2022 e-customs annual progress report.
Date: 2023-08-11
Institutions: Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union
Subjects: EU Member State, customs cooperation, customs formalities, electronic commerce, electronic government, exchange of information, governance, information security, information system, report, simplification of formalities

2022  E-CUSTOMS ANNUAL  
PROGRESS REPORT 

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2022 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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EN PDF   KP-AG-23-001-EN-N  

ISSN 2600-3813  DOI:10.2778/567561

ISBN 978-92-68-04516-9 

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Table of Contents 

TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... 3 

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

LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. 6 

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

2. 

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 11 

3.  BACKGROUND ....................................................................................... 11 

3.1  e-Customs Initiative ........................................................................ 11 
3.2  Tasks and Coordination .................................................................. 11 
3.3  Governance of the e-Customs Implementation ............................... 11 
3.4  The Commission's and Member States' Responsibilities ................ 12 

4.  E-CUSTOMS KEY MILESTONES AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2022 ......... 12 

4.1  Union Customs Code (UCC) and other legislative pillars ................ 12 
4.2  Revision of Annexes A and B to the UCC DA and UCC IA and Change 
Management .................................................................................. 15 
4.3  EU Single Window Environment for Customs (EU SWE-C) ............ 16 
4.4  European Maritime Single Window environment (EMSWe) in relation 
to customs systems ........................................................................ 19 
4.5  UK Withdrawal from the EU – Post Activities .................................. 20 
4.6  New Initiatives ................................................................................ 22 
4.7  New Trans-European Systems ....................................................... 27 
4.8  The UCC Import Control System 2 (ICS2) ...................................... 29 
4.9  e-Customs Governance .................................................................. 32 
4.10  Customs IT Collaboration ............................................................... 34 
4.11  e-Customs Project Groups ............................................................. 35 
4.12  Supporting Instruments .................................................................. 41 
4.13  IT Modernisation and Security ........................................................ 47 
4.14  IT Business Continuity Management System (IT BCMS) ................ 48 
4.15  Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Terms of Collaboration (ToC) 51 
4.16  Innovative Technology Solutions .................................................... 52 
4.17  The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) .................................. 53 

5.  COSTS .................................................................................................... 55 

5.1  Costs incurred by DG TAXUD for IT systems development in 2022 55 
5.2  Costs incurred by the Member States in 2022 ................................ 57 

ANNEX 1 – IT SYSTEMS PROGRESS ACTIVITIES ....................................... 65 

1  MASP-C PROJECTS ............................................................................... 65 

1.1  MASP-C  Group  1  –  Customs  European  Information  Systems  (EIS)
 ....................................................................................................... 65 
1.1.1  UCC Customs Decisions System (CDS) (1.2) ................... 65 
1.1.2  UCC Binding Tariff Information (BTI) (1.4) ........................ 67 
1.1.3  UCC Authorised Economic Operators (AEO) and impacts of 
Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) (1.5) ...................... 68 

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1.1.4  UCC Automated Export System (AES) (1.6) ..................... 69 
1.1.5  UCC  Transit  System  including  New  Computerised  Transit 
System (NCTS) (1.7) ........................................................ 72 
1.1.6  UCC Registered Exporter System (REX) (1.11) ................ 74 
Anti-Counterfeit and Anti-Piracy System (COPIS) (1.12) ... 75 
1.1.7 
EU  Single  Window  environment  for  Customs  (EU  SWE-C) 
1.1.8 
(1.13) ................................................................................ 76 
1.1.9  Classification Information System (CLASS) (1.14) ............ 78 
1.1.10  UCC  Economic  Operators  Registration  and  Identification 
subsystem 2 (EORI2) (1.15) ............................................. 78 
1.1.11  Customs Risk Management System 2 (CRMS2) (1.16)..... 79 
1.1.12  e-Commerce and Customs Procedure (CP) 42/63 (1.17) .. 80 
1.1.13 
Import of Cultural Goods (ICG) (1.18) ............................... 81 
1.1.14  UCC Import Control System 2 (ICS2) (1.19) ..................... 81 
1.1.15  UCC Surveillance3 (SURV3) (1.20) .................................. 84 
1.2  MASP-C  Group  2  –  Customs  European  initiatives  needing  further 
study and agreement ...................................................................... 85 
1.2.1  UCC  Notification  of  Arrival,  Presentation  Notification  and 
Temporary Storage (AN/PN/TS) (2.1) ............................... 85 
1.2.2  UCC Guarantee Management (GUM) (2.5) ....................... 86 
1.2.3  UCC Special Procedures (SP) (2.6) .................................. 88 
Adjustments  of  the  existing  import  applications  under  the 
1.2.4 
UCC (2.10)........................................................................ 89 
1.2.5  Customs  Union  Performance  –  Management  Information 
System (CUP-MIS) (2.11) ................................................. 91 
1.2.6  UCC Proof of Union Status (PoUS) (2.12) ........................ 91 
European Maritime Single Window environment (EMSWe) in 
1.2.7 
relation to customs systems (2.13) .................................... 93 
1.3  MASP-C Group 3 – Customs International Information Systems .... 94 
EU Implementation of United Nations Economic Commission 
International  Road 
for  Europe 
Transports (eTIR) System (3.1) ......................................... 94 
electronic Temporary Admission (eATA) Carnet Project (3.2)
 ......................................................................................... 94 
Smart and Secure Trade Lanes (SSTL) (3.3) .................... 96 
initiatives  and 
technological  developments  to  facilitate  Customs  EIS  (including 
current CCN operations) ................................................................. 96 
IT  Collaboration 
1.4.1  National  Systems 
Implementation  by 
Projects (4.1) .................................................................... 96 
1.4.2  Common Communication Network 2 (CCN2) (4.5) ............ 97 
1.4.3  UCC  Uniform  User  Management  and  Digital  Signatures 
(UUM&DS) – Direct Trader Access to EIS (4.6) ................ 98 
1.4.4  High  Availability  DG  TAXUD  operational  capabilities  (4.7)
 ....................................................................................... 100 
1.4.5  Maintenance  and  Updates  of  Operational  IT  Systems  (4.8)
 ....................................................................................... 100 
IT Business Continuity (4.9) ............................................ 103 

1.4  MASP-C  Group  4  –  Customs 

(UNECE)  electronic 

IT  cooperation 

1.3.1 

1.3.2 

1.4.6 

1.3.3 

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1.6.1 

1.5  Other National Projects and Activities ........................................... 104 
1.6  Supporting activities ..................................................................... 105 
Supporting  tools  used  for  collaboration  and  communication 
between EU and EU Member State administrations ........ 105 
1.6.2 
Promotion and other activities ......................................... 106 
1.6.3  Consultations with economic operators ........................... 109 
Training for customs officials and other stakeholders ...... 112 
1.6.4 
1.6.5  Coordination  of  e-Customs  with  other  e-Government 
systems or activities ........................................................ 115 

ANNEX 2 – PLANNING OVERVIEW OF MASP-C PROJECTS ..................... 119 

Explanatory Note on the Planning Overview of MASP-C Projects .......... 119 

ANNEX 3 – ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS & KEY TERMS ........................ 124 

GETTING IN TOUCH WITH THE EU ..................................................... 137 

Table of Figures 

Figure 1: UCC IT Implementation progress ................................................................... 9 

Figure  2:  Commission  and  Member  States’  total  expenditure  on  IT  Development  and 
Maintenance in 2022 ........................................................................................... 10 

Figure  3:  Commission  and  Member  States’  grand  total  on  the  e-Customs  activities  in 
2021–2022 .......................................................................................................... 10 

Figure 4: Professionals trained with EU eLearning portfolio ........................................ 46 

Figure 5: Evolution of CCN message quantities/volume ............................................. 49 

Figure 6: Evolution of exchanged messages for specific systems ............................... 49 

Figure 7: Evolution of exchanged messages for specific systems ............................... 50 

Figure 8: Evolution of exchanged messages for UCC ICS2 TAPAS and UCC ICS2 CCN2 
in 2021 and 2022 ................................................................................................ 50 

Figure 9: CCN messages distribution per system ....................................................... 51 

Figure 10: Commission’s costs in 2022 (expressed in EUR) ....................................... 55 

Figure 11: Main categories of the Commission’s costs in 2021 and 2022 ................... 56 

Figure 12: Commission’s costs for customs IT systems, 2008–2022 .......................... 56 

Figure 13: Member States’ costs of customs IT systems in 2022 ................................ 58 

Figure 14: Costs of IT systems in Operation and in Development, as part of all systems 
in 2019–2022 ...................................................................................................... 59 

Figure 15: Cost per MASP-C and non-MASP-C Revision 2019 Project Groups and SLA 
and ToC .............................................................................................................. 60 

Figure 16: Distribution of Member States’ costs .......................................................... 60 

Figure 17: Member States’ costs between 2008–2022 ............................................... 61 

Figure 18: Average Member States' costs between 2008–2022 ................................. 61 

Figure 19: Total costs over the years 2008–2022 for seven Member States that reported 
in all years........................................................................................................... 62 

Figure 20: Member States’ man-hours for customs IT systems in 2022 ...................... 63 

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Figure 21: Member States’ man-hours consumed in 2022 per category ..................... 64 

Figure 22: UCC NCTS – Volume of movements, total messages and error rate per year 
since 2014 ........................................................................................................ 101 

Figure 23: UCC ECS – Evolution of movements, total messages and error rate per year 
since 2014 ........................................................................................................ 102 

Figure 24: UCC ICS – Evolution of number of movements, total business messages and 
error rate per year since 2014 ........................................................................... 103 

List of Tables 

Table 1: Abbreviations and acronyms ....................................................................... 136 

1.  OVERVIEW OF E-CUSTOMS PROGRESS PERFORMANCE1 

The  development  of  e-Customs  constitutes  a  dynamic  process,  challenged  in  recent 
decades either by fast-paced technological advancements or any unforeseen factors that 
could  hinder  the  transition  to  a  paperless  environment  for  customs  and  trade.  In 
collaboration  with  the  Member  States,  the  Commission  is  committed  to  providing 
the  UCC2 
adequate  responses 
implementation. To this end, the remodelling of customs is the inevitable path to fortify 
the external borders of the EU and secure the single market by harnessing the power of 
data analytics and innovative technologies and fostering cooperation with third countries. 

interference  with 

the  progress  of 

to  mitigate 

Throughout  2022,  several  milestones  were  achieved  in  line  with  the  e-Customs 
streamlining,  mirrored  in  the  accomplishment  of  various  objectives  in  legislative, 
business, IT and operational activities. 

Subsequent  to  the  objectives  of  the  Commission’s  ambitious  programme  ‘Taking  the 
Customs Union to the Next Level: a Plan for Action’, an interim evaluation of the UCC 
implementation  was  published  on  31  May  2022.  The  main  conclusion  was  that,  to  a 
certain  extent,  the  UCC  implementation  contributed  to  the  first  two  objectives  of  the 
Customs Union: to protect the financial interests of the Union and the Member States 
and  ensure the  safety  and  security  of  the  EU  citizens. In  contrast,  no  conclusion  was 
reached concerning the third objective of facilitating legitimate trade since the primary 
legal provisions and the IT systems intended for that purpose were not yet applicable. 

In 2022, the Commission pursued its goal of further securing the e-Customs framework 
by supplementing the existing legislation with new measures. On this basis, extensive 
discussions took place for the amendment of Annex A to the UCC DA and UCC IA, which 
concluded  with  the  finalisation  of  the  first  drafts  of  the  revised  legal  texts  in  mid-
December 2022.  

In  pursuance  of  Article  278a  of  the  UCC,  the  Commission  submitted  the  fourth  UCC 
Annual Progress Report to the Parliament and Council in December 2022. The report 
analysed  the  tangible  progress  made  for  all  system  types,  while  highlighting  potential 
delays  and  mitigation  measures.  Specifically, 
five 
implementing decisions to grant derogations to the Member States experiencing delays 
in the ongoing IT developments beyond the legal deadlines.  

the  Commission  proposed 

Remarkable progress was achieved in 2022 regarding the EU SWE-C Regulation, when 
thorough deliberations took place among the Parliament, Council and Commission in the 

1 From a timeline perspective, the information of the report reflects the author’s perspective on 1 January 2023. 

2 The full terms for all abbreviations and acronyms can be consulted in Table 1 of the current document.  

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form of tripartite meetings (‘trialogues’) to reach an agreement on the legal text. Following 
the unanimous approval of its final version by the IMCO3, the Parliament adopted the 
legislative  text  on  4  October  2022.  Therefore,  the  Regulation  (EU)  2022/2399  of  the 
European Parliament and of the Council of 23 November 2022 establishing the European 
Union  Single  Window  Environment  for  Customs  and  amending  Regulation  (EU)  No 
952/2013 was published in the Official Journal on 9 December 2022. To further enable 
the  automated  verification  of  non-customs  certificates,  the  EU  CSW-CERTEX,  which 
succeeded  the  EU  CSW-CVED  pilot  project  launched  in  2015,  introduced  two  new 
domains (CITES and DuES) to the existing eight from the previous year.  

Parallel work was undertaken with regard to the EMSWe Regulation that would apply as 
of 15 August 2025. DG TAXUD focused on preparing the tertiary legislation by organising 
four CBG meetings, held jointly with the DG MOVE EMSWe subgroups and the EMSWe 
data and interface thematic teams. Both the DA and IA legal documents were finalised 
by the end of 2022. 

The  Commission  continued  the  discussions  with  the  UK  via  coordination  meetings  to 
ensure  a  follow-up  on  the  ongoing  activities  concerning  the  application  of  the  IE/NI 
Protocol and TCA. Following the UK’s failure to properly implement the IE/NI Protocol, 
the Commission decided to take the infringement procedure launched on 15 March 2021 
to its second stage by addressing a reasoned opinion to the UK on 15 June 2022, while 
instigating two additional infringement procedures concerning customs and SPS rules. 
On 22 July 2022, the Commission initiated four new infringement procedures due to the 
UK’s  failure  to  comply  with  the  UCC  requirements  regarding  the  movement  of  goods 
from GB to NI to implement the rules on excise duties, including alcohol and alcoholic 
beverages, and VAT for e-commerce. Finally, notable progress was made regarding the 
testing activities of the new EU Access System launched in October 2022.  

Following the Commission’s 2019–2024 political guidelines, new initiatives (CBAM, BVI 
and BOI, Smart Border, Military Mobility, Deforestation Regulation, Forced Labour and 
Customs Reform) were introduced in the customs area in 2022, responding to different 
policy  areas  which  impact  customs  formalities.  The  work  on  the  CBAM  legislation 
progressed steadily, resulting in a provisional political agreement on 13 December 2022. 
Two new projects on BVI and BOI were launched, requiring amendments to Annex A to 
the UCC DA and UCC IA, and the pertinent legal drafts were submitted for consultation 
in  November  and  December  2022.  The  implementation  of  the  Smart  Border  Project 
initiative would entail its integration with the existing TES systems. As regards the Military 
Mobility  initiative  aiming  at  enabling  the  movement  of  military  equipment,  assets  and 
personnel,  the  project  was  at  the  assessment  stage.  Concerning  the  text  of  the  new 
Regulation  on  deforestation,  the  Commission,  Parliament  and  Council  reached  an 
agreement in December 2022. The draft proposal on the Forced Labour initiative was 
delivered  to  the  Parliament  and  Council  in  2022.  In  relation  to  the  Customs  Reform 
initiative, a draft proposal and impact assessment were submitted for review to the RSB. 

The fruitful cooperation among the Member States, economic operators and Commission 
towards the digitalisation of all customs formalities continued throughout 2022. Project 
and/or expert groups met regularly to foster progress regarding the implementation of 
the e-Customs systems (UCC CDS, UCC CCI, UCC ICS2, UCC NCTS-P5, UCC NCTS-
P6,  UCC  AES,  UCC  INF  SP,  Digitalisation  of  Cultural  Goods).  In  particular,  the  B2G 
project group, which initiated its activities in 2021, pursued its investigations to develop 
the  EU  SWE-C  B2G  framework  of  the  EU  customs.  In  addition,  the  project  group 
compared the proposal on deforestation-free products and the EU SWE-C B2G concept 
and  underlined  that  their  similarities  and  differences  should  be  further  analysed  and 
addressed.  

3 The full terms for all abbreviations and acronyms can be consulted in Table 1 of the current document. 

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The  Wise  Persons  Group  (WPG)  concluded  the  work  on  developing  innovative  ideas 
and concepts to cope with future challenges of the Customs Union. Therefore, the WPG 
published its landmark report on 31 March 2022, highlighting the need for fundamental 
and  wide-ranging  reforms,  expressed  in  10  recommendations.  The  ETCIT4  III  expert 
team was launched in 2022 to explore the customs IT collaboration further, taking into 
consideration the WPG report.  

In 2022, significant progress was achieved with regard to the MASP-C Revision 2019 
projects,  marking  milestones  in  the  implementation  of  the  UCC  systems.  More 
concretely, UCC REX3 P2 and CCN2 R2 came into operation in 2022. Likewise, COPIS 
v4.1.2.0,  CLASS  v2.0.0.0,  CRMS2  v1.2.0.0,  UCC  INF  SP  v1.3.3.0  and  CUP-MIS 
v1.0.1.2 went live in 2022. Besides the progress, the Commission received a total of 116 
derogation requests from several Member States concerning the following systems: UCC 
AN (21), UCC PN (20), UCC TS (21), UCC NIS (16), UCC ICS2 R2 (12), UCC AES (7), 
UCC  NCTS-P5  (4),  UCC  CCI-P1  (11)  and  UCC  ICS2  R3  (4).  Regarding  the  delays 
announced  in  the  implementation  of  UCC  AN/PN/TS,  UCC  NIS  and  UCC  ICS2  R2, 
discussions started on drafting five Commission Implementing Decisions that would be 
published in early 2023. In particular, as regards the anticipated UCC ICS2 R2 in 2023, 
the  Commission  evaluated  these  requests  based  on  established  common  criteria. 
Subsequent to several bilateral meetings held by the Commission in December 2022, 
derogations were granted to the Member States for UCC ICS2 R2 and would apply from 
1 March 2023 until 30 June 2023. In addition to the steady progress of UCC AES and 
UCC  NCTS-P5  that  entered  in  production  in  2021,  compatibility  measures  were 
introduced in the TSS for the Member States and economic operators to guarantee the 
continuity of operations for both UCC AES and UCC NCTS. Regarding UCC AES, the 
updated Business Guidance was approved in May 2022 and translated into French and 
German in December 2022. Furthermore, UCC AES was successfully deployed by ES 
in February 2022 and the export of messages between DE and ES started in April 2022. 
An overview of the advancement of the MASP-C Revision 2019 projects can be found in 
Annex 2. 

The  evolution  of  the  UCC  IT  implementation  progress  is  depicted  below  in  Figure  1. 
Subsequent  to  the  MASP  Revision  2016,  the  initial  development  of  the  UCC  IT 
implementation  was  foreseen  in  2020.  Nonetheless,  the  challenging  nature  of  this 
planning  entailed  reassessments  during  the  MASP  Revision  2017  and  the  MASP-C 
Revision  2019.  Taking  into  consideration  the  new  realistic  approach  of  the  UCC  IT 
implementation of the systems, a notable progress of approximately 87% was achieved 
in 2022 by the Commission. 

4 The full terms for all abbreviations and acronyms can be consulted in Table 1 of the current document. 

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 Figure 1: UCC IT Implementation progress 

Throughout the reporting year, the Commission continued improving transparency and 
visibility  regarding  the  UCC  IT  implementation  progress  by  launching  communication 
campaigns  that  reached  15  million  impressions  and  3.6  million  online  video  views.  In 
addition,  the  Commission  further  developed  the  IT  modernisation  programme  by 
complementing the systems and infrastructure’s updates, as defined in the IT strategy in 
the MASP-C5 Revision 2019, with the necessary reusable architecture components and 
with  modern,  agile  and  flexible  software  development  approaches.  Regarding  the  IT 
security  environment,  8  out  of  13  cybersecurity  projects  identified  for  areas  such  as 
infrastructure, business application products or services were launched and progressed 
in 2022. 

In 2022, the Commission continued pursuing the improvement of the business continuity 
as  a  key  objective.  The monitoring  of the  core  customs  IT  systems  and infrastructure 
performance  through  the  CCN  experienced  growth  in  2022,  marking  an  exchange  of 
more than 11.6 billion messages and achieving a high availability of 99.80%. Additionally, 
with  regard  to  the  creation  of  the  Data  Lab,  serving  as  a  tool  for  exploiting  data  and 
assisting  policy  officers  in  their  tasks,  its first  version  entered  in  production  in  the first 
quarter of 2022. 

