national postal operator and express carriers. Following IT system 
updates, BG gave an opportunity to the economic operators to make inquires through 
the  service  desk  platform,  e-mail  and  telephone.  DK  used  the  existing  forums  to 
communicate changes/upgrades to the UCC CDS, UCC BTI system, UCC AEO MRA, 
UCC REX and UCC Special Procedures. It was also reported an ongoing dialogue with 
customs administration and associated network of economic operators affected by the 
updates on e-Commerce & CP 42/63, UCC AN/PN/TS and UCC CCI. DE held online 
meetings  with  economic  operators  and  the  Commission,  while  CZ  organised  online 
meetings with the economic operators on UCC AEO MRA, COPIS eAFA, e-Commerce 
&  CP  42/63,  UCC  ICS2  and  UCC  GUM.  EE  provided  operating  instructions  for  the 
economic  operators  on  the  national  webpage  on  UCC  AEO  MRA,  UCC  EORI2,  e-
Commerce & CP 42/63 and UCC INF SP. 

EE  introduced  the  new  system  prototype  for  import  and  presented  the  national  tariff 
system to the economic operators. EL made available information on Surveillance3 on 
national portal and via the national helpdesk services, whereas FR provided a dedicated 
support  chain  on  the  national  helpdesk  OLGA  to  the  economic  operators  on  their 
application in relation to the UCC CDS. HR held online meetings and workshops with the 
economic  operators  on  UCC  CDS,  e-Commerce  &  CP  42/63,  UCC  ICS2  and  UCC 
UUM&DS, while IT organised meetings with the representatives of economic operators 
in  order  to  receive  feedback  on  the  implementation  of  the  national  customs  SW.  In 

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addition,  detailed  guidelines  were  provided  to  the  economic  operators  and  customs 
offices regarding the changes of the UCC EORI2 project. 

LT  provided  information  to  the  economic  operators  regarding  the  EU  SWE-C  and  the 
changes of the customs activities related to e-Commerce & CP 42/63. In addition, LT 
made available the UCC ICS2 and national specifications to the national postal operators 
and express carriers (DHL)as well as UCC AN/PN/TS specifications for the S2S interface 
for the economic operators systems implementation on their national customs website. 
LV held meetings of the Customs Advisory Council with the participation of the economic 
operators’ representatives on a regular basis and NL reported that the Customs Trade 
Consultation Group on IT met regularly in order to discuss UCC related matters. 

AT  conducted  a  survey  with  the  national  economic  operators  on  the  UCC  CDS.  In 
addition, the system specifications and information regarding UCC AES and UCC NCTS 
were published on the national customs website. AT also created an application guide 
for UCC REX system and provided information to the economic operators concerning 
the requirements of the EORI numbers. PL uploaded information on the use of the IT 
systems in the field of UCC INF SP for the economic operators on the National Portal of 
Customs and Tax Administration. PL also provided support via the national helpdesk to 
the economic operators on UCC UUM&DS, UCC CDS, UCC AEO MRA and UCC EORI2 
and organised information sessions for the economic operators on the implementing the 
EU  Customs  Trader  Portal  (CTP)  and  the  Specific  Trader  Portal  (STP).  Lastly,  FI 
organised  meetings  with  economic  operators  on  UCC  AES,  UCC  NCTS,  UCC  ICS2, 
UCC  AN/PN/TS,  UCC  INF  SP  and  “Adjustments  of  the  Existing  Import  Applications 
under the UCC”. In parallel, FI held meetings with the wood industry associations and 
the major wood importing companies on the processes of simplified import declarations. 

1.6.3  Training for Customs officials and other stakeholders86 

The dynamic environment of the e-Customs projects requires high-quality training and 
consultation  on  IT  system  procedures  and  customs  legislation.  In  view  of  this,  the 
Member  States  and  the  Commission  have  supported  the  development  of  training 
solutions  and  services  for  customs  officials  and  economic  operators  to  provide  the 
necessary  skills  and  knowledge  towards  implementing  and  maintaining  e-Customs 
projects.  Since  2014,  more  than  140.000  customs  officials  have  benefited  from  these 
training solutions. As depicted in Figure 24, a total number of 18,109 customs officials 
were  trained87  with  the  EU  eLearning  portfolio  in  2020.  In  addition,  321  eLearning 
courses  were  used  from  Member  States  and  Customs  2020  participating  countries  in 
several languages compared to 377 in 2019.  

86 The information of the current section is based on the Commission’s training report accessible via Access to Documents 
procedure. 

87 The figures are approximate as not all Member States provided information regarding customs officials trained. 

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Figure 24: Evolution of number of Customs trainees in national administrations 

The  formation  of  online  training  tools  and  guidelines  entails  a  continuous  long-term 
learning plan for customs officials and other stakeholders. The main objective of these 
electronic  learning  materials  is  to  help  national  customs  administrations,  as  well  as 
economic operators and citizens throughout the EU, to better understand and implement 
the  EU  customs  legislation  and  its  related  procedures.  This,  in  turn,  will  lead  to  more 
uniformity and efficiency of customs operations throughout the EU and further enhance 
consistent performance across the Member States. 

Over the last years, the Commission has produced a substantial number of eLearning 
courses financed by the Customs 2020 Programme. In 2020, the focus of the training 
solutions  was  on  the  extended  localisation  and  the  content  update  of  some  portfolio 
courses as well as the development of new courses, intending to support the release of 
new  IT  systems.  More  specifically,  upon  extensive  requests  from  the  national 
administrations, the Commission launched in 2020 a call for localisation88 request under 
the ‘Centralised Localisation’ scheme, an activity which was highly appreciated by the 
national  administrations.  Under  the  above-mentioned  scheme,  the  Commission 
proceeds  with  the  translation  of  the  course  content  and  national  administrations  are 
charged with the task of performing the required translation quality review. As regards 
the content updates that were performed in 2020, emphasis was given to the creation of 
a more immersive and better experience for the trainees. This was achieved with the use 
of 3D89 scenarios, as well as advanced branching scenarios, which are routes through 
the  learning  content  that  depend  on  the  actions  taken  by  a  learner  in  real  cases 
scenarios. Courses free of sensitive content are also made available via the EUROPA 
website to economic operators, representatives of academia and the general public. In 
particular, more than 1 million economic operators have accessed the EUROPA website, 
downloading 60,491 English and national language versions of the available courses. 

88 Call for localisation: call for help for the translation. It can be found on PICS via the Access to Documents. 

89 3D technology is used for realistic visualisation of objects in order to facilitate the training course. 

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The overall performance of the eLearning initiative was monitored through data collected 
at national level, downloads from the EUROPA website and a user satisfaction survey90. 
The  results  of  the  online  survey  indicated  overall  satisfaction  of  both  national 
administrations  and  individual  users  with  the  customs  eLearning  services,  with  an 
average score of 78,6 out of 100 (according to the principles of Kirkpatrick91) compared 
to  75  in  2019.  The  means  of  learning  methods  were:  Learning  Management  System 
(LMS),  eBooks  for  training  purposes,  training  webinars  and  the  CLEP  programme.  In 
parallel to these EU training activities, the Commission worked in the development of a 
new LMS  in 2020. The Customs & Tax EU Learning portal92 intends to provide users 
with relevant training and people development measures and to disseminate customs 
knowledge,  thus  enhancing  individual,  national,  cross-country  skills  and  expertise 
through strong collaboration.  

During  2020,  69%  of  the  national  administrations  used  an  LMS  at  national  level  to 
provide and disseminate their training material to their staff. With respect to the future 
EU  learning  portal  and  its  features,  the  majority  of  the  national  administrations 
appreciates mostly the access to the EU eLearning material (96%) and the participation 
in  the  EU  webinars  (81%).  Both  the  dissemination  of  the  learning  material  and  the 
organisation of training webinars will be greatly facilitated by the EU LMS. The eBook for 
Authorised Economic Operators (AEO), which was first developed in 2018, was made 
available to trainees by 50% of the national administrations, mainly via the national LMS 
or Intranet. eBooks are a powerful learning solution, which could be further developed, 
converting  the  Commission’s  guidelines  into  easy  to  use  and  attractive  eBooks  for 
training purposes. During the reporting year, 61% of the national administrations offered 
training  webinars  at  national  level  compared  to  47%  in  2019.  Webinars  gained 
considerable importance in light of the pandemic outbreak and the use of online training 
was increased. Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, the CLEP programme was also shifted 
to  online  mode.  81%  of  the  national  administrations  participated  in  CLEP  events 
organised in 2020 and 85% expressed their willingness to take part in CLEP events in 
2021-2022.  The  CLEP  online  organisation  was  supported  from  the  CELBET  training 
team  throughout  the  reporting  year,  significantly  contributing  to  the  success  of  the 
programme. 

Furthermore, Figure 25 below depicts the comparison between the numbers of trainees93 
for the  UCC  eLearning programmes for  2019  and  2020.  A substantial  increase  in the 
number of trainees can be observed for all eLearning courses. In particular, the “UCC 
Level 3 CDS”, “UCC Level 3 CLASS” and “UCC Level 3 INF”, which were introduced as 
new courses in 2020, were used by a considerable number of trainees. In addition, during 
2020 the number of downloads has significantly increased for all the available courses 
by national customs officials and other stakeholders compared to 2019. 

90 http://surveys.publications.europa.eu/formserver/taxud/taxud_elearning.html 

91  Kirkpatrick  Learning  Model:  D.  Kirkpatrick's  four  levels  of  training  evaluation  is  the  most  widely  used  training 
evaluation model in the world. A focus of this program is the exploration of how to ensure that what is learned transfers to 
on-the-job behaviours. According to Kirkpatrick, evaluations of the effectiveness of any employee learning process should 
follow four steps: reaction, learning, behaviour and results. 

92  Customs & Tax EU Learning Portal (europa.eu) 

93 The number of trainees depicted in Figure 25, represents a global number consisting of customs officials, economic 
operators and other stakeholders. 

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Figure 25: Number of trainees for the UCC eLearning Programme 2019-2020 

Noteworthy  is  the  fact  that,  in  2020,  the  majority  of  the  trainees  (58%)  followed  the 
training courses on their own initiative, indicating a significant change in comparison to 
2019,  when  most  users  (63%)  reported  to  participate  in  training  courses  due  to 
professional  requirement.  This  change  indicates  a  trend  of  how  professionals  face 
training nowadays, demonstrating eagerness to improve their skills. 

Following the training market trends, the Commission is already developing shorter and 
multi-modulated  EU  courses  and  intends  to  further  prioritize  the  content  level  and 
methodology  used  in  the  eLearning  courses.  The  use  of  the  real  visualisation  of  the 
systems  will  support  the  retention  of  the  learning  concepts  and  along  with  the 
adjustments to the different profiles in the public and private sectors will contribute to the 
creation of easy-to-follow courses by the users, ensuring delivery of services that meet 
users’ needs. 

During 2020, the majority of the Member States organised several seminars, trainings, 
workshops  and  prepared  manuals.  More  specifically,  on  the  UCC  CDS,  CZ  reported 
participating on several online meetings and training sessions during 2020 IT meeting 
on  DEMO  Interaction3  v1.22, IT meeting  Interaction  3, IT meeting feedback from  test 
1.23, UCC CDS Training Session 3, UUC CDS v1.24 feedback & Pre-Production, UCC 
CDS v1.24 Post Go Live, UCC CDS v1.25 Demo, UCC CDS Training Session 5, UCC 
CDS  v.1.26  Interaction  Demo,  2020  UCC  CDS  Training  Session  4.  EE  reported 
organising training sessions for their customs officers on the UCC CDS. FR created UCC 
CDS related material for customs officers and economic operators and updated the UCC 
CDS dedicated page on intranet and the national webpage. In addition, FR initiated the 
preparatory  work  for  the  UCC  GUM/CDS  as  well  as  for  the  improvement  of  the 
multilingual use of the portal, in particular in the consultation phase. HR prepared training 
materials and manuals following the implementation of the new functionalities of the UCC 

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CDS, whereas AT was involved in the UCC CDS testing and revised the user manuals 
of the system. PL prepared training materials based on the presentations from the UCC 
CDS workshops. 

BG  participated  in  the  UCC  eLearning  program  related  to  the  EBTI3  System  and  EU 
Customs Trader Portal for BTI, while FI carried out a course review of the "EU Customs 
Trader Portal for BTI eLearning" in their national language. CZ participated in webinars 
for customs officers on the UCC AEO MRA, while PL prepared training materials based 
on the presentations from the eAEO webinars. 