Comprising  of  a  wide  scope  of  areas,  some  evident  challenges  include  ensuring  the 
enhancement of controls to confront fraud and security risks, greater monitoring of the 
EU customs legislation and benefit from innovation as well as fostering collaboration with 
international partners in the field of customs. The development of e-Customs remains a 
dynamic  process  as  the  Commission  proceeds  with  the  consolidation  of  a  new  legal 
framework  for  the  Customs  Union  with  new  operative  methods  and  IT  tools,  in 
cooperation with the Member States.  

To this end, the Member States and Commission dedicated a noteworthy budget to both 
human resources and investments. Similar to recent years, 92% of the 2022 total budget 

5 The full terms for all abbreviations and acronyms can be consulted in Table 1 of the current document. 

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allocated by the Member States and Commission was dedicated to the development of 
new IT systems and only 8% to maintenance activities, as depicted in Figure 2 below. 

Figure 2: Commission and Member States’ total expenditure on IT Development and 
Maintenance in 2022 

Lastly,  the  amount  allocated  to  the  e-Customs  activities  by  the  Member  States  and 
Commission  in  2022  was  EUR  369,052,107.83  compared  to  EUR  381,271,813.50  in 
2021, as illustrated in Figure 3. 

Figure 3: Commission and Member States’ grand total on the e-Customs activities in 
2021–2022 

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2. 

INTRODUCTION 

The 2022 e-Customs Annual Progress Report is the fifteenth report prepared pursuant 
to  Article  12  of  the  e-Customs  Decision  (Decision  70/2008/EC)6,  under  which  the 
Member States are required to report on the progress made towards coordinating the 
implementation of the e-Customs initiative. The Commission7 prepares a comprehensive 
report covering the annual operational (from a technical viewpoint) and strategic financial 
objectives  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 reports8.  

3.  BACKGROUND 

3.1  e-Customs Initiative 

In 2003, the Commission issued an e-Customs Communication9 with proposals about a 
new  simplified  paperless  environment  for  customs  and  trade.  The  e-Customs 
Communication  carved  out  an  essential  path  towards  radically  simplifying  customs 
regulations  and  procedures  and  integrating  modern,  efficient  and  uniform  techniques 
within the EU Customs Union. The subsequent 2003 Council Resolution10 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  a coherent  and 
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 
Commission by specifying the tasks of both stakeholders for the development and the 
synchronised implementation of the IT projects. 

3.3  Governance of the e-Customs Implementation 

Article  8(2)  of  the  e-Customs  Decision  stipulates  that  the  Member  States  and 
Commission should jointly prepare and regularly update a Multi-Annual Strategic Plan 
for  Customs  (MASP-C)11  to  ensure  the  effective  management  and  coordination  of  all 

6 Decision No 70/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2008 on a paperless environment 
for customs and trade, OJ L 23, 26/01/2008, p. 21–26. 

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

8 LU did not submit a national e-Customs progress report. 

9 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. 

10 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.  

11 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 
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 Revision 2017 v1.4 remains a fundamental reference point for the implementation planning of e-
Customs projects.  

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activities  and  tasks  related  to  ongoing  and  future  e-Customs  projects.  As  an  overall 
project management and planning tool, the MASP-C provides the strategic framework 
and milestones for implementing the e-Customs initiative. It is an essential instrument 
for ensuring a smooth and coordinated implementation of all e-Customs IT projects, while 
reflecting  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 experts from the Member States’ 
transparency  and 
administrations.  This  governance  scheme  aims 
coordination among all stakeholders. 

to  enhance 

3.4  The Commission's and Member States' Responsibilities 

The Member States and Commission are equally responsible for facilitating the customs 
communication  and  information  exchange  systems  by  coordinating  the  electronic 
systems' setup, deployment and operation at the EU and national levels. 

4.  E-CUSTOMS KEY MILESTONES AND ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2022 

4.1  Union Customs Code (UCC) and other legislative pillars 

In  2022,  the  EU  Customs  Union  remained  a  unique  example,  where  all  EU  Member 
States collaborated in unity by applying a uniform legislative framework for handling the 
import, export and transit of goods. The Commission continued to address trade flows, 
new  business  models  and  the  constantly  evolving  technological  environment  by 
optimising  the  customs  legal  framework  and  procedures.  To  this  end,  upgrading  or 
developing electronic systems to change customs formalities was essential.  

Subsequent to the impact of the substantial legal changes introduced by the Treaty of 
Lisbon12, the UCC13 was adopted in October 2013. As a critical element to modernise 
the EU customs, the UCC provides a comprehensive framework for customs rules and 
procedures,  adapted to the  new  trade  realities  and modern  communication tools.  The 
UCC implementing provisions, adopted as the Delegated Act (DA)14, Implementing Act 
(IA)15 and Transitional Delegated Act (TDA)16 to the UCC, are already in force since May 
2016.  

The complexity of the EU customs digitalisation required the amendment of Article 278 
of the UCC. In particular, Regulation (EU) 2019/63217, adopted by the Commission in 
2019, introduced a transitional period for the parallel operation of the existing electronic 

12 Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community, 20 
OJ C 306, 17/12/2007, p. 1–271.   

13 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.   

14  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.   

15  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 
down the Union Customs Code, OJ L 343, 29.12.2015, p. 558–893.   

16 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 operational and amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446, 
OJ L 69, 15.03.2016, p. 1–313.   

17 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 the Union Customs Code, OJ L 111, 25.4.2019, p. 54–58.   

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and paper-based systems. Following the amendment and the new Article 278a of the 
UCC,  the  Commission  published  the  2022  UCC  Annual  Progress  Report18  on  the 
progress achieved in developing the electronic systems (provided for). Multiple meetings 
took  place  between  the  Member  States’  Chief  Information  Officers  (CIOs)  and 
Commission,  where  information  was  exchanged in  full  transparency.  Several  Member 
States  reported  delays  in  the  ongoing  IT  developments.  In  addition,  many  customs 
authorities were prevented from completing the deployment of national entry and import 
systems  by  the  end  of  December  2022  and  Import  Control  System  2  (ICS2)  R219  by 
March 2023. The information shared by the Member States provided the Commission 
with real data to assess the situation and propose solutions in support of the former's 
efforts. This issue was raised during the Trade Contact Group (TCG) meeting, especially 
regarding the national entry and import systems. A helpdesk function in the Directorate-
General  for  Taxation  and  Customs  (DG  TAXUD)  was  established  for  addressing 
questions  on  legal,  procedural  and  technical  issues.  Furthermore,  the  Commission 
requested regular updates and conducted additional surveys for a realistic overview.  

For  this  purpose,  the  Commission  proposed  a  draft  of  five  implementing  decisions  to 
grant  derogations  to several Member  States,  allowing  them  to temporarily  use means 
other than  electronic  data-processing techniques,  as  defined  in  the  UCC to  exchange 
information  concerning  these  systems.  Other  derogations  requested  by  the  Member 
States on the trans-European systems (TES), such as Centralised Clearance for Import 
(CCI), Automated Export System (AES) and New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) 
P520 would be assessed in 2023.  

As indicated in the aforementioned report, the MASP-C dashboard continues to be used 
for tracking progress for the Commission to identify potential delays at an early stage. 
The MASP-C Revision 2019 and the UCC Work Programme (UCC WP) 201921 remain 
the  baseline  for  the  dashboard  milestones  since  2019.  Pursuant  to  Article  280  of  the 
UCC,  the  UCC  WP  provides  a  high-level  description  of  UCC  projects  and  related 
electronic  systems22,  their  legal  basis  as  established  by  the  UCC  provisions,  key 
milestones  for  the  completion  of  stable  Technical  System  Specifications  (TSS)  and 
anticipated  start  and  end  dates for  system  deployment.  Updates  on  the  UCC  WP  are 
required to keep pace with the latest developments of the UCC and ensure alignment 
with the anticipated MASP-C Revision 2023. 

Subsequent to the  UCC’s  entering  into  force,  ongoing  dialogues  about  pertinent  legal 
issues  among  various  stakeholders  entailed  further  additions  and  amendments to the 
UCC legal package. In particular, efforts initiated in 2021 to amend Annex A to the UCC 

18  REPORT  FROM THE  COMMISSION  TO  THE  EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  COUNCIL  pursuant to  Article 
278(a) of the Union Customs Code, on progress in developing the electronic systems provided for under the Code, COM 
(2023) 68 final. 

19 In the current document, the various Releases of the systems will be abbreviated as ‘R’. 

20 In the current document, the various Phases of the systems will be abbreviated as ‘P’. 

21 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.   

22 The UCC projects and related electronic systems included in the UCC WP can be divided into three categories: (a) 
eleven  central  TES  systems  to  be  developed  or  upgraded  by  the  Commission  (often  also  requiring  developments  or 
upgrades  of the  national  systems  by Member  States,  depending  on  the system  architecture),  which  are the  following: 
UCC Registered Exporter System (REX), UCC Binding Tariff Information (BTI), UCC Customs Decisions (CDS), Uniform 
User Management & Digital Signature (UUM&DS), UCC Authorised Economic Operators (AEO), UCC Economic Operator 
Registration and Identification (EORI) system, UCC Surveillance3, UCC Proof of Union Status (PoUS), UCC Information 
Sheets  (INF)  for Special Procedures,  UCC  Centralised  Clearance for  Import  (CCI)  and  UCC  Guarantee  Management 
(GUM), (b) three decentralised TES systems that have to be developed or upgraded by the Commission, but have a major 
national  component  to  be  implemented  by  the  Member  States,  as  follows:  UCC  New  Computerised  Transit  System 
(NCTS), UCC Import Control System 2 (ICS2) and UCC Automated Export System (AES), and (c) three national systems 
that  have  to  be  developed  or  upgraded  exclusively  by  the  Member  States,  as  follows:  UCC  Notification  of  Arrival, 
Presentation Notification and Temporary Storage (AN, PN and TS), UCC National Import Systems (NIS) and UCC Special 
Procedures (SP).   

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DA  and  UCC  IA  continued  in  2022.  Some  anticipated  changes  in  Annex  A  include  a 
formatting  alignment  with  Annex  B  data  elements,  establishing  a  modern  structure 
allowing the seamless development of IT-level data modelling and creating integrated 
data sets. The work undertaken with regard to Annex A is closely related to the changes 
in Annex B. Further details on the amendments and the work on the revision of Annex B 
can be found in section 4.2. 

Throughout 2022, the Commission continued its work and thorough discussion with the 
Member States in the Customs Code Committee – General Customs Legislation section 
(CCC-GEN) and the ECCG to expand the scope of the Implementing Regulation (EU) 
2021/41423 on technical arrangements (IRTA) for developing, maintaining and employing 
electronic  systems  for  the  exchange  and  storage  of  information.  Notably,  the  latest 
extension  of  the  Regulation  covered  UCC  Registered  Exporter  System  (REX),  UCC 
Proof of Union Status (PoUS), UCC Surveillance3 (SURV3), anti-Counterfeit and anti-
Piracy  Information  System  (COPIS)  and  an  update  to  UCC  ICS2  for  the  Safety  and 
Security  Analytics  (SSA).  Regarding  the  changes  proposed  in  version  5  of  IRTA,  the 
Commission invited the Member States to submit their comments by October 2022 to 
finalise the document and start the interservice consultation by the end of 2022.  

Following a request by the Parliament, the Commission published on 31 May 2022 an 
interim evaluation of the UCC24, providing an assessment of the implementation of the 
UCC both at the EU and Member States’ level. The Member States shared their views 
and experiences on the current application of the UCC for the period from 1 May 2016 
to the end of December 2020 by replying to the EU questionnaire distributed at the end 
of  2021.  As  concluded  in  the  interim  evaluation,  the  UCC  implementation  has  so  far 
contributed to the general objectives of protecting the financial interests of the Union and 
the Member States, and the safety and security of the Union’s citizens only to a certain 
extent. However, the evaluation cannot conclude on the third general objective25 of the 
UCC,  the  facilitation  of  legitimate  trade,  because  the  main  legal  provisions  and  IT 
systems intended for that purpose are not yet applicable. 

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The fourth UCC Annual Progress Report was submitted to the Parliament 

and Council by the end of 2022. 

(cid:129)  The  Commission  proposed 

to  grant 
derogations  to  the  Member  States  reporting  delays  in  the  ongoing  IT 
developments. 

implementing  decisions 

five 

(cid:129)  The interservice consultation concerning the changes proposed in version 

5 of IRTA started in December 2022. 

(cid:129)  An interim evaluation of the UCC implementation was published on 31 May 

2022. 

23  Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  2021/414  of  8  March  2021  on  technical  arrangements  (IRTA)  for 
developing, maintaining and employing electronic systems for the exchange and storage of information under Regulation 
(EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, OJ L 81, 9.3.2021, p. 37–64.   

24  COMMISSION  STAFF  WORKING  DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE  SUMMARY  OF  THE  EVALUATION  INTERIM 
EVALUATION of the implementation of the Union Customs Code, SWD(2022) 159 final.  

25 The three general objectives of the Customs Union are: (a) to protect the financial interests of the Union and the Member 
States, (b) to ensure the safety and security of EU citizens, and (c) to maintain a proper balance between customs controls 
and facilitation of legitimate trade. 

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4.2  Revision  of  Annexes  A  and  B  to  the  UCC  DA  and  UCC  IA  and 

Change Management 

The UCC, together with the UCC DA and UCC IA, create a single environment for all 
customs-related  data  for  customs  decisions,  declarations,  and  the  registering  and 
identification of economic operators in Annex A, Annex B and Annex 12-01, respectively. 
These annexes are often referred to as ‘customs data annexes’. With the objective of 
achieving compliance with the shared data requirements between the different electronic 
customs  systems  and  accordingly  updating  the  common  data  annexes,  in  2019,  the 
‘UCC DA/IA Data Annexes Revision for Harmonisation of Customs Data Requirement’ 
project group was established. To this end, intensive work and analysis were carried out 
on  Annex  B26  to  the  UCC  DA  amendment  (Commission  Delegated  Regulation 
2021/234)27 and the UCC IA (Commission Implementing Regulation 2021/235)28, which 
were published in the Official Journal29 and entered into force in the first quarter of 2021. 

The data harmonisation process required for the TES, national electronic systems and 
the systems used by the economic operators necessitates remarkable efforts. Thus, the 
Commission established a structured mechanism for submitting, recording, assessing, 
reviewing and approving a change request within a predefined period. It clearly defines 
the  roles  and  responsibilities  of  different  stakeholders  in  the  process  of  managing  a 
change request. The principles of change management, which is a yearly exercise, are 
outlined  in  the  2021  publication  ‘Change  Management  Process  for  UCC  Data 
Requirements’ v3.2030. The scope of the document focuses on Annexes B and D to the 
UCC DA as well as Annexes B and C to the UCC IA. 

The  next  update  of  Annex  B  to  the  UCC  DA  and  UCC  IA  through  the  change 
management process was launched on 4 June 2021 in the aforesaid project group and 
the Customs Expert Group, Data Integration and Harmonisation Section (CEG-DIH). A 
total of 481 change requests were proposed until mid-2022 from the Member States and 
Commission. The Member States and TCG continued communicating their comments in 
2022 on the aforesaid change requests to the Commission for a thorough discussion, 
while drafting the legal provisions was ongoing. 

Following the same principle for the change management of Annex B, thorough review 
and discussions on Annex A to the UCC DA and UCC IA were ongoing in 2020, 2021 
and 2022 in the aforementioned project group and biweekly consultation hours, with the 
participation  of  the  Member  States  and  UCC  Customs  Decisions  System  (CDS)  and 
UCC  Authorised  Economic  Operators  (AEO)  experts  from  the  Commission.  The 
modifications applied to Annex A followed the structural principles of the new Annex B 
(e.g., data set approach and unique identifiers for all data elements), while utilising the 
experiences gained from the revision of the latter. The discussions on the proposals (242 
in total) were concluded in November 2022. The first draft of the revised legal texts of 
Annex  A  to  the  UCC  DA  and  UCC  IA  were  finalised  in  mid-December  2022.  A  pre-

26 The UCC DA amendment comprised the common data requirements, while the UCC IA amendment harmonised the 
respective formats and codes, for the exchange and storage of information between customs authorities as well as the 
latter and economic operators. Thus, ensuring the horizontal harmonisation necessary for interoperability between the 
customs electronic systems used for the different types of declarations, notifications and proof of customs status of Union 
goods. Both amendments also introduced transitional measures to facilitate the implementation of the new data elements. 

27  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. 

28  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. 

29 Official Journal of the European Union, L 63, 23 February 2021. 

30 The publication is subject to the Commission’s policy on the access to documents. 

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publication is planned via a new release of the European Union Customs Data Model 
(EUCDM) 7d in the first half of 2023, while the formal adoption of the updated Annex A 
is expected towards the end of the second quarter of 2023. 

The  outcome  of  the  consultations  with  the  Member  States,  economic  operators  and 
internally  in  the  Commission  on  Annex  A,  Annex  B  and  Annex  12-01  would  be 
implemented in the amendments to the Commission Delegated Regulation 2015/2446 
and Commission Implementing Regulation 2015/2447, both expected to be adopted by 
the Commission in the second quarter of 2023. 

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The change management for Annex B to the UCC DA and UCC IA was 
launched on 04 June 2021 and 481 change requests were proposed by 
mid-2022. 

(cid:129)  The Member States and TCG continued to communicate their comments 

on Annex B, while the drafting of the legal provisions was ongoing. 

(cid:129)  The first drafts of the revised legal texts for Annex A to the UCC DA and 

UCC IA were finalised in mid-December 2022. 

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

The EU is the world's largest trading block, accounting for about 15% of the world's trade, 
worth  nearly  EUR  4  trillion.  Efficient  customs  clearance  and  controls  are  essential  to 
allow  trade  to  flow  smoothly,  while  also  protecting  EU  citizens,  businesses  and  the 
environment. At present, the formalities required at the EU external borders often entail 
the involvement of various authorities in charge of other policy areas, such as health and 
safety,  environment  protection,  fisheries  and  agriculture,  market  surveillance  and 
product compliance, and cultural heritage. This directly impacts economic operators that 
must submit information to several authorities, each with its own portal and procedures, 
thus,  creating  a  burdensome  and  time-consuming  reality  for  the  former,  while  also 
reducing the capacity of authorities to act jointly in preventing risks. 

In recent years, ‘single window’ initiatives have gathered momentum to streamline the 
border  clearance  process  within  and  across  the  EU.  The  ‘single  window’  is  a  trade 
facilitation measure aiming to provide economic operators with the necessary means to 
meet  the  regulatory  requirements  for  goods  clearance  by  submitting  data  in  a 
standardised manner to multiple recipients via a single-entry point, therefore, reducing 
duplication,  time  and  costs.  In  2008,  the  commitment  of  the  Member  States  and 
Commission to promote an electronic customs environment in the EU6 involved the joint 
effort to establish a framework of single window services. The 2014 Venice Declaration31 
proposed a progressive action plan to implement an EU Single Window Environment for 
Customs (SWE-C) and to develop its legal framework. This was reiterated in the 2016 
Communication  from  the  Commission  on  Developing  the  EU  Customs  Union  and  its 
Governance32, which announced the Commission’s plans to explore a workable solution 
for developing and creating an EU SWE-C.  

The necessity to set up a more robust framework for the Customs Union and to further 
facilitate the fulfilment of customs and EU non-customs formalities led to the legislative 

31 The Venice Declaration is annexed to the December 2014 Council Conclusions (ST-16507/14).   

32 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social 
Committee, COM (2016) 813. 

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proposal  for  a  Regulation33  establishing  the  EU  SWE-C.  This  proposal  addressed 
problems  affecting  the  goods  clearance  process  (particularly  insufficient  coordination 
and  fragmented  interoperability  between  customs  and  partner  competent  authorities 
(PCAs)) and pursued three objectives. The first concentrated on defining a governance 
framework  for  enhanced  cooperation  between  customs  and  PCAs  and  developing 
interoperable solutions where beneficial and appropriate. The second objective referred 
to  improving  working  practices  between  the  regulatory  authorities  involved  in 
international trade to enable more automated, electronic and integrated processes for 
dealing with goods clearance. The last one focused on determining a data harmonisation 
framework  and  enabling  the  reuse  of  data  to  fulfil  different  formalities  required  by 
customs and non-customs authorities for international trade.  

In  the  legislative  proposal,  the  development  of  the  EU  SWE-C  relies  on  two  pillars  of 
digital  administrative  cooperation:  (a)  the  government-to-government  (G2G)  digital 
cooperation  between  customs  and  PCAs  through  the  central  component  EU  CSW-
Certificates  Exchange  Project  (CERTEX),  and  (b)  the  business-to-government  (B2G) 
digital  cooperation.  The  first  pillar  aims  at  supporting  the  automated  reception  and 
verification  by  customs of the  documents for  goods  clearance  related  to  non-customs 
formalities. The second concentrates on streamlining reporting formalities imposed on 
trade  for  the  import,  export  and  transit  of  specific  goods,  subject  to  non-customs 
regulatory formalities. 

The  Regulation  aims  to  improve  cooperation  and  enable  interoperability  between  the 
customs  and  non-customs  domains  in  streamlining  the  electronic  exchange  of 
documents and information required for the goods clearance process. To this end, the 
EU CSW-CERTEX facilitates the interconnection of the customs systems of the Member 
States with EU non-customs systems managing specific non-customs formalities. 

the 

framework 

the  EU  SWE-C  Regulation  established 

Initially, 
to  enhance 
intergovernmental exchanges between customs and non-customs authorities at the EU 
borders,  allowing  for  the  automatic  verification  of  non-customs  formalities  related  to 
health  and  safety,  the  environment  and  product compliance  by  2025.  This  verification 
ensures  EU-wide  quantity  management  and  reduces  fraud  risks  in  importing  and 
exporting  sensitive  goods,  such  as  high-emission  fluorinated  greenhouse  gases.  A 
second  phase,  planned  for  2031,  would  effectuate  a  B2G  scheme  to  allow  economic 
operators to provide data in one single portal in an individual Member State instead of 
submitting the data separately to both customs and EU non-customs systems. 

Following a mandate given both to the Parliament by the Internal Market and Consumer 
Protection  Committee  (IMCO)  and  the  Council  by  the  Committee  of  the  Permanent 
Representatives  of  the  Governments  of  the  Member  States  to  the  European  Union 
(COREPER),  negotiations  were  initiated  regarding  the  Regulation  between  the 
Parliament,  Council  and  Commission  in  2022,  in  the  form  of  tripartite  meetings 
(‘trialogues’). In the first half of 2022, several technical trialogues were held, concluding 
that  the  provisions  related  to  the  inclusion  of  the  MASP-C  in  the  proposal  for  a 
Regulation,  the  responsibilities  of  the  national  coordinators  and  the  timeline  for  the 
implementation  of  the  B2G  regulatory  formalities  required  a  political  compromise.  In 
particular, during the political trialogue on 19 May 2022 with high representatives of the 
Commission, Parliament and Council, an agreement was reached on several points as 
part of the political compromise.  

Specifically, the proposal’s scope was broadened to include Union non-customs systems 
of voluntary use. The connection dates for the G2G for both mandatory and voluntary 
Union non-customs systems have been postponed to 2025. In addition, the timeframe 
for implementing the B2G scheme was agreed to nine years after the regulation enters 

33 Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL establishing the European 
Union Single Window Environment for Customs and amending Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, COM/2020/673 final.   

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into  force.  Furthermore,  the  Parliament’s  approach  concerning  the  reporting  and 
monitoring requirements associated with Part C of the Annex to the Regulation would be 
replaced by a yearly report that would constitute a horizon-scanning mechanism for all 
existing and upcoming Union non-customs formalities. In addition, all implementing acts 
would be adopted under the examination procedure according to Article 5 of Regulation 
(EU) No 182/201134. Regarding the provisions on the national coordinators, they have 
been retained with different wording, reflecting a policy choice substantially in line with 
the Commission’s original proposal. Moreover, the Parliament agreed to maintain the e-
Customs Decision6 and drop its proposal to include the MASP-C in the legal text. Finally, 
the  Parliament  agreed  to  drop  its  proposal  to  establish  a  working  group  (WG)  for  the 
National Single Windows (NSWs). 

Subsequent to this agreement, an updated version of the legal text was concluded and 
submitted to the translation services on 20 June 2022. The Member States then reviewed 
the legal text, and the lawyer-linguists of the Parliament and Council undertook a final 
linguistic revision. The IMCO unanimously approved the result of the inter-institutional 
negotiations on EU SWE-C and the Parliament adopted the final version of the legislative 
text during its plenary session on 4 October 2022. The Regulation (EU) 2022/2399 of the 
European Parliament and of the Council of 23 November 2022 establishing the European 
Union  Single  Window  Environment  for  Customs  and  amending  Regulation  (EU)  No 
952/201335 was published in the Official Journal on 9 December 2022. 

In  line  with  the  Commission’s  initial  priorities  following  the  Venice  Declaration,  a  pilot 
project  was  introduced  in  2015,  the  EU  Customs  Single  Window-Common  Veterinary 
Entry Document (EU CSW-CVED), jointly administered by DG TAXUD and Directorate-
General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE). The objective of this project was to 
allow the automated verification of three non-customs health certificates. Its successor, 
the EU CSW-CERTEX, launched in 2017, expands the scope of regulatory requirements 
and introduces new functionalities, such as quantity management. In early 2022, nine 
Member States’ customs administrations were using the EU CSW-CVED (BG, CZ, EE, 
IE, CY, LV, PL, PT, and SI), and by the end of 2022, three of them (CZ, EE, and IE) fully 
migrated, and one (PL) partially migrated to the EU CSW-CERTEX. Moreover, two more 
Member  States  (BE  and  IT)  completed  the  conformance  testing,  while  two  additional 
domains36 were introduced (CITES and DuES), thus, complementing the existing eight 
domains37 from the previous year. 

The  Regulation  further  introduced  additional  facilitation  measures  to support the G2G 
and  B2G  cooperation,  entailing  the  extension  of  the  use  of  the  Economic  Operators 
Registration and Identification (EORI)38 database to PCAs for validation purposes and 
the appointment of national coordinators in each Member State to coordinate all matters 
associated with the effective functioning of the EU SWE-C. 

34 Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 laying down the rules 
and  general  principles  concerning  mechanisms  for  control  by  Member  States  of  the  Commission’s  exercise  of 
implementing powers, OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, p. 13–18.  

35  Regulation  (EU)  2022/2399  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  23  November  2022  establishing  the 
European  Union  Single  Window  Environment  for  Customs  and  amending  Regulation  (EU)  No  952/2013,  OJ  L  317, 
09/12/2022, p. 1–23.   

36 Certificates for International trade of endangered species of wild fauna and flora (CITES), and Dual-use Export Controls 
(DuES). 

37  Certificate  of  Inspection  for  imports  of  organic  products  (COI),  Forest  Law  Enforcement,  Governance  and  Trade 
(FLEGT), Common Health Entry Document for Plants and Plant Products (CHED-PP), Common Health Entry Document 
for Feed and Food of Non-Animal Origin (CHED-D), Common Health Entry Document for Animals (CHED-A), Common 
Health Entry Document for Animal Products (CHED-P), Ozone-depleting Substance (ODS) and Fluorinated Greenhouse 
Gases (F-GAS) licences.   

38 EORI is a database managed by DG TAXUD that assigns to all economic operators engaging in customs operations a 
unique number (the EORI number) that is used as an identifier for all dealings with customs authorities in the EU.   

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A project group was set up in 2021 to elaborate on the B2G dimension of a harmonised 
national SWE-C. The members’ contributions aimed at developing a concept for the EU 
SWE-C B2G consisting of an overview of functionalities, requirements and information, 
which the economic operators should submit via a national communication channel to 
the  governments.  The  concept’s  objective  was  to  provide  comprehensive  input  to 
formulate the EU SWE-C B2G framework of the EU Customs. 

This  project  group  pursued  its  investigations  and  discussions  during  2022,  aiming  at 
achieving the following goals: (a) continue supporting the legislative process, (b) provide 
input  to  a  feasibility  study  related  to  the  future  design  of  the  ‘To-Be’  processes,  (c) 
perform  data  mapping  exercise  based  on  one  non-customs  domain,  (d)  examine 
alternatives for architecture, and (e) identify the obstacles and problems to be tackled in 
the ‘To-Be’ process design. 

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The  IMCO  unanimously  approved  the  result  of  the  inter-institutional 
negotiations on EU SWE-C and the Parliament adopted the final version 
of the legislative text during its plenary session on 4 October 2022. 

(cid:129)  The Regulation (EU) 2022/2399 of the European Parliament and Council 
of  23  November  2022  establishing  the  European  Union  Single  Window 
Environment  for  Customs  and  amending  Regulation  (EU)  No  952/2013 
was published in the Official Journal on 9 December 2022. 

(cid:129)  The  project  group  dedicated  to 

the  B2G  dimension  pursued 

its 

investigations and discussions to support the legislative process. 

4.4  European  Maritime  Single  Window  environment  (EMSWe)  in 

relation to customs systems 

The European Maritime Single Window environment (EMSWe) Regulation39 establishes 
a  common,  interoperable  environment  for  reporting  information  from  ships  to  shore 
during a port call, including some customs formalities. The Regulation would apply as of 
15 August 2025. 

EMSWe is a decentralised environment based on a Maritime National Single Windows 
(MNSW)  network.  Each  MNSW  provides  a  harmonised  Reporting  Interface  Module 
(RIM) for System-to-System (S2S) communication and a Graphical User Interface (GUI) 
for  User-to-System  (U2S)  communication.  The  Commission  developed  the  RIM  as  a 
common component to be distributed to the Member States in order to be integrated into 
the MNSW and create a harmonised interface for maritime traders. 

The customs formalities included in the EMSWe were the following: 

(cid:129)  Notification of Arrival (AN); 
(cid:129)  Presentation Notification (PN) of goods to customs; 
(cid:129)  Temporary Storage (TS) declaration of goods; 
(cid:129)  Customs status of goods (Customs Goods Manifest (CGM)); 
(cid:129)  Electronic Transport Documents (ETD) used for transit; 
(cid:129)  Exit Notification; 
(cid:129)  Exit Summary Declaration (EXS); 
(cid:129)  Re-export Notification (REN). 

39 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, p. 64. 

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The EMSWe Regulation empowered the Commission to define a harmonised data set 
covering  all  reporting  obligations  and  develop  as  well  as  maintain  common  interfaces 
and services for the MNSWs. 

In line with the delegated powers conferred, DG TAXUD and the Directorate-General for 
Mobility  and  Transport  (DG  MOVE)  cooperated  to  supplement  the  Regulation  by 
establishing the EMSWe data set aligned with EUCDM wherever possible. The EMSWe 
data set included more than 1,100 data elements required under the EU and national 
reporting obligations. 

In  addition  to  the  aforementioned,  the  EMSWe  Regulation  granted  the  Commission 
implementing  powers  to  lay  down  the  specifications  of  the  harmonised  elements  of 
MNSWs and of the common services of EMSWe. To this end, the Commission discussed 
during 2022 the first set of specifications and rules regarding the harmonised elements 
of MNSWs and the three common databases of EMSWe. 

Several meetings were organised to finalise the DA and IA legal documents as well as 
define  the  functional  and  technical  system  specifications.  In  particular,  DG  TAXUD 
organised four Customs Business Group (CBG) meetings held jointly with the DG MOVE 
EMSWe subgroups and the EMSWe data and interface thematic teams.  

The work on both legal documents was completed in the aforesaid expert groups and 
the Digital Transport and Trade Facilitation (DTTF) Committee by the end of 2022 and 
would be published in February 202340. 

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The EMSWe Regulation would apply as of 15 August 2025. 

(cid:129)  The work on the DA and IA legal documents was completed. 

4.5  UK Withdrawal from the EU – Post Activities  

Under the procedure outlined in Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union, the UK 
has  withdrawn  from  the  EU  and  has  become  a  'third  country'41.  The  Withdrawal 
Agreement42 concluded between the EU and the UK is the official act that marked the 
UK exit and entered into force on 1 February 2020. The Agreement regulates various 
aspects  pertaining  to  the  UK  withdrawal,  including  financial  settlements,  separation 
issues,  citizens'  rights,  governance  of  the  agreement  and  transitional  arrangements. 
Notably,  the  Agreement  established  a  transitional  period  (1  February–31  December 
2020) as a negotiation window to determine new rules governing trade and cooperation 
between the EU and the UK, during which the UK continued to comply with the EU law. 
Article 185 of the Withdrawal Agreement established the application of the Protocol on 
Ireland/Northern  Ireland  (IE/NI  Protocol)  at  the  end  of  the  transitional  period. 

40 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/205 of 7 November 2022 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 of 
the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  as  regards  the  establishment  of  the  European  Maritime  Single  Window 
environment data set and amending its Annex, OJ L 33, 3.2.2023, p. 24–230. 

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/204 of 28 October 2022 laying down technical specifications, standards 
and procedures for the European Maritime Single Window environment pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/1239 of the 
European Parliament and of the Council, OJ L 33, 3.2.2023, p. 1–23. 

41 A ‘third country’ is a country that is not a member of the EU. 

42 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. 7–187 (‘Withdrawal Agreement’). 

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Furthermore, the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)43 entered into force 
on 1 May 2021 and defined the new relationship between the EU and the UK to preserve 
their longstanding friendship and cooperation. 

The  IE/NI  Protocol  sets  out  the  necessary  arrangements  to  address  the  specific 
circumstances on the island of Ireland, notably to avoid a hard border and safeguard the 
1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement44. Under the IE/NI Protocol, NI stayed de facto in 
the  EU  single  market  for  goods,  which  implies  that  no  new  checks  are  performed  on 
goods crossing the border between NI and IE. In this respect, NI is connected to the TES 
IT systems for customs. Consequently, the UK, as a contracting party, should continue 
carrying  out  the  necessary  activities  for  implementing  the  related  UCC  IT  projects. 
Moreover, in the context of the IE/NI Protocol implementation, new geonomenclatures45 
have  been  applied  for  the  customs  declarations,  i.e.,  ‘XI’  for  NI  and  ‘XU’  for  the  UK, 
excluding NI46. A new registration system has been active since 14 September 2021 to 
ensure  that  economic  operators  receive  new  validated  authorisations  with  ‘XI’  EORI 
numbers. The IE/NI Protocol also established the right for the EU to be present during 
any  activities  of  the  UK  authorities  related  to  the  implementation  and  application  of 
provisions  of  the  Union  law  made  applicable  by  the  Protocol  and  for  the  EU 
representatives  to  receive  all  relevant  information  relating  to  such  activities47.  The 
Northern Ireland Liaison Team (NILT) is the body that was instituted to support the UK 
authorities in jointly implementing the IE/NI Protocol.  

During 2022, coordination meetings continued to take place to discuss and follow up on 
the ongoing activities pertinent to the application of the IE/NI Protocol and TCA, including 
the work of the NILT. A series of technical meetings on IT customs matters were also 
held in 2022 to discuss and investigate the NILT’s real-time access to the UK IT systems, 
the  invalidation  of  erroneous  ‘XI’  EORI  registrations,  the  closure  of  open  export 
movements, surveillance data and the user list for the Union systems.  

On 13 June 2022, the UK tabled the draft of the NI Protocol Bill48 to the UK Parliament 
for the first reading. The Bill allows UK Ministers to render inapplicable significant parts 
of the IE/NI Protocol, including parts regulating customs, Value Added Tax (VAT) and 
excise duties. On 15 June 2022, Commission Vice-President, Maroš Šefčovič, issued a 
statement  as  a  reaction to  the  UK's  NI  Protocol Bill  and  the stalemate  in the  Protocol 
implementation. The statement announced that the infringement procedure against the 
UK launched on 15 March 2021 would be taken to its second stage by issuing a reasoned 
opinion49. Moreover, it communicated the launch of two new infringement proceedings 
against  the  UK  for  (a)  failing  to  carry  out  its  obligations  under  the  EU's  Sanitary  and 

43 Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the 
one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part, OJ L 149, 30.4.2021, p. 10–
2539. 

44 The Belfast Agreement: An Agreement Reached at the Multi-Party Talks on Northern Ireland 

45 The Geonomenclature, abbreviated as GEONOM, covers the 'Nomenclature of Countries and Territories for the External 
Trade  Statistics  of  the  Community  and  Statistics  of  Trade  between  Member  States'  and  is  the  terminology  used  for 
compiling  international  trade  statistics.  In  particular,  GEONOM  makes  it  possible  to  identify  the  actors  involved  in 
international trade: in other words, the reporting country and the partner country (source: Eurostat – statistic explained). 

46 Guidance on the Use of GB and XI codes (Annex B) – Geonomenclature codes for the implementation of the IE/NI 
Protocol. 

47 Article 12(2) of the IE/NI Protocol. Decision No 6/2020 of the Joint Committee established by the Agreement on the 
Withdrawal  of  the  United Kingdom  of  Great Britain  and  Northern  Ireland  from  the  European  Union  and  the  European 
Atomic Energy Community provided the practical working arrangements related to the exercise of this right and defined 
the work of NILT. 

48 The UK's Northern Ireland Protocol Bill 

49 A reasoned opinion is a formal request to comply with EU law in the context of an infringement procedure. The reasoned 
opinion  explains  why  the  Commission  considers  that  the  country  is  breaching  EU  law.  Moreover,  it  requests  that  the 
country inform the Commission of the measures taken, within a specified period, usually 2 months (source: European 
Commission, infringement procedure).  

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Phytosanitary (SPS) rules, and (b) failing to provide the EU with trade statistics data in 
respect  of  NI,  as  required  under  the  Protocol.  At  the  same  time,  the  Commission 
published  two  position  papers  on  customs  and  SPS  rules  with  possible  solutions  to 
facilitate the movement of goods between Great Britain (GB) and NI50. Four additional 
infringement  procedures  were  launched  on  22  July  2022  concerning failure to  comply 
with the customs requirements on goods moving from GB to NI, failure to transpose rules 
on  excise  duties,  including  alcohol,  and  failure  to  implement  rules  on  VAT  for  e-
commerce. The UK was also urged to respond to the official letters requesting it to carry 
out  the  necessary  actions  to  comply  with  the  IE/NI  Protocol.  Upon  UK's  request,  the 
Commission agreed to extend the final response date to 22 November 2022. 

Following the Commission's action on the infringement procedure, the UK Revenue and 
Customs Service (HMRC) presented the updated version of the EU Access System in 
June 2022. The system was developed to allow the NILT to download data and transfer 
them  to  the  DG  TAXUD  Data  Lab,  where  relevant  risk  analysis  can  be  performed; 
however, it did not provide direct and real-time access to the data available in the UK 
customs systems. In October 2022, a series of talks were initiated with the UK Secretary 
of  State  for  Foreign,  Commonwealth  and  Development  Affairs  to  discuss  possible 
solutions  for  implementing  the  IE/NI  Protocol.  The  main  focus  areas  were  the  NILT's 
access to the EU Access System, the UK's request to establish a Trusted Trader Scheme 
and  unfettered  access  to  goods.  The  provisional  outcome  of  the meetings  highlighted 
the UK's willingness to deliberate on the outstanding issues that hamper compliance with 
the IE/NI Protocol. In the same month, the testing of the new EU Access System started 
and  progressed  efficiently.  After  the  testing  period,  the  Commission  issued  a  list  of 
procedural recommendations for implementing the system. As of December 2022, the 
NILT  continued  to  work  with  the  UK  authorities  to  implement  the  necessary 
improvements for the former to obtain constant access to the relevant UK's national IT 
systems and database. 

Highlights 

(cid:129)  Coordination meetings continued to take place to discuss and follow up on 
the ongoing activities pertinent to the application of the IE/NI Protocol and 
TCA. 

(cid:129)  A series of technical meetings on IT customs matters was held. 

(cid:129)  On  15  June  2022,  the  Commission  revived  the  infringement  procedure 
against  the  UK  for  failing  to  implement  the  IE/NI  Protocol,  including  two 
new infringement procedures related to customs and SPS rules. 

(cid:129)  On 22 July 2022, four additional infringement procedures were launched 
for failing to comply with the customs requirements on goods moving from 
GB  to  NI  to  transpose  rules  on  excise  duties,  including  alcohol,  and  to 
implement rules on VAT for e-commerce. 

(cid:129)  Testing activities for the new EU Access System started in October 2022. 