In reference to the UCC AES and UCC NCTS, three Member States (DK, HR and PL) 
informed  that  no  trainings  activities  were  carried  out  during  2020.  AT  reported  that 
activities will be planned and prepared during the next phase of UCC AES, whereas PT 
indicated the progress of the UCC AES project being in a preliminary phase. 

In connection with the UCC REX system, CZ organised training with national helpdesk 
on the impacts and changes of the STP REX and its connectivity  with the back-office 
application and replication data via CRS to the national system. Two Member States (EE 
and  HR)  participated  in  the  REX  STP/REX  MS  back-office  training  organised  by  the 
Commission, while AT created an Application Guide for the customs officials. 

Concerning  COPIS,  BG  prepared  training  materials  and  performed  regular  individual 
trainings  on  the  system  usage  regarding  the  search  for  IPRs/granted  applications  for 
action as well as registration of infringements to the customs officers. CZ participated in 
seminars and workshops on the use of COPIS3.3.0 for customs officers. IT informed that 
the ICT central directorate published operating instructions both for customs officials and 
external users with regards to the new software version of COPIS, while AT participated 
in online trainings on COPIS. 

In terms of the EU SWE-C, CZ organised training for the helpdesk (support of economic 
operators/carriers and customs offices) on the national level concerning the Certificate 
of Inspection (COI) project including the message exchange, architecture and tools for 
maintenance and support. FR prepared training materials on the deployment of the new 
interconnections  and  the  internal  services.  IT  performed  internal  training  initiatives  to 
inform  the  customs  officials  on  the  state  of  play  of  the  EU  SWE-C  project  at  EU  and 
national level. PL organised a pilot test on the new PKWD-Single Window system by the 
SW national project group with the PCA, customs officials and the economic operators 
to promote the future of the national SW platform. 

EE updated and provided the instructions and memos of the UCC EORI to the customs 
officials. 

BG  drafted guidelines  on  e-Commerce  &  CP  42/63,  whereas  EL  published  all  related 
information of the e-Commerce & CP 42/63 for customs officers and economic operators 
on the Hellenic customs portal. 

Regarding UCC ICS2, CZ conducted training for the customs officers concerned, while 
EE  performed  activities  according  to  the  national  project  plan.  HR  informed  that  no 
training  activities  took  place  during  2020  as  UCC  ICS2  was  not  yet  deployed  in 
production,  while  IT  disseminated  information  to  the  customs  official  concerning  the 
system changes. 

DK conducted seminars, workshops and on-boarding activities regarding the upcoming 
changes on the UCC AN/PN/TS system. 

CZ indicated their training planning for the UCC AES, e-Commerce & CP 42/63, UCC 
Special Procedures and Adjustments of the existing import applications under the UCC 
projects. 

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Relating to the UCC INF SP, DE organised an online multiplier training course with the 
customs officers to provide an introduction to the procedure of the UCC INF system. EE 
carried out an implementation training, while AT provided national training materials and 
organised training session for the customs officials. FI created internal training material 
for  the  training  sessions  that  were  held  for  the  customs  declaration  handlers  working 
both  in  the  Electronic  Customs  Clearance  Centre  and  customs  offices.  In  total,  five 
training sessions were carried out with two different target groups. 

EE informed that test functionality information for the Adjustments of the existing import 
applications under the UCC projects were distributed via e-channels, while EL informed 
that training has been planned to take place at later phases of the project. 

PL  prepared  newsletters  for  internal  and  external  users  and  online  trainings  on  UCC 
PoUS. 

In respect to CCN2, BG informed that six administrators have been trained to monitor 
and  to  administrate  the CCN  1  and  2  bridge.  HR  carried  out  courses for the  customs 
officers related  to the  IT  Infrastructure  and  provided  information related  to  new  CCN2 
network. SI organised trainings on CCN2 system for the external developers and held 
additional meetings to accomplish development of CCN2 services. 

Concerning the UCC UUM&DS project, BG organised trainings for the customs officers 
and the service desk, while CZ prepared training materials focused on UCC UUM&DS 
S2S  communication  including  architecture  description.  DK  informed  that  in  2020  the 
service desk and frontline personnel were trained in the use of the system, whereas EE 
updated  their  local  user  manuals.  HR  performed  coordination  and  preparation  for 
education  activities.  LT  conducted  deployment  training  for  system  administrators  and 
provided  documentation  for  the  national  UUM&DS  system  (BAP)  to  national  service 
desk.  PT  created  training  materials  following  the  elaboration  and  approval  of  the  top 
management  of  the  "  Ofício  Circulado  N.  º  15770  2020-06-08"  which  instructs  the 
national economic operators on the registration process and access via UCC UUM&DS. 
A training on roles and responsibilities of PT’s UCC UUM&DS national project managers 
(NPM) also took place during 2020. 

In  relation  to TARIC3,  EE  prepared  training materials  and  organised  seminars for  the 
new customs officials. 

In  addition,  BG  reported  that  regular  seminars,  workshops  and  skill  maintenance 
trainings were held during 2019. EE provided information on the upgrades of the systems 
via  e-channels,  whereas  AT  provided  information  to  all  the  customs  officials  for  all  its 
systems in a format of newsletters. LV reported that various training courses have been 
organised  for  customs  officials  regarding  changes  and  improvements  in  the  National 
Electronic  Customs  Data  Processing  System.  Lastly,  LT  carried  out  trainings  for  the 
customs officials, systems administrators, monitoring specialists and user administration 
specialist concerning the EU4Digital e-Customs pilot project 

1.6.4  Promotion and other activities 

An integral part of optimising customs procedures is the promotion of cooperation within 
the national customs administrations. In 2020, the Member States’ authorities and the 
Commission  conducted  various  meetings  and  seminars  with  project  working  groups, 
national  partners,  trade  contact  groups,  governmental  and  customs  institutions,  tax 
authorities,  and  economic  operators  to  promote  an  integrated  level  of  administration 
collaborating towards the implementation of e-Customs services. 

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The Commission conducted 157 meetings with the Member States’ customs officials with 
expertise in areas such as legislation, project management, operations, planning and IT, 
addressing all aspects of e-Customs projects. 