4.6  New Initiatives 

In  line  with  the  Commission's  2019–2024  political  guidelines51,  new  initiatives  were 
gradually introduced in 2022 in the field of customs. These initiatives respond to recent 

50 Press release of the European Commission, Brussels, 15 June 2022. 

51  Political  guidelines  for  the  next  European  Commission  2019–2024;  Opening  statement  in  the  European  Parliament 
plenary session 16 July 2019; Speech in the European Parliament plenary session 27 November 2019. 

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legislative proposals and guidelines in different policy areas, such as the EU Green Deal, 
decent  work52,  border  management  and  cross-border  military  transport,  which  impact 
customs. Several of those new projects were launched after the revision in 2019 of the 
MASP-C and are planned to be included in the next revision of the MASP-C in 2023. A 
summary  of  the  Carbon  Border  Adjustment  Mechanism  (CBAM),  BVI,  BOI,  Smart 
Border, Military Mobility, Deforestation Regulation, Forced Labour initiative and Customs 
Reform are provided below. 

  CBAM 

CBAM53 is an environmental policy instrument introduced in the 'Fit for 55'54 package, 
addressing  the  risk  of  carbon  leakage  by  focusing  on  importing  goods  from  carbon-
intensive  sectors.  CBAM's  objectives  are  to  align  the  carbon  price  between  domestic 
products and imports and ensure that the EU's climate targets are not jeopardised by 
importing goods produced in countries with less ambitious environmental policies. CBAM 
will apply a carbon price to imported goods corresponding to the carbon price that would 
have  been  paid  if  the  products  were  produced  under  EU's  Emission  Trading  System 
(ETS)55.  A  pilot  phase  of  CBAM  would  be  initiated  in  2023  and  then,  the  mechanism 
would be gradually phased-in from 2026 to 2035 to ensure the alignment of countries 
and businesses. Customs will play an essential role in the implementation of CBAM, as 
importers  will  need  to  register  into  a  CBAM  system,  and  the  national  authorities  will 
authorise economic operators as well as review and verify relevant declarations. 

After  adopting  the  CBAM  Regulation  proposal50  in  2021,  the  negotiations  on  the 
legislation  progressed  steadily  in  2022.  On  15  March  2022,  the  Council  reached  an 
agreement on its general approach to the proposed Regulation. On 22 June 2022, the 
Parliament adopted its position on the aforesaid Regulation. Subsequently, in July 2022, 
during the Czech Presidency of the Council, technical trialogue meetings between the 
co-legislators started taking place on a weekly basis, resulting in a provisional political 
agreement on 13 December 2022. Concerning the IT side of the CBAM implementation, 
the  Commission  held  a  series  of  coordination  meetings  to  analyse  how  the  CBAM 
Regulation would translate into an IT infrastructure and the synergies with other customs 
systems,  such  as  Customs  Decisions  Management  System  (CDMS),  National  Import 
System (NIS) and UCC SURV3. In addition, the Project Charter for the transitional phase 
of the IT system was approved by the Member States and Commission.   

  BVI and BOI  

Two  new  projects  on  BVI  and  BOI  were  initiated  to  ensure  legal  certainty  of  customs 
valuation and uniform interpretation of the rules of non-preferential and preferential origin 
across the EU. Under the UCC, an economic operator can apply for a BOI to obtain legal 
certainty  on  the  origin  of  goods.  However,  a  similar  decision  related  to  binding 
information  is  lacking  in  the  field  of  customs  valuation.  Nevertheless,  the  UCC 
determines that the Commission can establish the necessary provisions to introduce BVI 

52 The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines decent work as productive work for women and men in conditions 
of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. Decent work (a) involves opportunities for work that is productive and 
delivers a fair income, (b) provides security in the workplace and social protection for workers and their families, (c) offers 
better prospects for personal development and encourages social integration, (d) gives people the freedom to express 
their concerns to organise and to participate in decisions that affect their lives, and (e) guarantees equal opportunities and 
equal treatment for all. See the ILO’s Toolkit for Mainstreaming Employment and Decent Work.  

53  Proposal  for  a  REGULATION  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  PARLIAMENT  AND  OF  THE  COUNCIL  establishing  a  carbon 
border adjustment mechanism, COM/2021/564 final.  

54 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social 
Committee  and  the  Committee  of  the  Regions,  ‘Fit  for  55’:  delivering  the  EU’s  Climate  Target  on  the  way  to  climate 
neutrality. 

55 EU ETS is a ‘cap and trade’ scheme where a limit (the cap) is placed on the right to emit specified pollutants over a 
geographic area and companies can trade emission rights within that area. It is the key tool for reducing greenhouse gas 
emissions,  such  as  carbon  dioxide  (CO2),  from  electricity  generation  and  industry.  EU  ETS  makes  investing  in 
environmentally friendly technology economically beneficial for industry and airlines. 

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in the legislation through the amendment of Annex A to the UCC DA and UCC IA. With 
these two initiatives, the Commission intends to align with the World Trade Organisation 
(WTO) and the World Customs Organisation (WCO), which recommend introducing BVI 
and BOI programmes as a facilitation for economic operators. The Commission prepared 
the  Annex  A  to  the  UCC  DA  and  UCC  IA  drafts  that  were  submitted  to  the  CEG  for 
consultation with the TCG in November and December 2022. The vote and adoption of 
the  DA  and  IA  are  expected  in  the  second  quarter  of  2023.  The  development  of  the 
respective IT solution would start only after the adoption of the legislation.  

  Smart Border  

The  Smart  Border  Project  initiative  aims  at  digitalising  and  automating  customs 
processes and formalities related to the border-crossing of goods in the EU. The project 
initially  originated  in  the  context  of  an  expert  group's  work  involving  Switzerland's 
bordering countries and focused on the digitalisation of the paper routing slip at adjacent 
clearance  offices  of  Switzerland,  DE,  FR,  IT,  and  AT.  However,  the  EU  proposed 
extending  the  concept  to  other  EU  Member  States  and  their  neighbouring  countries, 
taking into account the Contracting Parties to the Convention on Common Transit (CTC). 
The Smart Border would accelerate the border crossing by refraining from stopping the 
vehicles  when  both concerned  customs  offices  require  no  control.  In  2022,  the  Smart 
Border Project was proposed for inclusion in the MASP-C Revision 2023 as a separate 
project, whereas the implementation foresees its integration with the existing TES. 

  Military Mobility  

Military Mobility is an EU initiative aiming at accelerating and facilitating the movement 
of military equipment, assets and personnel. The initiative comprises the improvement 
of the transport infrastructure, including its resilience and preparedness, enhancement 
of the cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), and digitalisation 
and  streamlining  of  the  national  processes  and  procedures.  In  November  2022,  the 
Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy 
issued  a  communication  on  an  Action  Plan  on  military  mobility  2.056,  building  on  the 
achievements of the first Action Plan launched in 201857 and covering the period 2022–
2026.  The  objective  of  the  2022  Action  Plan  was  to  contribute  to  a  well-connected, 
secure  and  efficient  military  mobility  network,  both  in  the  context  of  the  EU  Common 
Security and Defence Policy and the framework of NATO. 

The NATO form 302 is a document used for the cross-border movement of military goods 
and  was  established  by  the  Agreement  among  the  NATO  parties  in  1951.  The  UCC 
provides for the use of the NATO form 302 in Articles 226(3)(e) and 227(2)(e)58 and in 
the Commission Implementing Regulation, Articles 221(5), 286 and 28759. Similarly, the 
UCC  provides  for  the  use  of  EU  form  302  as  a  Union  transit  declaration  in  Articles 
226(3)(a)  and  227(2)(a),  and  in  the  relative  Commission  Implementing  Regulation, 
Articles 286(a) and 287(a)60.  

The project in the field of customs related to military mobility aims at the digitalisation of 
form 302, which is currently paper-based and could eventually lead to the development 

56 Action plan on military mobility 2.0  

57 Joint Communication to the European Parliament and the Council on the Action Plan on Military Mobility  

58 Article 226(3)(a)(e) and Article 227(2)(a)(e) of the Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council of 9 October 2013 laying down the Union Customs Code 

59  Article  221(5)  and Article  287a  of the  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 down the Union Customs Code. 

60 Articles 226(3)(a) and 227(2)(a) of the Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 
9  October  2013  laying  down the Union  Customs  Code;  and Articles  286a  and  287a  of  the  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 down the Union Customs Code. 

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of  a  Military  Customs  System  (MCS).  The  project's  objective  is  to  reduce  operational 
difficulties caused by a lack of clarity regarding the use of form 302 and ensure a smooth 
yet secure information exchange between military forces and customs authorities. The 
military mobility project is currently in an assessment phase. 

  Deforestation Regulation 

On 17 November 2021, the Commission proposed a Regulation61 to minimise the EU-
driven  deforestation  and  forest  degradation.  By  promoting  the  consumption  of 
'deforestation-free' products and reducing the EU's impact on global deforestation and 
forest  degradation, the  new  Regulation  rules  are  expected to  bring  down  greenhouse 
gas emissions and biodiversity loss. In June 2022, the Environmental Ministers of the 
EU  Member  States  presented  their  position  on  the  Commission's  proposal  at  the 
Environmental Council's Meeting. The following month, the Parliament's Committee on 
Environment,  Public  Health  and  Food  Safety  (ENVI)  voted  by  a  large  majority  on 
amendments  that  would  include  more  commodities  within  the  Regulation's  scope. 
Trialogue  negotiations  started  in  September  2022  following  the  Parliament's  vote  in 
Plenary Session and a preliminary agreement between the Council and the Parliament 
was reached in December 2022. Under the new Regulation, economic operators must 
submit a due diligence statement for a specific product through NSW and transmit it to 
the  deforestation  Register62.  In  this  respect,  the  possible  interconnection  between  the 
deforestation Register and EU CSW-CERTEX has been analysed and evaluated by the 
Commission during the course of 2022. The Commission also supported the legislative 
process for drafting the Regulation on deforestation, including assistance to the Council's 
Ad-hoc WG, and contributed to several interservice consultations on the impact of the 
new Regulation on EU SWE-C and EU CSW-CERTEX. 

  Forced Labour  

The  Forced  Labour  initiative  aims  at  preserving  the  EU  market  from  products 
manufactured, extracted or harvested in the context of forced labour, both within the EU 
and  in  third  countries.  The  draft  proposal63  was  publicly  shared  for  contribution  on  23 
May 2022 and was presented to the Parliament and Council on 14 September 2022. The 
proposed  legislation  would  empower  the  national  authorities  to  investigate  products 
made using forced labour and withdraw them from the EU market. Moreover, customs 
authorities  would  be  responsible  for  identifying  and  halting  such  products  at  the  EU 
borders. During the reporting year, the Commission supported the co-legislation process 
on the Forced Labour Initiative and the analysis of the integration of the new formality 
within the scope of EU CSW-CERTEX following the adoption of the legislation.  

  Customs Reform  

Consequent  to  the  publication  on  31  March  2022  of  the  Wise  Persons  Group  (WPG) 
report on Challenges Facing the Customs Union64 and in collaboration with the French 
Presidency of the Council, the Customs Programme65 organised a High-Level Seminar 
in Paris on 28 and 29 April 2022 to discuss the recommendations of the WPG and the 

61 Proposal for a regulation on deforestation-free products 

62 The Register is an Information System containing the due diligence statements, as provided in Article 31 and Article 4 
(2) of the REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the making available on the 
Union market as well as export from the Union of certain commodities and products associated with deforestation and 
forest degradation and repealing Regulation (EU) No 995/2010.  

63 COM(2022) 453 - Proposal for a regulation on prohibiting products made with forced labour on the Union market 

64  Putting  more  Union  in  the  European  Customs.  Ten Proposals  to make  the  EU  Customs  Union  fit  for  a  Geopolitical 
Europe – Report by the Wise Persons Group on the Reform of the EU Customs Union, Brussels March 2022.  

65 In this report, ‘Customs Programme’ relates to the Regulation (EU) 2021/444 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council  of  11  March  2021  establishing the  Customs  programme  for  cooperation  in the field  of customs  and  repealing 
Regulation (EU) No 1294/2013 (OJ L 87, 15.3.2021, p. 1–16) for the period 2021–2027. For brevity purposes the above-
mentioned Regulation will be referred to as ‘Customs Programme’.  

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possible follow-up actions. The main outcome of the High-Level Seminar was that the 
Customs Union is unfit for the challenges it is currently facing and that structural reform 
is  needed  to  protect  the  EU  core  values  and  the  single  market.  The  discussion  and 
conclusions  of  the  seminar  informed  the  ensuing  Commission  activities  for  the 
preparation of a Customs Reform proposal. During the course of 2022, a Task Force on 
the reform of the Customs Union was established to work on the ambitious proposal that 
is expected to be presented during the first quarter of 2023. The Task Force integrated 
the wider context of the Commission’s political agenda for 2019–202451 and the 2020 
Customs Action Plan66, and the outcomes of the foresight study 'The Future of Customs 
in the EU 2040'67 into their work. A series of activities were also carried out to assess the 
proposal's impact on the current UCC IT systems implementation, including the effects 
on related regulations on plant and animal health, food fraud, bamboo products and e-
commerce.  During  the  second  half  of  2022,  the  draft  proposal  and  the  impact 
assessment  were  submitted  to  the  Regulatory  Scrutiny  Board  (RSB)  and  the  text  is 
currently  undergoing  a  review  process.  The  work  on  the  Customs  Reform  notably 
involved the economic operators that were invited to participate in a public consultation 
taking  place  during July and  August  2022  and  whose  inputs  were  incorporated  in the 
impact assessment.  

Highlights 

(cid:129)  New initiatives were introduced in the area of customs, which respond to 

different policy areas and have an impact on customs. 

(cid:129)  The  work  on  the  CBAM  legislation  has  proceeded  steadily  and  a 
provisional  political  agreement  was  reached  on  13  December  2022.  In 
addition, the Project Charter for the transitional phase of the IT system was 
approved by the Member States and Commission. 

(cid:129)  Amendments of Annex A to the UCC DA and UCC IA for introducing BVI 
and  BOI  programmes  were  submitted  for  consultation  in  November  and 
December 2022. 

(cid:129)  The Smart Border initiative was proposed to be included as a new project 

in the revision of the MASP-C in 2023. 

(cid:129)  The Military Mobility project was at the assessment stage. 

(cid:129)  An  agreement  on  the  text  of  the  new  Regulation  on  deforestation  was 
reached  between  the  Commission,  the  Parliament  and  Council  in 
December 2022. The work for integrating the deforestation Register within 
EU CSW-CERTEX was ongoing. 

(cid:129)  A  draft  proposal  on  the  Forced  Labour  Initiative  was  submitted  to  the 
Parliament and Council on 14 September 2022. The possible interlinkage 
to EU CSW-CERTEX was under analysis. 

(cid:129)  During the second half of 2022, the draft proposal and impact assessment 

on the Customs Reform was submitted to the RSB for review. 

66 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social 
Committee: Taking the Customs Union to the Next Level: a Plan for Action. 

67 A. Ghiran, A. Hakami, L. Bontoux, F. Scapolo, The Future of Customs in the EU 2040, A foresight project for EU policy, 
Joint Research Centre Publication, European Commission, 2020. 

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4.7  New Trans-European Systems 

framework 

The UCC legal package that entered into force on 1 May 2016, repealing and replacing 
the  previous 
that  all  national 
administrations upgrade their electronic systems to meet the new legal requirements. On 
this basis, the trans-European Export Control System (ECS) P2 was succeeded by UCC 
AES. At the same time, two new components, NCTS-P5 and NCTS-P6, were developed 
for the upgrade of the trans-European New Computerised Transit System (NCTS-P4).  

legislation,  mandates 

for  customs 

Specifically, the UCC AES project focuses on implementing the UCC requirements for 
the export and exit of goods, including export and re-export declarations, Exit Summary 
Declaration  (EXS)  and Centralised  Clearance for  Export (CCE),  and  an  interface  with 
Excise Movement Control System (EMCS) and NCTS. Comprised of two components, 
the project entails implementing the UCC simplifications offered to trade to facilitate the 
export  of  goods  for  European  companies.  The  first  component  relates  to  the  trans-
European  AES,  while  the  second  component  concerns  the  National  Export  Systems 
(NES) upgrade.  

Likewise, the scope of the new UCC NCTS project includes the extension of the current 
NCTS  processes  in  alignment  with  the  UCC  legal  provisions  and  UCC  data 
requirements, and the upgrade and development of the interfaces with other systems, 
such as UCC AES, in addition to new safety and security requirements. More concretely, 
UCC NCTS-P5 includes steps to introduce new processes, such as the pre-lodgement 
of customs declarations, the registration of 'en-route' events, and information exchange 
alignment  to  the  UCC  data  requirements.  Although  the  system  incorporates  several 
components to be developed centrally, the main components are to be developed at the 
national  level.  In  addition,  UCC  NCTS-P6  aims  at  aligning  the  NCTS  to  the  new 
provisions set by the UCC regarding advanced cargo information for safety and security, 
while continuing the practice of combined declaration for the Member States opting to 
offer this facilitation to their economic operators. UCC NCTS-P6 requires the setup of an 
automated  interface  between  UCC  NCTS  and  UCC  ICS2  to  ensure  that  economic 
operators and Member States can simultaneously serve the transit procedure and the 
safety and security formalities with a combined declaration.  

UCC NCTS-P5 and UCC AES went live in DE in March 2021, paving the way to the next 
generation  of  interconnected  TES  systems  for  the  trade  community  and  the  national 
customs authorities. In February 2022, UCC AES was successfully deployed by ES and 
the  exchange  of  export  messages  between  DE  and  ES  was  initiated  in  April  2022. 
Throughout the reporting year, the UCC AES operations between the two Member States 
remained  stable  and  all  the  identified  issues  were  resolved  on  time.  This  proved  the 
quality of the system's specifications and legal provisions, which was achieved with the 
close cooperation among the national customs administrations, economic operators and 
Commission pioneering a collaborative, iterative and agile working method. Similarly, the 
overall  development  of  the  UCC  NCTS-P5  system  progressed  steadily  during  2022. 
More  specifically,  a  representative  number  of  national  administrations68  either 
advanced or completed their conformance testing activities.  

In  the  framework  of  the  ‘National  Administration  Coordination  Programme,’  the 
Commission  continued  in  2022  its  monitoring  activities  of  the  national  administrations 
and economic operators’ project plans for the UCC AES and UCC NCTS-P5 systems. 
The objective of these activities was to ensure the alignment of the National Project Plans 
(NPPs) with the Commission’s central planning against the UCC IT milestones. Similar 
activities also took place between a few Member States and the Commission to reduce 

68 In 2022, the following national administrations advanced their conformance testing activities (in Mode 1 and Mode 2) 
for UCC NCTS-P5: Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye, and Finland. In 
addition, Czechia, Italy, Luxemburg, Montenegro, and Slovenia successfully completed the related activities.  

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the number of the open export movements for indirect reports mainly destined to the UK. 
In the same way, the UK and Commission collaborated with the aim of managing the 
open export movements for the indirect NI exports and the implementation of the Goods 
Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS) platform in the UK. In addition, a Monitoring Mission 
was  launched  for  the  accession  of  Ukraine  to  the  CTC69,  which  was  successfully 
achieved in October 2022, resulting in the deployment of UCC NCTS-P4. Concerning 
UCC NCTS-P5, Ukraine completed the procurement activity70 during the reporting year 
and confirmed its plan for timely deployment in operation.  

2022 further marked substantial progress towards developing a trade outreach strategy 
to  promote  a  shift  to  the  preparation  of  the  trade  community.  On  this  basis,  full 
transparency  of  the  coordination  programmes  has  been  established  to  keep  the 
economic  operators  informed  on  the  national  administrations’  progress  towards 
implementing the TES systems. Additionally, active forums for the trade community were 
organised  in  the  national  administrations,  where  the  benefits  of  the  new  UCC  TES 
systems for business were analysed using practical cases and examples.  

Nonetheless, despite the substantial progress of the TES systems, possible delays were 
identified against the legal deadlines agreed upon in the context of the UCC and UCC 
WP,  and the  project  milestones  set  out  in the MASP-C  Revision  201971.  In  particular, 
several  Member  States  announced  UCC  AES  and  UCC  NCTS-P5  deployment  to 
operations towards the end of the deployment window in the last quarter of 2023, while 
less  than  20%  of  the  national  administrations  announced  running  over  the  UCC  WP 
deadline  of  1  December  2023.  The  Commission  has  developed  and  shared  with  the 
Member  States  and  economic  operators  as  part  of  the  TSS  package  specific 
compatibility rules and has put in operations the Central Information Exchange Convertor 
Application  (C/ieCA)  enabling  continuity  of  operations  for  the  Member  States  having 
deployed  their  UCC  AES  and  UCC  NCTS-P5  systems  and  those  running  over  the 
deadline of December 2023. 