In  2020,  different  communication  products  and  actions  were  prepared  to  promote 
initiatives related to e-Customs. An online communication campaign was launched by 
DG TAXUD aiming to inform small and medium-sized enterprises across the EU about 
the  necessary  preparations  in  view  of  the  end  of  the  Brexit  transition  period.  The 
campaign was managed mainly through DG TAXUD’s social media presence, including 
DG TAXUD’s Twitter account as well as the Commission’s corporate LinkedIn account. 
Printed leaflets were also distributed to the Commission Representations in all EU official 
languages. 

In  addition,  two further  communication  campaigns  dedicated to the  UCC ICS2  project 
were launched: a mini campaign prior to the launch of the new UCC ICS2 system, and 
an  integrated  communication  campaign  aimed  at  economic  operators,  informing them 
about the upcoming changes in UCC ICS2 and advising them to prepare accordingly. 
These  promotional  activities  were  complemented  by  the  preparation  of  regular  press 
materials,  including  press  releases,  Q&A  documents  and  factsheets  on  the  Customs 
Action Plan, the EU Single Window environment for customs and the MAWP 2021-2022. 

Likewise, the Member States supported promotional activities targeted at the ongoing 
task  of  developing,  implementing  and  performing  updates  to  various  projects  such  as 
UCC CDS, transit systems including UCC NCTS, UCC REX, UCC AES, UCC AEO and 
Impacts of MRA, EU SWE-C and UCC UUM&DS. 

In  2020,  BG  integrated  the  national  validation  for  EORI  webservices  into  the  national 
customs  systems  and  components.  CZ  participated  in  seminars,  workshops  and  web 
meetings organised by the Commission on the use of the UCC AEO system by customs 
officers as well as on the progress of COPIS 3.3.0 and 4.0.0. In addition, CZ organised 
several meetings with national authorities and an external contractor to inform about the 
activities  that  took  place  within  the  context  of  the  Single  Window  project  group.  DK 
participated in seminars, workshops and working groups on the UCC CDS, UCC BTI, 
UCC AEO, UCC REX, COPIS and UCC INF systems and initiated internal workshops 
on UCC AES and UCC NCTS systems with the supplier of the DMS platform. DE was 
involved in the UCC INF project groups jointly with economic operators and remained in 
contact with economic operators in order to resolve any outstanding issues. 

EE participated in project group meetings for the UCC CDS system, monthly webinars 
for  UCC  BTI  and  attended  working  groups  related  to  e-Commerce.  Furthermore,  EE 
provided  guidance  to  economic  operators  on  the  UCC  AEO  system  and  updated  the 
local  user  manuals  for  UCC  UUM&DS  on  the  local  website  for  customs.  Information 
about REX STP was also added to the national website and a new link to REX STP was 
added to the e-Customs application. The national e-Customs solution was introduced to 
the  national  customs  administrations  and  EE  organised  a  seminar  on  the  import 
applications  to  present  the  future  plans  and  development  of  e-Customs  to  economic 
operators. 

FR attended working groups and workshops between the IT services and the Customs 
Policy office about the UCC CDS system and participated in a workshop on UCC AES 
to optimise its workflow. In addition, FR participated in workshops related to low-value 
consignments,  e-Commerce  and  UCC  GUM.  HR  organised  periodically  informational 
and educational seminars on UCC CDS for economic operators and attended workshops 
on  UCC  AES  and  UCC  NCTS.  Infrastructure  information  about  UCC  UUM&DS  was 
published on the official website of the national customs administration. IT updated the 

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FAQ section for UCC REX and provided detailed information to economic operators on 
the use of REX TP as well as to customs officers on the processing of requests for REX 
registrations through the REX TP. IT further reported that a constant collaboration on the 
project  is  carried  out  with  the  legal  and  procedural  departments.  LT  reported  that 
meetings  related  to  e-commerce  took  place  with  representatives  of  the  State  Tax 
Inspectorate. BAP94 specifications have been published on the national customs website 
for economic operators. With regards to the EU4Digital e-Customs pilot, LT reported that 
coordination  workshops  and  technical  meetings  were  held  between  the  participating 
customs administrations. AT organised customs internal planning sessions for the UCC 
AEO  and  prepared  newsletters  for  customs  officials  and  economic  operators  for  e-
commerce and special procedures.  

PL published information related to the UCC CDS and UCC AEO on the national website 
and sent newsletters to entrepreneurs. Information and announcements about NCTS2 
as well as other e-Customs services are published on the national trader portal PUESC. 
With regards to the single window, PL organised a national project group with partner 
competent  authorities  and  economic  operators  to  promote  the  future  national  single 
window platform and to discuss in detail the needs of the partner competent authorities 
in  relation  to  the  use  of  the  platform.  Bilateral  meetings  were  also  organised  by  the 
Ministry  of  Finance  with  the  relevant  partner  competent  authorities  (phytosanitary 
inspectorate, veterinary service) and seminars as well as workshops on the UCC PoUS 
system were held for economic operators. PL also reported that preparations were made 
for the implementation of e-Customs services for the national AIS and UCC AES systems 
in the context of legal provisions concerning the UCC Special Procedures project. The 
UCC  INF  SP  system  was  implemented  in  the  National  Revenue  Administration  by 
participating  in  the  testing  of  the  prototype  of  the  central  system  and  organising  the 
national  helpdesk  for  system  users.  A  special  website  containing  information  for 
economic  operators  was  prepared  and  PL  also  participated  in  the  preparation  of  the 
Business User Guide for UCC INF SP.  

PT  reported  that  the  interconnection  of  the  national  import  system  with  CSW-CVED 
version  1.5.1  was  kept  in  operation  in  2020  and  attended  the  collaborative  UCC 
UUM&DS working group. RO published information related to connection to the eAEO 
in the customs authority’s website, while FI presented the UCC INF system as part of a 
seminar organised by the Finnish Freight Forwarding and Logistics Association.  

1.6.5  Coordination  of  e-Customs  with  other  e-Government  systems  or 

activities 

In 2020, the coordination of e-Customs activities with other e-Government services was 
managed  through  cooperation  with  various  ministries, ICT  and  legal  departments, tax 
administrations  and  economic  operators.  The  objective  was  to  inform  all  relevant 
stakeholders on the necessary requirements for the implementation of the MASP-C and 
other e-Customs related projects. 