As  regards  UCC  NCTS-P6,  the  elaboration  phase  was  initiated  in  2022, following  the 
kick-off  meeting  of  the  UCC  NCTS-P6  project  group  in  January  2022.  The  aforesaid 
group convened periodically during 2022, with the active participation of 13 collaborating 
national administrations72. In addition, during the reporting year, the preparatory work for 
the  new  phase  was  mainly  focused  on  finalising  the  UCC  NCTS-P6  technical  and 
functional  specifications73,  which  were  developed  in  parallel  using  the  agile  method. 
Further  activities  included  the  establishment  of  a  bridge  between  UCC  NCTS-P6  and 
UCC ICS2 R3, which would enable the synchronisation of the entry and transit formalities 
at the border by allowing the CTC countries to use a combined transit declaration. On 
this basis, a Proof of Concept (PoC) was developed during the last quarter of 2022 for 
extracting  the  Entry  Summary  Declaration  (ENS)  for  UCC  ICS2  R3  from  a  combined 
transit declaration under UCC NCTS-P6. The full Transit ENS Data Processing Bridge 
(TED)  would  be  deployed  in  2024  in  collaboration  with  the  UCC  ICS2  Common 
Repository (CR) team.  

69 The objective of the Commission is to involve the CTC acceding countries in the same window as the Member States 
for the deployment of the TES.  

70 Public procurement (europa.eu) 

71 The legacy and new systems will be operational in parallel in the same environment during a transitional phase, for the 
period 2021–2023. The deadline for the deployment of the AES and NCTS-P5 systems is 01/12/2023.  

72 Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Serbia, Spain, and Switzerland. 

73 The functional and technical specifications for NCTS-P6 were formally accepted by the ECCG on 22 December 2022. 
Further information about UCC NCTS-P5 and UCC NCTS-P6 can be found in section 1.1.5 of Annex 1. 

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Highlights 

(cid:129) 

In  February  2022,  UCC  AES  was  successfully  deployed  by  ES  and  the 
exchange of export messages between DE and ES was initiated in April 
2022. 

(cid:129)  The  overall  development  of  the  UCC  AES  and  UCC  NCTS-P5  systems 

progressed steadily.  

(cid:129)  A  Monitoring  Mission  for  the  accession  of  Ukraine  to  the  CTC  was 
successfully achieved in October 2022, resulting in the deployment of UCC 
NCTS-P4. 

(cid:129)  Several  Member  States  announced  a  shift  of  their  UCC  AES  and  UCC 
NCTS-P5 operations towards the end of the deployment window in the last 
quarter of 2023. 

(cid:129)  The elaboration phase of UCC NCTS-P6 was initiated, following the kick-

off meeting of the UCC NCTS-P6 project group in January 2022. 

4.8  The UCC Import Control System 2 (ICS2) 

The UCC ICS2 programme involves a complete overhaul of the existing customs regime 
from  the  perspectives  of  IT,  customs  risk  management  and  economic  operators.  The 
objective of the programme is to strengthen the safety and security of the supply chain 
for goods moved via all modes of transport and has been defined in close collaboration 
among national administrations, customs authorities and the Commission. This is to be 
achieved through better targeted risk-based controls of the EU customs authorities on 
improved ENS data quality, data filing, data availability and data sharing, and via real-
time collaborative risk analysis and coordinated safety and security controls at the EU 
entry points.  

The Harmonised Trader Interface (HTI) concept has been introduced in the UCC ICS2 
programme to reduce the burden on trade by providing the single messages specification 
for  exchanging  data  with  economic  operators  from  all  EU  countries.  The  aforesaid 
interface helped in overcoming the challenges of UCC ICS1 having different interfaces 
at the national level. Further to this, UCC ICS2 reduced the cost and staff requirements 
for  the Member  States  by  implementing  the  centralised  Shared  Trader Interface  (STI) 
developed  by  the  Commission  on  behalf  of  the  national  administrations  and  used  by 
economic operators from all countries. 

The programme implementation consists of three releases. Being in operation since 15 
March  2021,  UCC  ICS2  R1  introduced  advanced  cargo  information  for  postal 
consignments, enabling customs to address a wide range of unsafe traffic in the context 
of massive and growing flows of e-commerce. Notably, in UCC ICS2 R1, express carriers 
and  designated  postal  operators  established  in  the  EU  provide  a  subset  of  their  ENS 
data before goods are loaded on aircrafts bound for the EU. This Pre-Loading Advanced 
Cargo  Information  (PLACI)  is  analysed  by  customs  with  the  purpose  of  detecting 
immediate  threats  to  Aviation  Security  (AVSEC)74,  thus,  delivering  a  complementary 
intelligence-driven layer of consignment-level risk analysis in the context of the EU civil 
aviation security regime. Since the entry of UCC ICS2 R1 into operations, 29 national 
customs administrations75 have been connected to the system. Furthermore, a total of 

74 Aviation security (europa.eu) 

75 EU Member States, Norway, and Switzerland. UK did not enter in operation due to the ongoing discussions on the 
implementation of the IE/NI Protocol and the issue of the ‘XI’ prefix for the EORI numbers, which is used for Northern 
Ireland and is still not declared by the trade community. 

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27 postal operators established in the EU as well as the postal operators of Switzerland 
and Norway have been connected to the system in addition to three express operators76. 
Throughout 2022, the common components of UCC ICS2 R1 were running on a 24/7 
basis without any major incident being reported. Nearly 20–25 million ENS were filed per 
month,  while  incremental  efforts  were  made  to  improve  the  ENS  data  quality  and 
completeness and implement the air cargo security referrals in full compliance with the 
new UCC requirements.   

UCC ICS2 R2 covers the implementation of new ENS obligations and risk management 
processes for  all the  goods  entering  the  EU  by air traffic,  while  implementing  an  SSA 
capability in the system. In particular, as part of UCC ICS2 R2, the aforesaid capability 
will be integrated within the UCC ICS2 CR component. Furthermore, it will implement the 
analytics  platform  accessible  by  the  Member  States  via  the  Common  Communication 
Network 2 (CCN2). The platform will be integrated with a dedicated portal and a data 
factory for real-time analytics (enrichment of ENS data) connected to the CR. Moreover, 
UCC ICS2 R2 poses new challenges compared to UCC ICS2 R1, such as the addition 
of three new types of economic operators acting in the air transportation supply chains 
and 13 different types of ENS filings, improving the quality of the trade data of goods 
moving  towards  the  EU.  In  addition,  UCC  ICS2  R2  includes  new  business  models 
reflecting  the  business  needs,  rules  and  user  interfaces  (UIs),  adding  an  increasing 
complexity of timers, data quality, data consistency rules and linkage for multiple filings, 
and arrival notifications.  

In 2022, UCC ICS2 R2 was in the elaboration phase, during which a UCC ICS2 SSA 
expert  team  was  established  and  initiated  its  work.  Comprised  of  customs  experts 
representing  six  Member  States77,  the  aforesaid  team  focused  on  assisting  the 
Commission in bringing forward the SSA capability. Notably, the expert team succeeded 
in  establishing  and  concluding  the  joint  controllership  arrangement  with  the  EU,  thus, 
providing  a  basis  for  processing  the  ENS  data  through  the  SSA  analytics,  planned  to 
start  in  2023.  Additionally,  extensive  dialogue  took  place  with  the  relevant  trade 
associations  and  the  Universal  Postal  Union  (UPU)  regarding  the  postal  transit  and 
transhipment and the challenges posed to data quality for goods in postal consignments. 
The Member States and economic operators also participated in a survey launched by 
the  Commission  to  facilitate  the  preparation  of  the  go-live  documents,  containing 
practical organisational arrangements for UCC ICS2 R2. In April 2022, a bilateral UCC 
ICS2  meeting  between  the  UK  and  Commission  took  place,  with  the  objective  of 
providing  an  update  on  the  development  of  UCC  ICS2  R2  and  addressing  the  UK’s 
inquiries regarding the SSA and the risk rules.  

Throughout the reporting year, the Commission further launched monitoring activities of 
the  national  administrations  and  economic  operators’  project  plans  to  ensure  their 
alignment with the Commission’s central planning against the IT milestones. Although 
UCC ICS2 R2 is expected to be operational in all national administrations by 1 March 
2023,  several  Member  States  submitted  a  written  notification  in  2022,  asking  for  a 
derogation  under  Article  6(4)  of the  UCC,  considering the  possible  delays  against the 
legal deadline. These derogation requests were thoroughly assessed by the Commission 
in July 2022, based on a set of established common assessment criteria, such as the 
justifications provided and the specific situation of each requesting Member State, the 
safeguard of the business continuity of operations and the interdependencies between 
the  different  electronic  customs  systems.  In  this  regard,  during  December  2022,  the 
Commission organised bilateral technical meetings with several of the national customs 

76 DHL, Fedex/TNT and UPS.  

77 Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Poland, and the Netherlands.  

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administrations of the Member States78 that had requested a derogation against the legal 
deadline of 1 March 2023. The objectives of these meetings were to inform about the 
requirements  attached  to  the  derogations,  to  closely  follow  up  on  the  status  of  the 
national  implementation  and  to  identify  solutions for the  potential  advancement  of  the 
operational  date for  the national  administrations that  indicated  delays. In  addition, the 
Commission worked closely with the Legal Service to prepare an Implementing Decision 
granting a derogation for UCC ICS2 R2 to several Member States79, allowing them to 
use  means  for  the  exchange  and  storage  of  information  other  than  electronic  data-
processing techniques in relation to goods transported by air. The derogation for UCC 
ICS2 R2 will apply from 1 March 2023 until 30 June 2023 to provide economic operators 
with adequate time to connect to the UCC ICS2 system. 

Over  the  course  of  2022,  the  Commission  initiated  the  preparatory  activities  for  UCC 
ICS2 R3, in alignment with the UCC NCTS-P6 project80. Such activities included weekly 
meetings  with  the  UCC  NCTS-P6  team  for  the  coordination  between  the  two  TES 
systems  and the  preparation  of  the transition  strategy from  UCC  ICS2  R2  to  R3.  The 
objective  of  UCC  ICS2  R3  is  to  build  on  UCC  ICS2  R1  and  R2  by  enhancing  the 
functional  scope  of  the  UCC  ICS2  system  through  the  support  of  other  modes  of 
transport and the implementation of the full UCC requirements for all ‘entry of goods’ use 
cases.  In  January  2022,  the  Community  of  European  Railway  and  Infrastructure 
Companies (CER) submitted a request for introducing new multiple ENS filings for the 
rail  transport  mode.  This  request  required  the  update  of  the  functional  and  technical 
system specifications as well as the amendment of Annex B to the UCC DA and UCC 
IA. However, as the review cycle of Annex B was already finalised, the new functionality 
is planned to be deployed after 1 March 2024. 

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The common components of UCC ICS2 R1 were running on a 24/7 basis 
without any major incident being reported. Nearly 20–25 million ENS were 
filed per month.  

(cid:129)  UCC  ICS2  R2  was  in  the  elaboration  phase,  during  which  a  UCC  ICS2 

SSA expert team was established and initiated its work.  

(cid:129)  Following the Member States’ request for derogations for UCC ICS2 R2, 
the  Commission  organised  a  series  of  bilateral  technical  meetings  in 
December 2022, which concluded by granting derogations to be applied 
from 1 March 2023 until 30 June 2023.  

(cid:129)  The Commission initiated the preparatory activities for UCC ICS2 R3, in 

alignment with the UCC NCTS-P6 project. 

78  During the first  half  of  December  2022,  bilateral technical  meetings took  place  between Austria,  Denmark, Estonia, 
Greece, the Netherlands, Romania, and the Commission. Additional meetings with the remaining Member States that 
have requested derogations for UCC ICS2 R2 are planned to take place at the beginning of 2023. 

79 Derogations for ICS2 R2 were granted to Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, 
the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and Sweden. 

80 In 2022, the end of the deployment window for UCC ICS2 R3 was rescheduled from 1 October 2024 to 1 March 2025 
in order to be aligned with that of UCC NCTS-P6. 

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4.9  e-Customs Governance 

The legal principles explaining the governance rationale for implementing the electronic 
customs systems are laid down in Articles 1 and 8(2) of the e-Customs Decision81 and 
Articles  16(1)  of  the  UCC82.  The  articles  provide  that  the  Commission,  in  close 
cooperation  with  the  Member  States,  should  determine  the  strategies,  resources  and 
development phases and coordinate all the activities related to the development of the 
electronic  customs  systems,  including  legal,  operational,  training  and  IT  development 
aspects.  The  governance  framework  also  considers  the  2012  Communication  on  the 
State of the Customs Union83, which outlines a course of action to address challenges 
that  the  Customs  Union  is  facing.  Notably,  the  Communication  acknowledges  the 
complexity  of  implementing  and  operating  the  e-Customs  systems  in  27  EU  national 
administrations  in  a  harmonised  manner,  and  sets  up  the  direction  for  updating  and 
improving the governance approach towards more efficient management of costs and 
efforts.  

Furthermore, Article 11 of the Customs Programme Regulation84 outlines the division of 
responsibilities  between  the  Member  States  and  Commission  for  developing  and 
operating the European electronic systems. Namely, the Commission is bestowed with 
the  coordination  of  the  various  activities  related  to  e-Customs  and  the  development, 
operations  and  maintenance  of  the  common  components  of  the  electronic  systems. 
Conversely,  the  Member  States  are  responsible  for  carrying  out  all  the  necessary 
activities to develop and operate the national parts of the systems and regularly update 
the Commission on their advancement. In line with the Customs Programme, DG TAXUD 
is  in  charge  of  the  general  coordination  of  the  e-Customs  projects  to  ensure  uniform 
implementation,  operability, 
improvement  and  cyber-
interconnectivity,  constant 
resilience of the systems.  

The  governance  scheme  and  functioning  are  outlined  in  the  MASP-C,  which  breaks 
down the IT projects' implementation into manageable segments. The objectives of the 
governance  framework  are  to  closely  follow  up  the  planning  and  development  of  the 
projects  resulting  from  the  UCC  and  other  legislations  impacting  customs,  enhance 
coordination at policy, legislative, business operations and IT levels, improve efficiency, 
clearly delineate roles and tasks and bear accountability to the stakeholders involved.  

The governance model is structured in three levels: policy, coordination and expert level. 
All  levels  interact  with  one  another  to  achieve  greater  transparency  and  streamline 
coordination among stakeholders. The CPG is the steering body at the policy level, and 
it is composed of the Directors-General for customs of the Member States and candidate 
countries, and Commission. The CPG is responsible for providing policy advice to the 
Commission  on  customs  matters,  leading  on  operational  policy  implementation, 
providing  strategic  oversight  and  guidance  to the  work  of the  various  committees  and 
groups under the Customs Programme, providing a forum for strategic policy discussion 
and endorsing the MASP-C. The High-Level Project Group (HLPG) is mandated to follow 
up and facilitate the UCC implementation and e-Customs initiatives. Notably, the HLPG 
guarantees the coherence between the legislation, processes, Business Process Models 
(BPMs) and IT levels of the UCC implementation, agrees on the prioritisation of specific 

81 Article 1 and 8(2) of the Decision No 70/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2008 on 
a paperless environment for customs and trade, OJ L 23, 26.1.2008, p. 21–26. 

82 Article 16(1) of the Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 
laying down the Union Customs Code, OJ L 269 10.10.2013.  

83  Points  1.4.3  and  2.2  of  the  Communication  from  the  Commission to  the European  Parliament,  the Council  and the 
European Economic and Social Committee on the State of the Customs Union, COM/2012/0791 final.  

84 Article 11 of the Regulation (EU) 2021/444 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2021 establishing 
the Customs programme for cooperation in the field of customs and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1294/2013, OJ L 87, 
15.03.2021, p. 1–16.  

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projects, may endorse policies and instruments to increase coordination, and may issue 
related resolutions addressed to the other governance groups.  

The coordination level of governance is embodied in the ECCG, which is chaired by the 
Commission  and  comprises  representatives  from  all  Member  States  and  candidate 
countries.  The  ECCG  mandate  is  to  follow  up  closely  and  monitor  the  UCC  WP 
implementation.  It  ensures  that  progress  in  the  IT  projects  is  made  against  the  key 
milestones provided in the UCC WP and the MASP-C, regularly updating the latter and 
reporting to the delegates on development advancements. The ECCG plays an essential 
role  in  reaching  an  agreement  between  the  Member  States  and  Commission  on  the 
implementation of the e-Customs projects. More specifically, the ECCG ensures that the 
e-Customs  implementation  (a)  is  aligned  with  the  related  legislative  framework,  (b) 
guarantees consistency between the e-Customs projects and between the projects and 
the  MASP-C,  (c)  prepares  an  IT  environment  that  responds  to  the  e-Customs 
requirements, and (d) improves the dialogue with the economic operators on customs 
issues. The ECCG may consult the CPG when a political agreement cannot be reached 
within its forum or when policy or strategy guidance is required.  

The expertise level is composed of three groups, which carry out the business and IT 
activities necessary for the e-Customs projects implementation. These groups are the 
CBG,  the  IT  Systems  Development  Group  (ITSDG)  and  the  IT  Technology  and 
Infrastructure Group (ITTIG). The CBG is made up of customs business experts from the 
Member  States  and  Commission  and  is responsible  for  defining  all  customs  business 
processes and their implementation. Notably, the CBG deals with the definition of Level 
(L) 3 and L4 of the BPM, business analysis and working papers for new and ongoing 
projects, legislation, processes and operational systems. It can be supported by project 
groups  having  a  limited  scope  and  duration.  The  ITSDG  focuses  on  preparing  the 
development of the systems (MASP-C Groups 1, 2 and 3), including IT deliverables and 
coordination. Finally, the ITTIG is tasked with the preparation of the technical projects 
and systems (MASP-C Group 4).  

The Commission is legally obliged85 to report annually to the Parliament and Council on 
progress related to the e-Customs projects at the EU and national levels. Additionally, 
the Commission regularly consults the representatives of economic operators through 
the  TCG  to  hear  their  requirements,  deliver  updates  on  customs  developments  and 
capitalise on their expertise. The TCG is regularly invited to policy and coordination level 
meetings  where  opinions  are  exchanged  on  customs-related  issues,  such  as  policy 
developments and implementation of the e-Customs initiative.  

In 2022, the post-COVID-19 rules and the new Commission policies towards a greening 
of  their  activities  had  an  impact  on  the  number  of  physical  meetings.  The  e-Customs 
governance groups continued their regular meetings both online and, to a lesser extent, 
in physical presence. Under the framework of the Customs Programme, 324 meetings 
were held in 2022, out of which 222 took place online, 95 in physical presence and seven 
hybrid. The total number of meetings related to electronic customs was 161, with 3,284 
participants,  a  decrease  of  8%  compared  to  2021.  More  particularly,  110  meetings  of 
2,259 participants linked to the ECCG, CBG and project group meetings, whereas 48 
meetings of 911 participants concerned IT systems training. 

85 Article 278a of the Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 
laying down the Union Customs Code. 

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Highlights 

(cid:129)  161  e-Customs-related  meetings  took  place,  with  a  total  of  3,284 

participants. 

(cid:129)  The  number  of  e-Customs-related  meetings  has  diminished  by  8% 

compared to 2021.  

4.10  Customs IT Collaboration 

The scale of the work required to develop new e-Customs systems and improve existing 
ones  underlines  the  need  both for  the Member States  and  Commission to  deliver the 
customs IT projects efficiently, ensuring that resources are allocated appropriately and 
that  efforts  are  not  duplicated.  To  this  end,  the  Expert  Team  on  new  approaches  to 
develop and operate Customs IT systems (ETCIT) was formed in 2018 as an initiative of 
EE  and  12  other  Member  States,  and  it  is  supported  by  the  Commission  through  the 
Customs Programme. The ETCIT’s work aims to explore how customs IT systems could 
be developed and operated in the future by analysing the current legal and governance 
framework, devising new approaches and alternatives for the future development and 
operation of the customs IT systems, and proposing pilot projects.  

In 2022, the ETCIT closed its second iteration and launched its third phase under the 
Customs Programme. The ETCIT III is composed of BE, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, FR, IT, 
CY, LT, LU, MT, NL, PT, and SE, with NL having a project management role and MT 
being the grant coordinator. Building on the achievements of the previous phases, the 
ETCIT  III  objectives  were  to  continue  the  strategic  work  on  identifying  and  managing 
future  IT  collaboration  initiatives  and  taking  further  the  potential  of  Member  States' 
cooperation  in  the  development  of  the  e-Customs  systems.  Other  objectives  were  to 
support ongoing pilot projects by using the already established methods of collaboration 
and  explore  ideas  in  the  field  of  resource  pooling.  The  expert  team  also  focused  on 
technical  matters,  which  can  influence  the  concept  of  pooling  resources,  i.e.  new 
technologies,  new  architectures  and  modern  equipment.  Although  the  ETCIT  is  a 
collaboration platform destined for the Member States, the expert group also reaches out 
to the economic operators’ representatives for feedback and information on aspects of 
interest to the latter.  

The ETCIT work for 2022 was structured in five work packages carried out by more than 
55 participants. The first work package focused on the setup of the CIO network, which 
aims  to  facilitate  interaction  and  capabilities-sharing  amongst  the  participants  of  the 
activities  under  the  IT  collaboration  framework.  By  establishing  the  CIO  network,  the 
ETCIT  intends  to  accelerate  the  delivery  of  concrete  results  and  support  a  stable, 
extensive and strengthened network. Following the first CIO workshop, which took place 
in June 2022, the ETCIT focused on preparing the structural network where the CIOs of 
the  Member  States  would  meet  regularly  to  exchange  ideas  on  IT  collaboration  and 
common challenges in IT development and implementation. In this context, the option of 
a joint procurement with the Commission was explored. The CIO network is envisaged 
to take the form of a project group, which would be held jointly with the ETCIT within the 
Customs Programme.  

The second work package centred on continuing the UCC Presentation Notification and 
Temporary Storage (PN/TS) pilot project. The main goal of the pilot project is to deliver 
a complete package of use cases to be handled within the PN/TS and Goods Accounting 
(GA)  core  components.  During  2022,  it  focused  on  delivering  the  functional  and  non-
functional specifications as well as technical information on how to implement the project. 
The  third  work  package dealt  with  exploring  new  prospects  in  the  area of  customs  IT 
collaboration and initiatives. The fourth work package continued the work on the Digital 
Guarantees (DiG) information exchange pilot project, which focused in 2022 on drafting 

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the Business Case, the TSS and functional requirements. Finally, the fifth work package 
was dedicated to following up on the analysis of the joint procurement, notably its legal 
aspects,  and  supporting  other  work  packages  in  the  area  of  legal,  procurement  and 
governance issues. In this regard, the ETCIT identified potential collaboration areas with 
the  Customs  Eastern  and  South-Eastern  Land  Border  Expert  Team  (CELBET)  during 
the CELBET workshop held in Warsaw in October 2022.  

Finally,  in  the  context  of  the  work  related  to  the  development  of  SWE-C,  the  related 
project group explored the possible connection with the ETCIT to leverage the potential 
for collaboration that the platform of experts provides. More precisely, the ETCIT could 
be used as a venue to implement a pilot project on SWE-C B2G once the case study is 
completed. The ETCIT could explore the development of a common code for developing 
the NSWs, collaborate on developing the TSS and investigate a common way to collect 
and dispatch the common data set. To this end, the project group on SWE-C intends to 
exploit  the  CIO  network  established  by  the  ETCIT  to  present  the  outcomes  of  the 
activities carried out thus far. Setting up a collaboration scheme on the development of 
the SWE-C through the ETCIT platform would benefit the Member States that are yet to 
develop  an  NSW  and  ensure  a  harmonised  integration  of  the  SWE-C  B2G 
implementation. 

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The ETCIT closed its second iteration and launched its third phase under 

the Customs Programme.  

(cid:129)  The first CIO workshop took place in June 2022, initiating the preparation 

of the structural network. 

(cid:129)  The  ETCIT  progressed  on  the  pilot  project  on  UCC  PN/TS  to  deliver  a 
complete package of use cases to be handled within the PN/TS and GA 
core components. 

(cid:129)  The  DiG  pilot  project  focused  on  drafting  the  Business  Case,  TSS  and 

functional requirements. 

(cid:129) 

In  October  2022,  during  the  CEBET  workshop,  the  ETCIT  identified 
potential  collaboration  areas  with  the  former,  specifically  in  the  areas  of 
legislation, procurement and governance. 

(cid:129)  A  potential  collaboration  with  the  ETCIT  platform  for  developing  a  pilot 

project on SWE-C was under exploration. 

4.11  e-Customs Project Groups 

The  Customs  Programme  fosters  knowledge  sharing  and  collaboration  between  the 
Member States’ experts and Commission, working in project groups86 to analyse national 
customs  practices  and  identify  challenges  in  correctly  implementing  the  EU  customs 
legislation. In 2022, various project groups pursued their activities, whereas new ones 
were established to answer specific concerns and render recommendation reports on IT 
system implementation. The Commission chaired all the project group sessions. 

86 The UCC project groups are established at the expertise level based on the governance model outlined in MASP-C 
Revision 2019, Annex 3.   

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Subsequent to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the CPG87 provided an overview of the 
activities on three key points: (a) the implementation state of the EU-UK TCA, (b) the UK 
unilateral measures and border management, and (c) the NI state of play. The expert 
group held a meeting with the UK counterpart in October 2022, where the emphasis was 
put on the access of the NILT to the EU Access System, the UK’s request for green and 
red  lines,  and  the  unfettered  access  issue.  More  specifically,  the  latter  pertains  to 
restrictions and prohibitions described in all the international agreements to which the 
EU and the UK are contracting parties. Furthermore, the CPG expert group addressed 
the  Ukraine  crisis  and  related  sanction  packages,  highlighting  the  need  to  guide  the 
Member States on various scenarios regarding the Ukraine crisis and trade facilitation. 
Moreover, the expert group discussed accelerating the Ukraine’s accession to the CTC.  

The UCC CDS project group, composed of customs experts representing 21 Member 
States88,  pursued  its  discussions  in  2022,  contributing  to  identifying,  analysing  and 
developing solutions to operational business issues. In particular, it held several bilateral 
meetings with the CEG-DIH project group, focusing on the amendment of Annex A to the 
UCC DA and UCC IA, which entailed changes in L3 and L4 BPMs to align them with the 
upcoming  release  of  the  system.  Feedback  sessions  took  place  for  the  conformance 
testing for the release of UCC CDS v1.29, whereas demonstration sessions were held 
concerning the release of UCC CDS v1.30. 

The  UCC  Guarantee  Management  (GUM)  project  group  convened  in  2022,  bringing 
together  customs  experts  of  the  participating  Member  States  as  well  as  Iceland, 
Lichtenstein,  Norway,  and  Switzerland.  The  project  group  encouraged  the  Member 
States to request the Commission’s support, where needed, in developing their national 
component (GUM 2). In addition, it coordinated discussions for the third iteration of the 
simplified Request for Change (RfC) List for UCC Customs Decisions BPM L3 and L4 to 
align  with the  timeline  for the  publication  of  the  draft  Annex  A.  In  addition, the  project 
group completed the legal review of the GUM Business User Guide and initiated similar 
discussions  with  the  legal  team  for  a  review  of  the  GUM  Training  &  Communication 
Materials. 

The  UCC  CCI  IT  project  group  pursued  its  discussions  throughout  2022  with  the 
collaboration of IT and business experts. The project group contributed to finalising the 
draft  of  the  UCC  CCI  P1  Business  Guidance  document,  sent  for  internal  revision  in 
December 2022. A CCI P2 workshop with all the Member States was held to inform them 
about the updates under the CCI P2 TSS. During the meeting, the Member States were 
invited to discuss the NIS’ connection to the UCC CCI system internally and provide the 
outcome  of  these  discussions  in  the  following  UCC  CCI  P2  workshop  foreseen  in 
February  2023.  An  additional  goal  of  the  project  group  was  to  align  the  UCC  CCI  P1 
Functional System Specifications (FSS) with the TSS. At the same time, the Commission 
held  weekly  meetings  with  two  forerunner  Member  States89,  contributing  to  the 
construction  and  development  of  the  UCC  CCI  P1  at  a  national  level.  Finally,  the 
Commission organised bilateral meetings with the Member States to inform them of the 
latest activities for UCC CCI P1 and receive a status update on their UCC CCI-related 
activities  and  plans,  aiming  to  provide  business support  if the Members States  raised 
business issues.  

The project group on the Digitalisation of Cultural Goods convened in 2022 under the 
coordination  of  the  business  and  policy  units  of  DG  TAXUD.  Composed  of 

87 Commission Decision of 7 June 2018 formalising the Commission Customs Policy expert group, C/2018/3530, OJ C201, 
12.6.2018, p. 3–7.   

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

89 The forerunner Member States were Spain and France. Spain successfully passed the conformance testing activities 
in Mode 2 for the iteration of the UCC CCI P1 scope covering the conformance test cases and business scenarios for 
standard customs declaration in their role as Supervising Customs Office for Centralised Clearance for Import (SCI).  

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representatives from customs administrations and Ministries of Culture representing 14 
Member States90, the project group progressed in its initial two-fold objective. The first 
was to build an electronic licencing (e-licencing) system for the economic operators and 
the  competent  authorities  in  the  Member  States,  which  will  be  interconnected  to  the 
customs IT environment. The second was to set out the provisions for the Implementing 
Regulation supporting the system. Regarding the Import of Cultural Goods (ICG), several 
meetings were held to advance with the following points: (a) the configuration of the ICG 
system, (b) the input needed from the Member States, (c) the necessary changes to the 
BPMs,  (d)  the  maintenance  of  the  Business  Acceptance  Criteria  (BAC),  (e)  the  RfC 
creation  as  per  the  changes  required  (related  to  Import  Licence  for  Cultural  Goods 
(ICGL),  Importer  Statement  for  Cultural  Goods  (ICGS),  General  Description  for  the 
Import  of  Cultural  Goods  (ICGD)),  and  (f)  the  registration  of  modifications  into  the 
Rational  Team  Concert  (RTC)  tool.  In  addition,  the  project  group  cooperated  with 
Artificial  Intelligence  (AI)  experts  from  the  International  Criminal  Police  Organization 
(INTERPOL) and Fraunhofer Institute in order to envisage possible synergies in the ICG 
system evolution with the use of AI. Furthermore, the preparatory business activities for 
the  integration  with  the  EU  CSW-CERTEX  were  launched.  Concerning  the  Export  of 
Cultural Goods (ECG), the project group organised meetings to discuss progress on a 
feasibility study for extending the ICG to the export domain and explore approaches for 
the system architecture. Finally, the project group analysed the EU survey on the ‘ECG 
Integration:  national  systems  capabilities’,  aiming  at  determining  the  needs  of  the 
integration and the specific particularities of the national systems for the Member States 
that already had a solution in place. 

A project group dedicated to the B2G dimension was initiated in 2021 and continued its 
discussions and investigations in 2022. Composed of representatives from DG TAXUD, 
DG SANTE, customs authorities, PCAs in the Member States and TCG, it convened five 
times  throughout  the  year.  Observations  and  inputs  were  gathered  from  all  parties 
involved in the EU SWE-C at the B2G level, and several conclusions were reached. In 
particular,  regarding the optionality  of  data, the  project  group  concluded  that the  non-
compulsory  data  elements  for  non-customs  formalities,  but  mandatory  for  customs 
should  remain  part  of  the  Integrated  Data  Set  (IDS).  It  was  highlighted  that  in  cases 
where the format is different, but the business content remains the same, a solution for 
rationalising the format should be found (i.e. transformation functionality). Moreover, the 
need  for  a  deforestation  legislation  arose91,  which  could  be a  possible  use  case for  a 
PoC to test the B2G functionality. In contrast, the similarities and differences between 
the proposal on deforestation-free products and the EU SWE-C B2G concept would need 
to be further investigated and addressed. 

The project group concluded that the SWE-C, particularly the IDS, should aim to ease 
the process for the economic operators by giving as much flexibility as possible, while 
complying  with  the  legislation.  Nonetheless,  for  legal  certainty,  the  legislation  should 
clearly  outline  the  different  stages  at  which  the  IDS  can  be  lodged  concerning  the 
formalities  required  at  an  airport  entry  point  and  under  what  specific  conditions. 
Regarding the scenarios with or without pre-lodging, there is only one difference to be 
mentioned.  In  the  case  of  the  pre-lodgement  of  the  IDS,  all  data  are  expected  to  be 
submitted  simultaneously,  whereas  when  there  is  no  pre-lodgement,  data  could  be 
submitted at two different points in time (data will be divided into Branch I and Branch 

90  Belgium,  Bulgaria,  Denmark,  Germany,  Greece,  Spain,  France,  Italy,  Latvia,  Hungary,  the  Netherlands,  Austria, 
Portugal, and Romania. 

91 The proposal refers to the Commission’s commitment to ‘assess additional demand side regulatory and non-regulatory 
measures  to  ensure  a  level  playing  field and  a common  understanding  of  deforestation-free supply chains, in  order to 
increase  supply  chain  transparency  and  minimise  the  risk  of  deforestation  and  forest  degradation  associated  with 
commodity imports in the EU’, announced in the 2019 Commission Communication on Stepping up EU Action to Protect 
and Restore the World’s Forests, COM/2019/352 final.  

Further details on the deforestation proposal can be found in section 4.5.   

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II92). The project group also expressed its opinion that the preferred alternative for the 
architecture  would  be  to  build  the  database  in  NSW  and  noted  that  there  are  no 
incompatibility issues with regard to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and 
the  implementation  of  a data  set.  Finally, regarding  the  viability  of  deploying  an  NSW 
solution as proposed by the Commission in Alternatives C and B93, the national customs 
authorities would need to conduct an internal assessment to determine if the proposal 
could be implemented. 

The evolution of the existing UCC electronic systems and the deployment of new ones 
prompted  several  Pan-Euro-Mediterranean  (PEM)  partner  countries  to  develop  e-
certification systems. The European Union was thus compelled to engage and develop 
a  modern  system,  more  adapted  to  the  business  requirements  and  the  technological 
possibilities  available  in  the  21st  century.  Regarding  the  digitalisation  of  proofs  of 
preferential origin certificates (e-PoC) in the PEM area94, two WGs were created in 2021 
to  examine  the  legal  and  organisational  framework  (WG1)  as  well  as  the  system  and 
process design (WG2). In 2022, a joint meeting of both WGs took place to discuss the 
necessary legal foundation at the EU and international level for the development of the 
system. WG1 met periodically to further elaborate on the legal provisions regarding the 
compliance of the national systems with the EU e-PoC, highlighting the significant issue 
of including a ‘general enabling clause’ for e-PoC in international bilateral agreements. 
the  EU 
The  project  group  discussed 
recommendations  on  e-PoC,  with  the  Member  States’  experts  and  the  TCG’s 
representatives. The WG2 held meetings to discuss the BPMs for three components: (a) 
Certificate  Issuance,  (b)  Administrative  Cooperation,  and  (c)  S2S  interface.  The 
objectives  of  the  project  group  were  to  validate  the  business  needs  of  the  Certificate 
Issuance Module and Administrative Cooperation Module and to identify new ones based 
on the low-fidelity prototype prepared by Balsamiq95. In addition, the elaboration of an 
S2S  interface for  the  electronic  submission  of  certificates  between  PEM partners  was 
undertaken  during  the  WG2  meeting.  Discussions  with  the  WG2  representatives 
examined the possibility of an automated exchange of messages between the National 
Customs  Systems  and  the  central  repository  via  EU  CSW-CERTEX.  In  addition,  the 
WG2 engaged in elaborating a feasibility study and a first draft of a Business Case by 
the end of 2022. 

legal  provisions, 

the  draft 

including 

92 The IDS is split into two different branches, Branch I and Branch II, which can be submitted at different points in time 
for the completion of the Common Health Entry Document for consignments of food and feed of non-animal origin (CHED-
D) formalities. Branch I is submitted first to receive the certificate and relates to the Partner Competent Authority (PCA) 
data elements, including the common data elements. Branch II relates to the data needed for the submission of the Import 
Customs Declaration. 

93 The Commission presented different alternatives for the Architecture of the ‘To-Be’ scenario with regard to the data 
stored: (a) Alternative A described a scenario where the non-customs data are stored in the different EU databases and 
where the EO would have to submit through the NSW the data to the different authorities. Therefore, these data would be 
stored in EU sectorial databases, (b) Alternative B proposed to store all data in the NSW from where the data would be 
sent directly through EU CSW-CERTEX to the partner competent authorities. Especially for this alternative, data protection 
was a relevant topic that was discussed between the customs and non-customs authorities, and (c) Alternative C was 
proposed as a solution where the information submitted by the EO is stored in the National Systems, such as National 
Customs System. 

94 The system of Pan-Euro-Mediterranean cumulation of origin allows for the application of diagonal cumulation between 
the EU, EFTA States, Türkiye, the countries that signed the Barcelona Declaration, the Western Balkans, and the Faroe 
Islands. It is based on a network of Free Trade Agreements having identical origin protocols. The 23 Contracting Parties 
to the PEM Convention are: the EU, the EFTA States (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein), the Faroe Islands, 
the participants in the Barcelona Process (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, 
and Türkiye), the participants in the EU's Stabilisation and Association Process (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the 
Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo), and the Republic of Moldova.   

95 Balsamiq is a company that created a rapid low-fidelity UI wireframing tool, reproducing the experience of sketching on 
a notepad or whiteboard, but using a computer. 

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The project group ‘UCC Standardised Exchange of Information (INF) Special Procedures 
(SP) Business’, consisting of delegates from 14 Member States96, organised meetings 
in 2022. The project group focused on specific issues related to the use of the inland 
office roles, defined in Central Services/Reference Data 2 (CS/RD2) and applicable to 
export and transit systems. Legal, business and IT colleagues from the Member States 
and/or Commission, experts in UCC AES and UCC NCTS, participated in the meeting to 
share  their  opinions  and  reasoning  regarding  the  inclusion  of  such  an  inland  role. 
Furthermore, the Commission proposed a draft proposal for managing and handling the 
Integrated  Tariff  of  the  European  Communities  (TARIC)  codes,  in  case  of  change  or 
invalidity, and invited the Member States to submit their comments by 14 October 2022. 
The  project  group  held an  open  discussion  on the  future  of  the  UCC  INF  SP  system, 
suggesting  an  overview  of  the  development  of  an  S2S  connection  using  the  Outward 
Processing Export/Import (OP EX/IM)97 procedure, including the current process of the 
UCC INF SP system and the two automation steps (i.e. a ‘pull’ and a ‘push’ method). All 
project group members agreed that an improvement to establish connectivity between 
the UCC INF SP system and their declarative systems needed to be investigated. The 
outcome of this analysis will constitute part of the study in the Business Case for UCC 
INF SP P2, for which a mandate will need to be asked. Finally, the project group initiated 
the drafting of a new Business Case for P2.  

The  CEG-DIH  project  group  continued  supporting  the  evolution  of  the  UCC  legal 
package  and  met  periodically  throughout  2022.  Delegates  of  the  Member  States  and 
TCG committed to the revision of Annex A to the UCC DA and UCC IA. Coordination 
sessions  took  place  with  different  experts  on  various  future  Annex  A  potential  issues 
regarding:  (a)  the  introduction  of  a  new  BVI  decision  and  the  determination  of 
requirements for the BOI decision, (c) the UCC AEO-related changes, and (d) the UCC 
BTI-related changes. The drafting of the legal provisions of Annex A to the UCC DA was 
ongoing. In addition, the project group continued drafting the legal provisions of Annex 
B  to  the  UCC  DA  and  UCC  IA.  Following  thorough  discussions,  the  project  group 
prepared  a  draft  proposal  to  amend  the  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU) 
2015/244698  to  provide  simplified  customs  formalities  for  trusted  economic  operators. 
The draft proposal introduces in Annex B a new column, H8, which contains the data for 
customs declaration for the free circulation of goods brought from the UK into NI that are 
not  at  risk  of  being  transferred  into  the  European  Union.  Furthermore,  a  working 
document was prepared to address the alignment among columns H699, H799 and I299 of 
Annex B to the UCC DA.  