Alongside the MASP-C coordination activities carried out by the Commission, presented 
at length in previous sections, some Member States highlighted the following key activity 
areas  during  2020.  BG  reported  that  the  EORI  webservices,  which  are  used  by  the 
national import systems and the national components of UCC NCTS, ICS and UCC AES, 
are  validated  at  national  level.  Coordination  meetings  were  held  with  the  national  tax 
authorities  regarding  the  national  activities  for  the  e-commerce  project.  For  the  UCC 

94 National user management portal 

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ICS2  project,  BG  has  established  coordination  with  the  national  import  system,  the 
national risk analysis system and the national part of CCN.  

CZ reported that the data from the UCC AEO database is used by the national application 
GMS  (Guarantee  Management  System),  which  exchanges  data  with  several  national 
applications  as  well.  In  addition,  upgrades  to  the  national  Single Window  and  Identity 
and Access Management System were performed and an impact analysis is prepared, 
as  these  two  systems  are  connected  with  UCC  REX.  Regarding  COPIS  4.0.0.,  a 
coordination  with  the  ASEO  application  is  ongoing  in  order  to  enable  clients  to 
authenticate  at  IPEP95  (portal  of  EUIPO).  During  2020,  CZ  worked  closely  with  the 
Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Environment within the context of the 
EU SWE-C, as the development was focused on depreciations of national licences and 
quantity  management.  Further  it  has  been  reported  that  the  UCC  EORI  system 
communicates with other national systems and provides data about economic operators 
via  web  services.  Regarding  UCC  UUM&DS,  CZ  informed  that  three  meetings  of  the 
Steering  group,  responsible  at  national  level  for  the  development  of  the  e-Customs 
project under MASP-C, were organised. In addition, a project group was organised with 
other units and departments, which focused on the ASEO system. 

DK reported that national stakeholders as well as experts and external consultants are 
involved in the UCC AES and UCC NCTS projects, who support the projects’ activities 
to  refine  the  technical  solutions  and  processes,  covering  the  project  initiation 
documentation,  process  diagrams  and  tender  phase  activities.  With  regards  to  e-
Commerce  project,  there  has  been  ongoing  coordination  with  several  authorities, 
including  the  Ministry  of  Taxation  and  the  Ministry  of  Finance,  the  Agency  for 
Digitalisation, Statistics Denmark, as well as with other projects such as the OSS VAT 
project  “One  Stop  Moms  2”,  DK-CRS  and  UCC  ICS2.  Several  coordination  activities 
were also performed within the context of the UCC AN/PN/TS project. More specifically, 
DK informed about the collaboration with Danmarks Statistik regarding the transmission 
of data on H7 declarations as well as about the coordination with the data platform in 
UFST  regarding  the  transfer  of  data  to  the  data  platform  and  the  transmission  to 
Danmarks Statistik. National customs authorities coordinated also with Manifest on the 
new integration, the relocation of temporary storage functionality and the adaptations to 
internal and external users. Lastly, DK reported that there has been coordination with 
the central unit of UFST on the UI requirements and with the Ministry of Finance in terms 
of economy, scope and priority.  

DE reported that the UCC INF SP system is implemented in the EU CTP and informed 
that coordination with transport authorities is ongoing for the UCC PoUS project related 
to the project activities that are linked with the implementation of the EMSWe.  

EE reported that the IT Centre of the Ministry of Finance (ITC) has been involved in the 
UCC AEO MRA project, while coordination with excise and VAT authorities has taken 
place  with  respect  to  the  UCC  AES  project.  In  addition,  the  customs  authorities  have 
coordinated with the excise, VAT and statistics authorities for the UCC INF SP project. 
For  the  e-Commerce  project,  EE  customs  administration  has  cooperated  with  the  IT 
Centre  of  the  Ministry  of  Finance  and  the  system  is  also  being  coordinated  with  the 
national Surveillance system and the National Entry System. Furthermore, the ITC was 
the  contract  party  of  the  framework  agreement  made  between  ITC  and  the  Estonian 
company, responsible for the development of the new national import system. Customs 
authorities cooperated with the ITC also on the Brexit I phase and TARIC 3 projects. For 
Brexit  and TARIC  3  coordination  with the  national  declaration  processing  system  was 

95 Intellectual property enforcement portal (IPEP) 

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also foreseen. Lastly, EE informed that the UCC UUM&DS system is coordinated with 
the national IAM system 

In  ES  the  SSTL  project  was  coordinated  with  the  CenCoom  Interchange  Information 
Platform. 

FR  reported  that  numerous  horizontal  activities  took  place  in  cooperation  with  the 
department in charge of the guarantee and customs clearance, while for the UCC NCTS 
and  e-Commerce  projects  there  has  been  coordination  with  the  legal  departments 
(Clearance and Transit) and with national systems for the economic operators’ database, 
the customs offices database and the reference data database. Within the context of the 
EU SWE-C, FR reported on the coordination between the national single window system 
and the EU system as well as with national institutional partners.  

HR reported that the UCC AES and UCC NCTS Phase 5 and UCC ICS2 systems will be 
integrated with the national authorisations registry (national CRS) and the national code 
list registry as well as with other MASP-C projects, including UCC CDS, CS/RD2 and 
EOS. UCC AN/PN/TS system is being coordinated with UCC ICS2 and the national AIS 
(HRAIS) projects. In addition, during the analysis, the implementation and the operation 
of  the  UCC  UUM&DS,  the  project  unit  coordinated  with  other  business  units  and 
departments  related  to  the  integration  with  systems,  which  are  using  UUM&DS 
infrastructure, such as UCC ICS2 and REX systems.  

HU  reported  that  there  have  been  coordination  activities  between  the  CCN2  and  the 
UCC ICS2 projects. 

IT  reported  that  the  local  customs  offices  and  the  Legal  and  Procedural  Department 
cooperated  for  the  UCC  CDS,  UCC  REX  and  UCC  ICS2  projects,  while  the  customs 
offices  and  the  competent  customs  department  cooperated  with  the  Antifraud  Central 
Office within the context of COPIS. With respect to the EU CSW-CERTEX project, the 
Italian Customs Agency is working in cooperation with the Ministry of Health to develop 
the national customs single window regarding national certificates needed for customs 
formalities with the aim to implement a new portal acting as a single-entry point for the 
economic operators. In addition, IT reported that coordination between the legal and IT 
departments  was  required  for  the  preparation  of  instructions  for  EORI  to  be  given  to 
economic operators and customs officers.  