The  WPG  was  invited  by  the  EU  Commissioner  for  Economy  Paolo  Gentiloni  in 
September 2021 to provide innovative ideas and suggestions on tackling the challenges 
facing  the  Customs  Union.  Published  in  March  2022,  the  WPG’s  landmark  report100 
concluded that an urgent structural change is needed to take the EU Customs Union to 
the next level and address modern challenges (i.e. new trade models and growing trade 
volumes, technological developments, the green transition, new geopolitical context and 
security risks). Although recognising important changes to the customs legislation and 
IT in recent years and commending the reform plans set out in the Customs Action Plan, 

96  Belgium,  Czechia,  Denmark,  Germany,  Greece,  Spain,  France,  Croatia,  Italia,  the  Netherlands,  Poland,  Portugal, 
Romania, and Finland. 

97  OP EX/IM is  a  customs  procedure  where  the  union  goods  are  released  under  outward  processing procedure  to  be 
processed  in  a  third country  outside  the  customs territory  of the  Union  and then,  brought  back  and released  into free 
circulation with total or partial release from import duty. 

98 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. 

99 Annex B - Table Legend 

100 Report by the Wise Persons Group on the Reform of the EU Customs Union, 31.03.2022 

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the WPG advocated for more fundamental and wide-ranging reforms, expressed in 10 
recommendations to be implemented by 2030. These recommendations focused on five 
main  areas,  enhancing  the  Customs  Union’s  modernity  and  resilience:  (a)  ensuring  a 
protective ‘one external border’, (b) promoting the EU way of life, (c) guaranteeing proper 
collection of customs duties and taxes at the border, (d) greening of customs, and (e) 
adopting a new approach to responsibility and trust. 

The  UCC  NCTS  project  group  meetings  organised  in  2022  brought  together  customs 
experts  of  the  participating  national  administrations.  The  main  discussions  concerned 
the UCC NCTS-P6 elaboration. In addition, the project group discussed the UCC NCTS-
P6 transitional period principles, Common Domain protocol policy and processes to be 
managed during the transition. The project group activities also covered the validation of 
the  few  corrective  changes  for  the  Design  Document  for  Common  Operations  and 
Methods  (DDCOM)  and  Design  Document  for  National  Transit  Application  (DDNTA) 
baseline.  Similarly,  activities  of  the  UCC  AES  project  group  continued  during  the 
reporting year. The aforesaid activities were mainly aimed at securing the operation and 
business continuity of the system. Within the project group, the Commission encouraged 
the  Member  States  to  request  support,  where  needed,  for  the  development  of  the 
national AES component. Moreover, in the project group, the Commission coordinated 
the discussions for the RfC List, new UCC AES Design Document for National Export 
Application (DDNXA) package and the UCC AES Business Guidance review. 

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Highlights 

(cid:129)  The CPG expert group addressed the Ukraine crisis and related sanction 

packages. 

(cid:129)  The UCC GUM project group completed the legal review of the UCC GUM 

Business User Guide. 

(cid:129)  The UCC CC IT project group contributed to finalising the draft of the UCC 
CCI  P1  Business  Guidance  document,  sent  for  internal  revision  in 
December 2022.  

(cid:129)  The UCC CCI IT project group held a UCC CCI P2 workshop with all the 
Member States to inform them about the updates under the UCC CCI P2 
TSS. 

(cid:129)  The project group on the Digitalisation of Cultural Goods cooperated with 
AI  experts  from  the  INTERPOL  and  Fraunhofer  Institute  to  envisage 
possible synergies in the ICG system evolution with the use of AI. 

(cid:129)  The  B2G  project  group  highlighted  that  the  similarities  and  differences 
between the proposal on deforestation-free products and the EU SWE-C 
B2G concept would need to be further investigated and addressed. 

(cid:129)  Both WGs on e-PoC in the PEM area jointly met to discuss the necessary 
legal foundation at the EU and international level for the development of 
the system.   

(cid:129)  During  the  UCC  INF  SP  project  group  meeting  in  September  2022,  the 
Commission proposed a draft proposal for issues arising with the TARIC 
codes, inviting the Member States to submit their comments by 14 October 
2022. 

(cid:129)  The  CEG-DIH  project  group  prepared  a  draft  proposal  to  amend  the 
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 to provide simplified 
customs formalities for trusted economic operators. 

(cid:129)  The  WPG’s  landmark  report  was  published  in  March  2022  and 
emphasised the need for urgent structural change in the EU Customs. 

4.12  Supporting Instruments 

Several instruments and tools are used to facilitate the work related to the elaboration of 
the e-Customs systems and to enhance their efficiency in a modern and automated way. 
The  supporting  instruments  summarised  below  play  a  crucial  role  in  attaining  the 
Customs Union policy goal of reducing the administrative and financial burden to trade 
and fostering economic cooperation among the Member States and third countries. 

  BPM policy 

BPM101  is  a  business  analysis  tool  that  has  been  integrated  into  the  e-Customs 
methodology since 2010. It responds to the need for ensuring a better understanding of 
the customs legislation and policies and their impact on the business architecture and 
processes  of  the  e-Customs  systems.  BPM  offers  a  visual representation  of  business 
processes and functional requirements that are built against the legislation, international 

101 A BPM is a graphical representation of a business process or workflow and its related sub-processes. BPMs create 
thorough and quantitative flowcharts and diagrams containing essential insights into the functioning of a process. BPM is 
usually performed by business analysts and managers who are seeking to improve process efficiency and quality.  

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agreements or other relevant instruments. BPM serves numerous purposes, notably (a) 
rendering  the  business  domains  and  processes  visually  understandable,  (b)  checking 
the  business  logic  provided  in  the  legal  amendments  against  the  existing  or  newly 
introduced  customs  legislation,  and  (c)  assisting  the  overall  project  definition  and  IT 
scoping  exercise  by  defining  business  scenarios,  processes,  and  business  and  IT 
architecture.  

The EU customs BPM methodology is structured in hierarchical levels, each providing a 
legal, business and IT perspective of the e-Customs systems and processes. L1 BPM & 
Data is an overview of all EU customs business domains and global business data. L2 
Interaction  BPM  and  Data  and  High-Level  BPM  and  Data  represent  the  interactions 
between EU customs business domains and between business processes within each 
business domain. L3 Business requirements BPM & Data shows the process flows and 
conceptual data elements. Finally, L4 BPM Functional Specifications & Data indicates 
the system's functionalities, including data rules, conditions, information exchanges and 
test scenarios. 

BPMs are produced for each EU customs business domain and their level of accuracy 
depends on the extent of automation and harmonisation required. L1 BPM & Data and 
L2 Interaction BPM & Data are reviewed recurrently according to the BPM maintenance 
activities. In May 2022, the change management for L2, L3 and L4 BPMs for the UCC 
PoUS system was carried out, and the related requests for change were shared with the 
Member States and economic operators. Furthermore, the external review for the BPM 
of EU CSW-CERTEX R4 was conducted, the work on BPM for R5 has progressed, and 
relevant updates were delivered during the reporting year. Concurrently, updates were 
made on the BPM for the Import of Cultural Goods e-licencing, UCC NCTS and EMCS 
P4.1. 

  Architecture of Integrated Information Systems (ARIS) 

ARIS is a technical supporting tool for BPM, which was chosen by DG TAXUD in 2010 
following  the  Commission's  overall  policy  of  using  the  ARIS  software  platform.  ARIS 
facilitates  the  reusability  and  improvement  of  business  processes  and  data.  All  EU 
customs BPMs are available to the Member States and economic operators via the ARIS 
Business Publisher. Throughout 2022, the ARIS platform and ARIS Publisher achieved 
a  99.9%  availability  rate  in  production  and  99.2%  in  conformance  testing  without  any 
significant downtime observed. 2,374 new models were created in DG TAXUD design 
and  893  models  in  DG  TAXUD  implementation  for  the  customs  IT  systems  under 
development, an increase of 87.44% compared to 2021. In addition, 1,381 models were 
created in DG TAXUD operation for the IT systems that are already operational. 

Furthermore, 67 new publications were created for the Member States and DG TAXUD’s 
business  units.  The  total  number  of  repository  models  accounted  for  22,383  for  DG 
TAXUD  design,  1,047  for  DG  TAXUD  implementation  and  1,381  for  DG  TAXUD 
operation,  an  increase  of  23.05%  compared  to  the  previous  year.  In  addition,  14 
‘MSexportDB’102 services were provided for the delivery of BPM content to the national 
authorities of three Member States, and no changes in the list of national authorities that 
use this service were observed (BE, BG, CZ, DE, IE, FR, IT, LU, AT, PL, RO, SI, and SE 
among the EU Member States and Serbia and Türkiye among the partnering countries). 
Finally,  593  were  ARIS  users  amongst  DG  TAXUD,  other  Commission’s  DGs, 
contractors, the Member States and economic operators, and 269 were the requests for 
users’ profile creation or update.  

  EUCDM103 

102 MSexportDB (Microsoft Export Database) is a service used to provide BPM content to national authorities.  

103 A new publication website for EUCDM is available at the following address: https://eucdm.softdev.eu.com. 

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EUCDM is a technical instrument that provides a harmonised data model aligned with 
the  EU  customs  legislation  and  offers  an  authoritative  source  of  information  for  the 
technical  developments  of  the  IT  systems  of  national  customs  authorities.  EUCDM  is 
used for the TES systems, such as UCC NCTS, UCC AES and UCC ICS, and for the 
National  Customs  Clearance  Systems  in the EU.  Therefore,  EUCDM  is  the  horizontal 
source  of  the  legally  defined  data  to  be  presented  by  economic  operators  when  they 
lodge declarations or notifications. The TSS packages for each e-Customs system are 
prepared  on  the  basis  of  the  data  requirements  established  by  law  and  their  related 
formats and codelists. The EUCDM legal requirements are outlined in the UCC DA104, 
and  their  formats  and  codes  are  found  in  the  UCC  IA105.  EUCDM  also  contains  the 
mapping of the EU customs data elements against the WCO Data Model, making evident 
the compatibility of the EU model with the international standards and allowing economic 
operators to understand clearly the relationship between customs needs and data.  

During 2022, the EUCDM Guidance Document was amended due to the entry into force 
of  the  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  2021/234106  and  the  Implementing 
Regulation (EU) 2021/235107. EUCDM 6.2 was published in March 2022 and updated to 
the latest version of the WCO data model (v3.11.0108). Subsequently, EUCDM 7d (R1) 
was  published,  containing  improvements  in  the  contents  and  functionalities,  while 
extending EUCDM 6.2 with the draft version of the renewed Annex A to the UCC DA and 
UCC  IA.  Collected  data regarding the  use  of  EUCDM  during  2022,  illustrates that the 
average monthly visits to the site amounted to 3,395, whereas 935.75 were the average 
monthly visitors109. 

  Common Communication Network/Common System Interface (CCN/CSI) 

CCN/CSI is the platform supporting the information exchange among the Member States 
for the legacy applications. It consists of a close and secured network infrastructure that 
is  provided  by  the  Commission  to  facilitate  the  exchange  of  information  between  the 
national administrations and the customs and taxation areas. CCN2 is the evolution of 
the CCN architecture and services and will run in parallel to CCN/CSI until the latter is 
dismissed.  In  2022,  the  CCN  services  achieved  a  99.98%  availability  rate.  The 
Commission offered operational management, maintenance, support and services for 52 
CCN sites in 37 countries, with 124 CCN Gateways deployed. The high availability rate 
supported a traffic volume of around 91.02 terabytes (TBs) of data from January 2022 to 
December  2022,  compared  to  about  80.12  TBs  during  the  equivalent  period  in  2021. 
Furthermore, the traffic volume amounted to around 11.4 billion messages exchanged 
during the reporting year, compared to 10 billion in 2021. The increase in traffic volume 
and  exchanged  messages  compared  to  2021  corresponds  to  13.6%  and  14%  rates, 
respectively. 

In parallel with the ongoing operation of CCN/CSI, the Commission continued working 
on future development and modernisation of the infrastructure. A related communication 

104 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. 

105  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 
down the Union Customs Code, OJ L 343, 29.12.2015, p. 558–893. 

106  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. 

107 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. 

108 In the current document, the various versions of the systems will be abbreviated as ‘v’. 

109 The figures refer to the period September–December 2022 as the site was not active for the full year. 

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campaign was also carried out with the production of two dedicated newsletters. In 2022, 
the  CCN/CSI  infrastructure  was  crucial  to  enabling  Ukraine  to  start  participating  in 
cooperation  activities  with  the  EU  customs  authorities.  More  precisely,  the  candidate 
country’s  access  to  the  CCN/CSI  network  allowed  the  former  to  operate  within  UCC 
NCTS-P4.  Ukraine’s  IT  connection  through  CCN/CSI  also  supported  the  work  on 
Solidarity Lanes to and from Ukraine to streamline the trade between Ukraine and the 
EU  Member  States  and  other  third  countries  being  parties  to  the  common  transit 
convention.  

  Communication  and 

for  Administrations, 
Information  Resource  Centre 
Businesses  and  Citizens  (CIRCABC)  and  Programmes  Information  and 
Collaboration Space (PICS) 

The  vast  scope  of  the  Customs  Programme  and  the  large  number  of  stakeholders 
involved requires the adoption of tools to ensure effective and time-efficient coordination 
of  the  e-Customs  projects  and  collaboration  among  the  Member  States,  Commission 
and  other  actors  involved.  CIRCABC  and  PICS  are  communication  tools  designed  to 
information  with  national  administrations  and  other  entities  outside  the 
share 
Commission. CIRCABC is a web-based application, which allows geographically spread 
collaborative groups to share documents and information. The platform is accessible to 
associations of citizens, businesses and international, national or local administrations. 
PICS is an online platform designed for the collaborative work and sharing of information 
between  administrations  across  the  EU  in  the  field  of  taxation  and  customs.  An  EU 
survey  in  2022  highlighted  that  68.03%  of  users  are  overall  satisfied  with  the  tool's 
effectiveness. The respondents also identified some suggestions for improvement, such 
as  a  more  efficient  search  engine,  simpler  authentication  process,  more  user-friendly 
presentation  and  organisation  of  content,  and  a  more  modern  and  intuitive  interface. 
Following  the  survey,  the  Commission  worked  on  the  elaboration  of  a  new  version  of 
PICS, which addresses the expressed suggestions. 

  Customs Control Equipment Instrument (CCEI) 

CCEI is a policy and financial instrument established with the Customs Programme and 
managed by the Commission. The instrument provides grants to the Member States in 
need  to  acquire, maintain  and  upgrade  customs equipment  for  checking goods  at the 
border, such as new scanners, automated number plate detection systems, sniffer dogs 
and mobile laboratories for sample analysis. Established by Article 3 of the Regulation 
(EU) 2021/1077110, CCEI aims to support the Customs Union and customs authorities to 
protect the financial and economic interests of the EU and its Member States, to protect 
the Union from illegal trade and to preserve security and safety. The Customs Eastern 
and  CELBET  and  the  Customs  Laboratories  Expert  Team/Network  are  the  groups  of 
experts most relevant to CCEI.  

In 2022, the instrument continued to be funded under the multiannual work programme 
for 2021 and 2022. The grant focused on actions aimed at identifying performance gaps 
in  customs  controls  and  subsequently  ensuring  that  the  border  crossing  points  and 
customs laboratories do not lack essential equipment. The multiannual work programme 
2021–2022  also  supported  the  development  of  dedicated  eLearning  courses  and  a 
Common  Learning  Event  Programme  (CLEP)  on  the  use  of  CCEI.  With  a  total  of  43 
proposals from 24 Member States, the evaluation conducted during the second half of 
2022 highlighted the decisive success of the initiative, which brings great benefit to the 
Customs  Union.  Furthermore,  in  the  context  of  the  war  in  Ukraine,  Member  States 
needing capacity building at their border crossing could benefit from the CCEI toolbox. 
Specifically, with the first call for proposal, 31 border crossing points in six Member States 

110 Regulation (EU) 2021/1077 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2021 establishing, as part of the 
Integrated  Border  Management  Fund,  the  instrument  for  financial  support  for  customs  control  equipment,  OJ  L  234, 
2.7.2021, p. 1–17. 

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(LV, LT, HU, PL, RO, and FI) bordering either Belarus, Russia or Ukraine were supported 
to improve their equipment in performing customs checks. Finally, the next CCEI work 
programme was prepared and adopted towards the end of the reporting year.  

  Microsoft Teams and WebEx 

Given  the  continuation  of  restrictions  due  to  COVID-19  and  the  Commission's 
commitment  to  reducing  the  environmental  impact  of  its  activities,  videoconferencing 
tools  continued  to  be  used  significantly  to  organise  the  activities  related  to  the 
implementation of the e-Customs systems. In 2022, Microsoft Teams was confirmed as 
the primary platform for the Member States and Commission to streamline collaborative 
work  and  sharing  of  information.  On  the  other  hand,  WebEx  served  as  a  platform  to 
organise online working and project group meetings. In 2022, an EU survey underlined 
fewer  networking 
that 
opportunities  for  the  e-Customs  stakeholders.  The  respondents  also  highlighted  the 
need for striking a balance between virtual and physical presence activities.  

the  reduced  recurrence  of  physical  meetings  provided 

  Register of Commission Expert Groups 

In  an  effort  to  further  enhance  communication  and  reaffirm  the  Commission’s 
commitment  to the  principle  of  transparency, the  Commission  maintains a  Register  of 
Commission Expert Groups and other similar entities. The Register, which is accessible 
to the public, provides information about the expert groups assisting the Commission in 
the preparation of legislative proposals and policy initiatives, the preparation of delegated 
acts, the implementation of the EU legislation, programmes and policies and the early 
preparation of implementing acts before the submission to the committee. Besides the 
expert  groups  internal  to  the  Commission,  the  Register  also  lists  other  consultative 
entities  set  up  by  the  EU  legislator.  Each  group's  mission,  tasks  and  members  are 
reported in the Register as well as relevant documents discussed and produced.  

  Training and Capacity Building 

Training  and  capacity  building  are  crucial  in  supporting  the  transition  towards  a  fully 
digital  EU  Customs  Union.  In  2022,  the  Commission  continued  conducting  training 
activities, such as developing, translating and promoting eLearning courses. During the 
reporting year, seven new courses in the area of e-Customs were developed in English 
and translated into 31 languages, while three courses were revised in all EU languages 
to reflect the updates of the related IT systems. These training modules targeted 8,595111 
officials and 60,755 professionals and were evaluated with a score of 75.3, according to 
the Kirkpatrick indicator112. Moreover, activities were undertaken for the development of 
six  eLearning  modules  in  English  related  to  UCC  ICS2  R2,  the  release  of  the  EU 
Customs Trader Portal (EUCTP) eLearning module in English and its localisation in all 
EU languages, the localisation in CZ, LT, HU, PT, SI, and SE of the UCC CCI eLearning 
module,  and  the  localisation  of  the  Customs  Risk  Management  System  2  (CRMS2) 
eLearning module in all EU languages. 

111 The number for 2022 was lower than usual, considering that there was a change in the collection process of the data 
to provide more reliable information. Specifically, the data from the Member States were excluded.   

112 The Kirkpatrick Model is a globally recognised method of evaluating the results of training and learning programmes. 
It assesses both formal and informal training methods and rates them against four levels of criteria: reaction, learning, 
behaviour and results.  

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Figure 4: Professionals trained with EU eLearning portfolio 

Furthermore,  updates  were  performed  for  the  eLearning  courses  on  UCC  EOS,  UCC 
eAEO  Trader  Portal,  and  Sampling  Manual  for  Customs  and  Taxation  Authorities 
(SAMANCTA) in English and all EU languages. Considering the entire training portfolio 
supported by the Customs Programme, 496 learning modules were made available in 
the EU eLearning Platform throughout the reporting year. Additionally, the easing of the 
COVID-19  restrictions  allowed  the  organisation  of  17  CLEP  trainings  in  physical 
presence  with  216  participants.  In  2022,  a  long-term  evaluation  was  also  conducted, 
following the end of the Action Plan ‘Boosting taxation and customs performance in the 
EU through training and staff development’ for 2017–2020. The review concluded that 
eLearning  courses  and  localisation  bring  a  high Union  added  value, together  with  the 
new  taxation  and  customs  EU  Learning  portal  and  the  well-established  collaboration 
platforms for training initiatives. Finally, DG TAXUD expanded its collaboration with other 
Commission  services  to  develop  eLearning  modules  that  address  the  correlation  of 
customs  with  other  EU  policies.  In  this  regard,  some  of  the  new  eLearning  modules 
developed included a course on exchanging fluorinated greenhouse gases certificates 
in the context of EU CSW-CERTEX.  