LT reported several coordination activities. More specifically, LT tested the UCC NCTS 
system with several interfaces, including the national Customs Declarations Processing 
System  (MDAS),  the  national  UUM&DS  system  (BAP),  the  Customs  Clients  Register 
(MPR), the national Customs Authorisations System (MLS), the Reference Information 
Management System (NOVIS), the national Single-Window (VLS) System, the national 
Guarantees  Management  System  (GVS),  and  the  external  guarantors  information 
system.  With  regards  to  the  e-Commerce  project,  interfaces  with  the  customs  single 
window and other information systems were developed or updated.  

MT reported that the customs authorities are coordinating and discussing aspects of the 
national  single  window  and  the  e-Commerce  project  with  the  different  stakeholders 
involved  in  the  process.  MT  is  also  participating  in  the  single  window  project  group 
organised by the Commission. 

AT reported that the national application of UCC CDS as well as the central application 
for UCC REX are provided to economic operators via a platform operated by another 
ministry. With  regards  to  UCC  AES  and  UCC  NCTS  projects,  coordination  with  other 
units and departments is ongoing. AT reported coordination between the EU SWE-C and 
the national project for adjustment of import systems, and for the EORI2 project there is 
coordination  with  the  national  e-Customs  system  and  the  national  CDS.  AT  is 

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coordinating  with  DG  TAXUD  within  the  context  of  e-commerce  and  the  import 
applications regarding providing data via surveillance. For UCC ICS2, there is regular 
coordination  with  other UCC  applications  on  dependencies  (UUM&DS)  and  synergies 
(Import,  UCC  AES,  UCC  NCTS)  and  for  UCC  GUM  coordination  with  national  CDS. 
Lastly, AT reported coordination activities between the UCC INF SP and Adjustment of 
the existing import applications projects concerning the SP IMP, as well as cooperation 
with other units and departments. Exchanges with the existing national customs system 
and the UCC INF SP have also taken place. 

PL reported coordination of the UCC CDS, UCC AEO MRA and UCC EORI systems with 
the  national  reference  data  system  (PDR  PL/UE),  NPM  CCN2  and  UUM&DS.  UCC 
NCTS interoperates with several systems, including CS/RD, CS/MIS, ATIS, SPEED, the 
national  ZISAR  Risk  Management  System,  UCC  EORI,  EOS,  UCC  AEO,  the  national 
guarantee  management  system  OSOZ2,  UCC  AES,  AIS,  the  ISZTAR  Customs  Tariff 
System, Safe TIR, as well as with TRACES for the verification of the CVED certificates 
and the Central Service Desk for the support of all Ministry of Finance IT systems. UCC 
NCTS also supplies data to the PL central data warehouse Ariadna, which is used for 
control and statistical purposes. In addition, the system uses the nationally developed 
mechanisms  for  user  management,  user  authentication,  access  control  and  digital 
signing  of  messages.  In  addition,  PL  informed  that  economic  operators  can  submit 
messages via three different channels: the national SEAP portal (www.puesc.gov.pl) or 
via email. In the reporting period, the NCTS2 was interfaced with AIS and UCC AES. 
Furthermore, three  national  IT  projects (AES-upgrade,  AIS-upgrade,  RPS)  are  part  of 
the IT Customs complex program called the Electronic Customs and Revenue Services 
"PUESC-2020" under the direction of the Ministry of Finance. The implementation of the 
UCC INF SP system took place in cooperation with DG TAXUD, while the UCC PoUS 
system in PL is part of the export system (ECS2) both from a technical and business 
perspective. 

PT  reported  that  the  interconnection  of  the  national  import  system  with  CSW-CVED 
version 1.5.1. was kept in operation in 2020.  Coordination activities were conducted in 
order to connect UCC ICS2 R1 with the national import system. In addition, the national 
UUM&DS system was integrated with the eAEO and UCC EBTI systems, monitoring the 
economic  operators  which  were  registered  in  the  PT  sub-domain  after  the  entry  into 
production.  

NL reported that all developments regarding the UCC projects are regularly discussed 
with other ministries and national agencies involved in import and export formalities and 
logistics, such as the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry 
of Economic Affairs. 

In conclusion FI reported that the launch of the UCC INF system required cooperation 
between  different  parts  of  the  national  customs  authorities,  including  the  legal  and 
business units, the customer service unit, the IT unit, the communications unit and the 
customs declarations handling functions (both Electronic Customs Clearance Centre and 
customs offices). Furthermore, FI informed that the UUM&DS solution is integrated to 
UCC  CDS,  UCC  BTI  and  eAEO  and  the  cooperation  with  these  projects  has  been 
essential. 

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ANNEX 2 – PLANNING OVERVIEW OF MASP-C PROJECTS 

Explanatory Note on the Planning Overview of MASP-C Projects 

The planning overview of MASP-C Projects provides visual representations of the status 
of the Customs IT projects, taking into account the MASP-C Revision 2017 as a reporting 
baseline, while incorporating the milestones re-planned in line with the revised MASP-C 
Revision 2019. The project status is depicted in terms of the date of entry into operations 
for  initiatives  that  have  already  been  completed,  or  the  anticipated  date  of  entry  into 
operations for forthcoming projects. Any deviations from the MASP-C Revision 2017 and 
the MASP-C Revision 2019 Consolidated Project Fiches baseline planning are indicated 
–  either  as  delays  or  earlier  deployments  –  in  the  white  bars  to  the  right  and  left  of 
individual project titles. The actual or expected date of entry into operations is also shown 
in  these  bars, for comparison  purposes  with  the corresponding  MASP-C.  For  projects 
with  a  window  for  national  deployment  activities,  the  dark  grey  project  title  box 
corresponds  to  the  end  of  the  period  for  the  Member  States’  operational  deployment, 
while the white bar with blue text indicates the start of this period. The completed projects 
are depicted in the green project title boxes.  Finally, these visualisations focus on the 
last milestone of each project for readability reasons. For full details on each MASP-C 
project milestones accompanied by a Gantt chart visualisation, please refer to the Annex 
1  of  the  MASP-C  package  (produced  in  Microsoft  Project  Plan  format)  in  the  revision 
2017 and the revision 2019.

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ANNEX 3 – ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS & KEY TERMS 

Acronym 

Description 

ACT 

AEO 

AES 

AFA 

AFIS 

AIS 

AN 

AO 

ARIS 

ASEO 

ATA 

ATLAS 

B2G 

BAP 

BCMS 

BCP 

BPM 

BTI 

C/ieCA 

CAP 

CBG 

Application Configuration Tool 

Authorised Economic Operator 

Automated Export System 

Application for Action 

Anti-Fraud Information System 

Automated Import System 

Notification of Arrival 

Architecture Overview 

Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (DG TAXUD has 
chosen ARIS produced by IDS-Scheer as a technical supporting 
tool for the business process modelling following the Commission 
overall policy of using ARIS software platform); New version 
ARIS10 

CZ national application related to COPIS 

Admission Temporaire/Temporary Admission 

Automated Customs Tariff and Local Processing Application 
System 

Business-to-Government 

LT national user management portal 

Business Continuity Management System 

Business Continuity Plan 

Business Process Model 

Binding Tariff Information  

Central Information Exchange Convertor Application 

Common Agricultural Policy 

Customs Business Group 

CCC-GEN 

Customs Code Committee – General Customs Legislation 
section 

CCI 

Centralised Clearance for Import 

CCN; CCN2 

Common Communication Network; Common Communication 
Network 2 

CDS 

CED 

Customs Decisions System 

Common Entry Document 

CEG-DIH 

Customs Expert Group on Data Integration and Harmonisation 

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Description 

Customs Enforcement Network Communication Platform of ES 

Certificates Exchange Project 

Customs Goods Manifest 

Common Health Entry Document 

Common Health Entry Document for Animals 

Common Health Entry Document module for Products Not of 
Animal Origin 

Common Health Entry Document for Animal Products 

Common Health Entry Document module for Plant Protection  

Communication and Information Resource Centre for 
Administrations, Businesses and Citizens 

Classification Information System 

Common Learning Event Programme 

Container status message 

Certificate of Organic Inspection 

European Commission 

Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy System  

Commercial Off-The-Shelf 

Customs Procedures 

Customs Policy Group 

Common Repository 

Acronym 

CENcomm 

CERTEX 

CGM 

CHED 

CHED-A 

CHED-D 

CHED-P 

CHED-PP 

CIRCABC 

CLASS 

CLEP 

CMS 

COI 

COM 

COPIS 

COTS 

CP 

CPG 

CR 

CRMS; CRMS2 

Customs Risk Management System; Customs Risk Management 
System 2 

CRS 

CS/MIS 

Customer Reference Services 

Central Services - Management Information System 

CS/RD; CS/RD2 

Central Cervices – Reference Data; Central Cervices – 
Reference Data 2 

CSD 

CSI 

CSW 

Central Service Desk  

Common Systems Interface 

Customs Single Window 

CUP-MIS 

Customs Union Performance – Management information System 

Customs 2020 

EU cooperation programme providing the financing to EU IT 
systems for customs and national customs administrations with 
the possibility to create and exchange information and expertise. 

CVED 

DA 

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Delegated Act 

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Acronym 

Description 

DAC6 

DDCOM 

DDNCA 

Dispositions d'Application du Code 6 

Design Document for Common Operations and Methods 

Design Document for National Customs Application 

DevSecOps 

Development, Security and Operations 

DG 

DG DIGIT 

DG MOVE 

DG SANTE 

DG TAXUD 

DG TRADE 

DIH 

DMS 

DR 

eAFA 

EAM 

eATA 

EBTI 

EBSI 

EC 

ECCG 

ECS  

EDB 

EIDR 

EIS 

eMan 

EMSA 

EMSWe 

ENS 

EORI; EORI2 

EOS 

EP 

ePIC 

Directorate General 

Directorate General for Informatics 

Directorate General for Mobility and Transport 

Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety 

Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union 

Directorate General for Trade 

Data Integration and Harmonisation 

Declaration Management System of DK 

Disaster Recovery 

Electronic Application for Action 

Enterprise Architecture Model 

Electronic Admission Temporaire/Temporary Admission 

European Binding Tariff Information 

European Blockchain Services Infrastructure 

European Commission 

Electronic Customs Coordination Group 

Export Control System 

Enforcement Database 

Entry In the Declarant’s Records 

European Information Systems 

Electronic cargo Manifests service 

European Maritime Safety Agency 

European Maritime Single Window environment 

Entry Summary Declaration 

Economic Operators Registration and Identification; Economic 
Operators Registration and Identification 2 

Economic Operators System 

European Parliament 

Electronic Prior Informed Consent 

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Acronym 

Description 

ETCIT 

eTIR 

EU 

EUCDM 

EUCTP 

EUIPO 

FGAS 

FLEGT 

FSS 

G2G 

GDPR 

GMS 

GUI 

GUM 

GVS 

H/W 

HA 

HCI 

HLSG 

IA 

IAM 

ICC 

ICD 

ICGS 

Expert Teams on new approaches to develop and operate 
Customs IT systems 

Electronic TIR 

European Union 

European Union Customs Data Model 

European Union Customs Trader Portal 

European Union Intellectual Property Office 

Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases 

Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade 

Functional System Specifications 

Government-to-Government 

General Data Protection Regulation 

Guarantee Management System of CZ 

Graphical User Interface 

Guarantee Management 

National Guarantees Management System of LT 

Hardware 

High Availability 

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure 

High Level Steering Group 

Implementing Act 

Identity and Access Management 

International Chambers of Commerce 

Interface Control Document 

Import of Cultural Goods Importer Statement  

ICS; ICS2 

Import Control System; Import Control System 2 

ICT 

IE 

iMAPS 

iMDAS 

IMP 

INF 

INF SP 

IOSS 

04/10/2021 

Information and Communications Technology 

Information Exchange messages 

National Tax Calculation and Validation System of LT 

National Customs Declarations Processing System of LT 

Import 

Information Sheet 

Standardised Exchange of Information for Special Procedures 

Import One Stop Shop 

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Description 

IOSS VAT identifiers Distributed Registry 

Intellectual property enforcement portal 

Intellectual Property Rights 

Information Technology 

Information Technology and Cybersecurity board 

IT Service Management 

Joint Research Centre 

Known Error List 

Level 1 – Global BPM (overview of EU Customs Business 
Domain and Global Business Data). 

Level 2 – High Level BPM (interactions between the main 
Business Processes with each EU Customs Business Domain). 

Level 3 – Business Requirement BPM (Flow of the legal and 
business tasks within each main business process and the 
interactions between the involved stakeholders). 

Level 4 – Functional Requirement BPM (i.e. functional 
specification) (Flow of the envisaged system; information 
exchanges; data rules and conditions; requirements trees; test 
cases and scenarios). 

Learning Management System 

Multi-Annual Strategic Plan 

Multi-Annual Strategic Plan for Customs 

Multi-Annual Strategic Plan for Taxation 

Multi-Annual Work Programmes 

Multi-Annual Financial Framework 

Message Implementation Guide 

National Customs Authorisations System of LT 

Mini one-stop shop  

Customs Client Register of LT 

Mutual Recognition 

Mutual Recognition Agreement 

Member States 

New Computerised Transit System 

National Export Control Application of PL 

National Entry System of RO 

Reference Information Management System 

Page 102 of 106 

Acronym 

IOSS-DR 

IPEP 

IPR 

IT 

ITCB 

ITSM 

JRC 

KEL 

L1 BPM 

L2 BPM 

L3 BPM 

L4 BPM 

LMS 

MASP 

MASP-C 

MASP-T 

MAWP 

MFF 

MIG 

MLS 

MOSS 

MPR 

MR 

MRA 

MS 

NCTS 

NECA 

NES 

NOVIS 

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2020 E-CUSTOMS ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 

Acronym 

Description 

NPM 

NPP 

NSD 

OCTs 

ODS 

OJ 

OLGA 

PCA 

PICS 

PKWD 

PN 

PoC 

PoUS 

PUESC 

QUOTA 

National Project Manager 

National Project Plan 

National Service Desk 

Overseas Countries and Territories 

Ozone Depleting Substances 

Official Journal 

National helpdesk of FR 

Partner Competent Authority 

Programmes Information and Collaboration Space (online 
document sharing tool used to support the exchange of 
information between the Commission, customs administrations 
and the representatives of economic operators across the EU) 

PL national system related to Single Window 

Presentation Notification 

Proof of Concept 

Proof of Union Status 

National Trader Portal of PL 

Electronic system for quota management / allocation 

REX; REX2; REX3 

Registered Exporters System; Registered Exporters System 2; 
Registered Exporters System 3 

RfC 

RFCS 

RIKS 

RIM 

RPS 

RSB 

S/W 

S2S 

SDLC 

SDR 

SEED 

SLA 

SMS 

SMT 

SOA 

Request for Change 

Russian Federal Customs Service 

National Risk Evaluation and Control System of LT 

Reporting Interface Module 

Reference Pricing System 

Regulatory Scrutiny Board 

Software 

System-to-System 

Software Development Life Cycle 

Super Reduced Datasets 

System for Exchange of Excise Data 

Service Level Agreement 

Specimen Management System 

Service Management Tool (Synergia) 

Service Oriented Architecture 

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2020 E-CUSTOMS ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 

Acronym 

Description 

SOFT-DEV  

Software development 

SP  

Special Procedures 

SPEED; SPEED2 

Single Point for Entry or Exit of Data; Single Point for Entry or 
Exit of Data 2 

SSA 

SSL 

SSTL 

STI 

STP 

Safety and Security Analytics 

Secure Sockets Layer 

Smart and Secure Trade Lanes 

Shared Trader Interface 

Specific Trader Portal 

Surveillance; 
Surveillance2; 
Surveillance3 

A central database (managed by DG TAXUD) providing statistics 
for all products imported into the EU customs territory and for 
certain products exported from the EU customs territory 

SURV-RECAPP 

Surveillance Reception Application 

SW 

SW-C 

T2L 

T2LF 

Single Window 

Single Window Environment for Customs 

Means of proof of the Customs status of Union goods 

Means of proof of the Customs status of Union goods for goods 
transported to, from or between the non-fiscal areas 

TARIC; TARIC3 

Integrated Tariff of the European Communities; Integrated Tariff 
of the European Communities 3 

TATAFng 

Tariff Application Technical Architecture and Framework new 
generation  

TB 

TCG 

TCS 

TDA 

Terabyte 

Trade Contact Group 

Trade Customs Solutions 

Transitional Delegated Act 

TEMPO 

TAXUD Electronic Management of Projects Online 

TES 

TIR 

 TNA 

ToC 

Trans-European System 

Transports Internationaux Routiers / International Road 
Transports 

Transition Network Analysis  

Terms of Collaboration  

TRACES 

Trade Control and Expert System 

TS 

TSL 

TSS 

04/10/2021 

Temporary Storage 

Trusted Service List 

Technical System Specifications 

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2020 E-CUSTOMS ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 

Acronym 

UCC 

UCC WP 

UFST 

UI 

UNECE 

UTU 

Description 

Union Customs Code 

Union Customs Code Work Programme 

Ministry of Taxation of DK 

User Interface 

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe 

National declaration system of FI 

UUM&DS 

Uniform User Management & Digital Signature 

VAT 

VIES 

VLS 

WCF 

WCO 

Value Added Tax 

VAT Information Exchange System 

National Single-Window System of LT 

World Chambers Federation 

World Customs Organisation 

Country codes 

http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes.htm (ISO 3166) 

Table 1: Abbreviations and acronyms

04/10/2021 

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In person 

GETTING IN TOUCH WITH THE EU 

All over the European Union there are hundreds of Europe Direct information centres. You can find the 
address of the centre nearest you at: https://europa.eu/european-union/contact_en 

On the phone or by email 

Europe Direct is a service that answers your questions about the European Union. You can contact 
this service: 

– by freephone: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (certain operators may charge for these calls), 

– at the following standard number: +32 22999696, or  

– by email via: https://europa.eu/european-union/contact_en 

Online 

FINDING INFORMATION ABOUT THE EU 

Information about the European Union in all the official languages of the EU is available on the Europa 
website at: https://europa.eu/european-union/index_en 

EU publications 

You can download or order free and priced EU publications from: https://op.europa.eu/en/publications. 
Multiple copies of free publications may be obtained by contacting Europe Direct or your local 
information centre (see https://europa.eu/european-union/contact_en). 

EU law and related documents 

For access to legal information from the EU, including all EU law since 1952 in all the official language 
versions, go to EUR-Lex at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu 

Open data from the EU 

The EU Open Data Portal (http://data.europa.eu/euodp/en) provides access to datasets from the EU. 
Data can be downloaded and reused for free, for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.