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The ARIS platform and ARIS Publisher achieved a 99.9% availability rate 
in  production  and  99.2%  in  conformance  testing  without  any  major 
downtime observed. 

(cid:129)  The total number of repository models in the ARIS platform was 24,811, 

an increase of 23.05% compared to the previous year. 

(cid:129)  EUCDM 6.2 was published in March 2022, followed by EUCDM 7d (R1). 

(cid:129)  The CCN services achieved a 99.98% availability rate. Around 11.4 billion 
messages  were  exchanged,  corresponding  to  an  increase  of  14% 
compared to 2021. 

(cid:129)  24 Member States submitted 43 grant applications within the framework of 

CCEI. 

(cid:129)  Seven  new  e-Customs-related  courses  in  English  were  developed  and 
translated into 31 languages, while three courses were revised in all EU 
languages to reflect the updates of the related IT systems. 

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4.13 IT Modernisation and Security 

The  IT  modernisation  programme  continued  to  be  a  significant  initiative  for  the 
Commission in 2022, aiming at improving the IT service provided to the Member States 
and internal stakeholders. This initiative complements the systems and infrastructures’ 
updates,  as  defined  in  the  MASP-C  Revision  2019  IT  strategy113,  with  the  necessary 
reusable  architecture  components  and  with  modern,  agile  and  flexible  software 
development approaches. Its main objective is to enable the Member States to reduce 
the  time-to-operation  regarding  new  and  upgraded  systems,  increase  flexibility  when 
addressing  new  challenges  and  remain  relevant  from  a  technological  standpoint  in 
today’s IT market.  

The  IT  modernisation  programme’s  organisation  remained  divided  into  four  tracks114, 
each focusing on a different IT objective: 

(cid:129)  Track 1: IT governance, programme and project management; 
(cid:129)  Track 2: IT architecture and infrastructure; 
(cid:129)  Track 3: IT service continuity; 
(cid:129)  Track 4: Agile software development and Development, Security and Operations 

(DevSecOps).   

Regarding  Track  1,  the  Commission  progressed  in  collaborating  with  the  Local 
Information  Security  Officer  (LISO),  aiming  at  elaborating  a  plan  for  comprehensive 
information  system  security  and  data  protection,  including  the  GDPR  and  Institutions’ 
Data Protection Regulation (IDPR) compliance. The integration plan for the IT Security 
Risk  Management  (ITSRM)  v2  methodology  progressed  and  the  first  iteration  of  the 
information security dashboard was concluded. The Commission continued to focus on 
further  improving  the  monitoring,  reporting  and  auditability  of  IT-related  expenditures, 
mentioning the alignment of consumption reporting. 

In line with the objectives defined in Track 2, substantial advancements were made to 
the  following  points:  (a)  the  enterprise  architecture,  where  work  was  initiated  on  key 
architectural topics, (b) the consolidation of infrastructure (i.e. Wide Area Network (WAN) 
evolution, gateway centralisation), (c) the local Data Centre (DC) Consolidation P1, with 
a foreseen ‘go’ date in January 2023, and (d) the migration of the non-Gold services to 
containers.  

In  relation  to  the  IT  service  continuity,  as  described  in  Track  3,  significant 
accomplishments marked 2022. The planning with regard to the Gold Release of Vies 
on the Web (VoW) was updated. In addition, a pilot was completed for the centralised 
Disaster Recovery solution for CCN and CCN2 and a technical design was validated. 
New CCN gateways (i.e. Nutanix appliances115) were deployed in three Member States 
(CZ, IT, and RO), and the design of the CCN gateways’ consolidation was completed.  

As  for  Track  4,  the  agile  guidelines  for  development  were  finalised,  and  the  global 
adoption dashboard was ready to be finalised by the Configuration Item (CI) owners. The 
integration  of  the  Application  Lifecycle  Management  (ALM)  with  the  EU  Login  was 
the  security 
completed  concerning 

the  Acceptance  Environment.  Furthermore, 

113 IT strategy – MASP-C Annex 5 Revision 2019 

114 Track 1 touches upon general governance, programme and project management activities. Track 2 concerns the IT 
architecture and infrastructure, as set out in the MASP-C Revision 2019, fiche 4.7. Track 3 aims to address the objectives 
outlined in the MASP-C Revision 2019, fiche 4.9. Track 4 focuses on agile software development to reduce time-to-market, 
costs and risks of obsolescence. Additionally, it refers to DevSecOps as the key enabler to drastically reduce delays and 
shorten implementation and deployment services.  

115 Nutanix appliances refer to software designed to integrate with hardware platform configurations produced or certified 
by Nutanix and OEM partners.  

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assessment  on  the  connectivity  from  the  Service  for  developers  (SRV4DEV)  to  DG 
TAXUD DC was accomplished. 

In  2022,  the  Commission  pursued  its  efforts  towards  an  enhanced  IT  security 
environment. To this end, 13 cybersecurity projects116 for areas such as infrastructure, 
business application products or services were identified, while eight117 were launched 
and progressed throughout the reporting year. 

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The first iteration of the information security dashboard was concluded. 

(cid:129)  The planning with regard to the Gold Release of VoW was updated. 

(cid:129)  The  security  assessment  on  the  connectivity  from  the  SRV4DEV  to  DG 

TAXUD DC was accomplished. 

(cid:129)  Regarding  IT  security,  8  out  of  13  cybersecurity projects  were  launched 

and progressed. 

4.14 IT Business Continuity Management System (IT BCMS)  

IT business continuity focused on IT service continuity in support and alignment with the 
overarching  business  continuity.  The  objective  was  to  ensure  that  DG  TAXUD 
investments  in  preparedness  in  the  preceding  years  were  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) has been aligned 
with  all  other  existing  levels  of  business  continuity  management  arrangements  and 
considered  all  the  inter-dependencies  within  the  Commission  complex  ecosystem  to 
effectively meet its stakeholders’ IT service continuity needs. 

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  CCN,  which  continued  to 
experience growth during 2022. The CCN applications exchanged more than 11.6 billion 
messages during the year, with an increase of 13.40% compared to 2021, when 10.3 
billion messages were exchanged. The increase in the quantity of messages exchanged 
has coincided with a volume growth of 14.22%, from 19.3 TBs in 2021 to 22 TBs in 2022. 
Figure  5  below  illustrates  the  evolution  of  the  CCN  message  quantities  and  volume 
exchanged since 2008. 

116 (1) Security Devices optimisation, (2) e-mail protection (servers and platforms), (3) Generic Web Application Firewall 
(WAF) in blocking mode for all critical platforms facing the Internet, (4) Privileged Identity Management (PIM) across all 
platforms, (5) Security Awareness training, (6) Security Dashboard (SD) for a short-term period and Governance Risk and 
Compliance (GRC-ServiceNow) software for a long-term period, (7) Security Operations Centre (SOC), (8) External Rapid 
Response  team  while  building  a  SOC,  (9)  Vulnerability  Management  System  &  Services,  (10)  EDP/R  for  all  nodes 
(corporate alignment), (11) yearly Security Risk Posture review, (12) central Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) management 
for all platforms, and (13) Data Loss Prevention analysis and implementation. 

117 (1) Security Devices optimisation, (2) e-mail protection (servers and platforms), (3) Privileged Identity Management 
(PIM)  across  all  platforms,  (4)  Security  Awareness  training,  (5)  Security  Dashboard  (SD)  for  a  short-term  period  and 
Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC-ServiceNow) software for a long-term period, (6) Security Operations Centre 
(SOC), (7) Vulnerability Management System & Services, and (8) central Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) management for 
all platforms. 

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Figure 5: Evolution of CCN message quantities/volume 

Figure 6 and Figure 7 depict the progress of the exchanged message quantities since 
2008 for the following projects: UCC European Binding Tariff Information (EBTI), UCC 
ECS,  UCC  Economic  Operators  System  (EOS),  UCC  NCTS,  UCC  ICS,  UCC 
Surveillance (SURV) and Specimen Management System (SMS) projects.  

Specifically,  as  depicted  in  Figure  6  below,  in  comparison  to  2021,  a  decrease  was 
observed for UCC ECS (16.67%) and UCC NCTS (8.95%) during 2022. 

Figure 6: Evolution of exchanged messages for specific systems 

In addition, an increase was observed for UCC SURV (91.48%), UCC EOS (62.85%), 
and  UCC  ICS  (1.34%),  whereas  SMS  (4.86%)  and  UCC  EBTI  (1.43%)  experienced 
some decrease, as illustrated in Figure 7. 

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Figure 7: Evolution of exchanged messages for specific systems 

Figure 8 outlines the evolution of the messages exchanged for UCC ICS2 TAPAS and 
UCC ICS2 CCN2 in 2021 and 2022. More specifically, a total of 1.4 billion and 1.8 billion 
messages  were  exchanged  in  2022  for  UCC  ICS2  TAPAS  and  UCC  ICS2  CCN2, 
respectively, marking a significant increase of 91% and 75% compared to 2021. Contrary 
to  the  constantly  increasing  number  of  messages  during  2021,  the  number  for  both 
systems remained relatively stable during 2022.  

Figure 8: Evolution of exchanged messages for UCC ICS2 TAPAS and UCC ICS2 CCN2 in 
2021 and 2022 

Figure 9 presents the distribution of messages exchanged per system (UCC EBTI, UCC 
ECS, UCC EOS, UCC NCTS, UCC ICS, COPIS, UCC SURV and SMS) in 2022. The 
quantity of messages exchanged by the movement systems, such as UCC NCTS, UCC 
ECS, and UCC ICS represents 89.91% of the total number of messages exchanged by 
all  systems,  compared  to  92.30%  in  2021.  As  noted,  there  was  a  2.58%  decrease 
between 2021 and 2022 in the percentage of the messages exchanged, with a notable 
part used by the TES systems. 

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Figure 9: CCN messages distribution per system 

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The CCN applications exchanged more than 11.6 billion messages, with 

an increase of 13.40% compared to 2021. 

(cid:129)  The increase in the quantity of messages exchanged has coincided with a 
volume growth of 14.22%, from 19.3 TBs in 2021 to 22 TBs in 2022. 

(cid:129)  The  number  of  messages  exchanged  for  UCC  ICS2  TAPAS  and  UCC 

ICS2 CCN2 remained relatively stable during 2022. 

(cid:129)  The  quantity  of  messages  exchanged  by  the  movement  UCC  systems 
represents  89.91%  of  the  total  number  of  messages  exchanged  by  all 
systems, compared to 92.30% in 2021. 

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

The  Service  Level  Agreement  (SLA)  and  Terms  of  Collaboration  (ToC)  documents 
specify  the  rights  and  obligations  of  all  stakeholders  and  their  proper  implementation 
constitutes a guarantee for the success of the customs TES systems. The Commission 
prepares  the  documents  that  the  Member  States  subsequently  adopt.  All  national 
administrations  are  responsible  for  ensuring  consistency  between  their  SLAs  and  the 
ToC. The SLA and ToC include the following documents: 

(cid:129)  ToC for the customs TES;  
(cid:129)  ToC for the Single Portal for Entry or Exit of Data (SPEED);  
(cid:129)  Service Catalogue; 
(cid:129)  SLA for the Service Desk;  
(cid:129)  SLA Availability Management;  
(cid:129)  Guidelines for the National Service Desks (NSDs);  
(cid:129)  Security Plan;  

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(cid:129)  Capacity Plan; 
(cid:129)  Availability Plan. 

During the reporting year, the SLA and ToC including the Security Plan for UCC systems 
were updated and formally validated and approved by the Member States. 

Out of the 26 reporting Member States, only nine (BG, EE, IE, AT, PL, SI, SK, FI, and 
SE)  reported  on  the  impact  of  the  SLA  and  ToC  on  the  delivery  model.  Eight  among 
those Member States (BG, EE, IE, AT, PL, SI, SK, and SE) notified that the 2020 SLA 
required no further investments in their delivery model, contrary to one Member State 
(FI), which confirmed an impact. 

EE communicated that compared to the 2017 SLA, the 2020 SLA brought no substantial 
costs to the delivery model. Furthermore, although no special supporting activities for the 
SLA actions were organised, all the necessary activities regarding development projects 
were carried out. 

IE informed that the Change Management Unit (CMU) assisted the customs officials to 
the greatest extent possible for the implementation of Automated Import System (AIS). 
Moreover,  the  CMU  engaged  with  all  internal  and  external  stakeholders  to  provide 
information and training concerning all aspects of UCC AES. 

PL stated that the delivery of the SLA and ToC capabilities for UCC ICS2 R1 and R2 was 
included  in  a  framework  contract.  In  addition,  PL  specified  that  the  trainings  on  UCC 
ICS2  R1  were  completed,  whereas  those  on  UCC  ICS2  R2  were  not  initiated  yet. 
Regarding  UCC  NCTS-P5,  PL  noted  that  dedicated  trainings  on  NCTS-P5  were 
organised  for  administrators,  helpdesk  staff  and  the  UCC  NCTS  local  trainers  or 
consultants.  The  latter  were  subsequently  required  to  transfer  knowledge  to  officers 
working locally. 

SI reported continuity of activities concerning the project’s progress. 

FI underlined that the ongoing e-Commerce projects impacted the infrastructure and IT 
systems requirements. The necessary analysis, the updates of the IT systems as well as 
the multiple installations and testing activities entailed additional costs. 

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The  SLA  and  ToC  including  the  Security  Plan  for  UCC  systems  were 
updated and formally validated and approved by the Member States. 

(cid:129)  Regarding the impact of the SLA and ToC on the delivery model, eight out 
of nine Member States reported none, while one Member State positively 
confirmed.   

4.16 Innovative Technology Solutions 

Throughout 2022, the Commission continued its consideration of additional innovative 
technology  solutions  applied  to  customs.  Data  is  at  the  heart  of  the  Commission’s 
emphasis  on  shaping  policies  to  support  the  design  of  modern  and  interoperable 
electronic systems. The Member States’ customs administrations and Commission have 
always  been  at  the  forefront  of  data  harmonisation  and  compliance  with  international 
standards. 

Responding to the Commission’s resolve to become a data-driven organisation, the 2019 
DG TAXUD Data Strategy intends to maximise the value of data assets, while remaining 

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aligned with the overall European strategy for data118. Within this context, people, data 
values and tools have been identified as the key enabling factors of DG TAXUD’s data 
strategy.  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. The creation of a Data Laboratory (named 
‘Data Lab’) has been considered a possible effective tool for exploiting data. The Data 
Lab supports the implementation of adequate Data Governance and provides a platform 
that  facilitates  data  usage  through  analytical  tools,  ultimately  contributing  towards  the 
achievement of the objectives set by the Commission with regards to data-driven policy- 
making. 

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. Creating a data platform where all this information is accessible in a secured 
and  controlled  manner  is  vital  for  any  data-driven  organisation  and  contributes 
substantially to maximising the value of the data. Moreover, the Data Lab provides a set 
of data analytical tools and offers on-premises computing resources in terms of storage, 
processing and memory. Data is uploaded and easily accessed, shared and processed, 
in full compliance with the personal data protection legislation and principles. 

The first version of the Data Lab was deployed successfully in the first quarter of 2022. 
The  main  objective  of  establishing  platforms  for  data  analytics  is  to  identify  a  data 
architecture  that  promotes  good  governance,  re-usage  of  resources  and  error 
minimisation. Specifically, the current version of the Data Lab aims to consolidate data 
assets in a single data environment to facilitate performance and strategic analysis. With 
the Data Lab, the Commission intends to create a computing environment to aid policy 
officers  in  their  task,  with  the  view  of  supporting  the  Member  States  in  data-intensive 
policy  initiatives  and  contributing  to  the  ambition  of  generating  and  disseminating 
relevant open data on taxation and customs for the EU citizens.  

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The  first  version  of  the  Data  Lab  was  deployed  successfully  in  the  first 

quarter of 2022. 

4.17 The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) 

The  Recovery  and  Resilience  Facility  (RRF)  is  the  centrepiece  of  NextGenerationEU 
(NGEU), the temporary instrument designed to boost the recovery, and it aims to provide 
financial support for reforms and investments undertaken by the Member States. This 
financial support, in the form of grants and loans, serves a two-fold objective: (a) to assist 
Member States mitigate the economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, and 
(b) to render the EU economies and societies more resilient and better prepared for the 
emerging challenges in view of the green and digital transitions.  

Following the adoption of the Regulation (EU) 2021/241119 of the European Parliament 
and the Council of 12 February 2021, the RRF entered into force in February 2021 and 
the fund became accessible to the Member States. This led to the necessity to define a 
methodology  for  reporting  social  expenditure.  To  this  end,  on  1  December  2021,  the 

118 European Data Governance Act 

119  Regulation  (EU)  2021/241  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  12  February  2021  establishing  the 
Recovery and Resilience Facility, OJ L 57, 18.2.2021, p. 17–75. 

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Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2105120 entered into force to supplement the aforesaid 
Regulation.  

The  Commission  participated  actively  in  the  RRF  exercise,  and  when  required,  the 
Customs Country Desk Team (CCDT) supported the implementation of Member States' 
Recovery  and  Resilience  Plans  (RRPs),  participating  at  bilateral  meetings  with  the 
relevant  stakeholders  and  providing  elements  to  relevant  DGs  to  progress  on  the 
validation of the RRP’s milestones, including customs aspects and consequent funding. 
Concomitantly, the Commission launched various discussions with the Member States 
to agree on operational arrangements, which set the framework for monitoring the plans’ 
implementation. The RRF has entered in the implementation phase, progressing quickly 
according to the timeline of reforms and investments set by the Member States, with the 
the 
subsequent  payment  request 
implementation  of  the  plans  can  be  followed  live  on  a  platform,  the  ‘Recovery  and 
Resilience  Scoreboard’121,  set  up  by  the  Commission  in  December  2021.  The 
Scoreboard website contains dedicated sections on the achievement of milestones and 
targets,  as  well  as  RRF  disbursements.  Additional  details  have  been  published  in 
October 2022 by means of the Bi-annual Reporting Factsheet122. 

in  2022.  The  progress 

fully  processed 

in 

At the same time, to further support the Member States with the RRPs’ implementation, 
the Commission also launched a new call within the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) 
cycle in June 2022. The scope of this call was to provide Member States with technical 
support for the design or implementation of reform projects in 2023, including strategic 
and legal advice, studies, training and expert visits on the ground. As regards the main 
objectives of the Customs Action Plan, the Commission stipulated a number of notable 
proposals which required further consideration. On this basis, particular emphasis has 
been placed on the digitalisation of customs system (UCC IT implementation), the NSWs 
for  customs  and  the  risk  assessment  improvement.  Additionally,  Member  States 
submitted requests for technical support in a broad range of areas, such as green and 
digital transition, diversity, public and private finance, migration, business environment, 
health and education. Member States were also able to request technical support for the 
implementation of their RRPs.  

Throughout 2021 and 2022, the Commission also conducted the necessary activities for 
a  report  on  the  implementation  of  the  RRF,  with  the  objective  of  monitoring  the 
performance  of  the  RRF,  considering  the  commitment  to  investments  and  reforms 
embedded in this unique instrument. The report was published in July 2022123. 

Highlights 

(cid:129)  The  RRF  has  entered  in  the  implementation  phase,  with  the  payment 

request fully processed. 

(cid:129)  Details  on  the  progress  of  the  RRPs’  implementation  were  published  in 

October 2022 by means of the Bi-annual Reporting Factsheet. 

(cid:129)  To further support the Member States with the RRPs’ implementation, in 
June 2022, the Commission also launched a new call within the TSI cycle. 

(cid:129)  A report on the RRF implementation was published in July 2022. 

120 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/2105 of 28 September 2021 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2021/241 
of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  establishing  the  Recovery  and  Resilience  Facility  by  defining  a 
methodology for reporting social expenditure, OJ L 429, 1.12.2021, p. 79–82. 

121 Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard (europa.eu) 

122 Bi-annual_reporting_factsheet-October_2022 (europa.eu) 

123 Recovery and Resilience Facility Review Report | European Commission (europa.eu) 

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5.  COSTS 

5.1  Costs incurred by DG TAXUD for IT systems development in 2022 

Figure  10  outlines  the  Commission’s  costs  committed  under  the  2022  budget  for  IT 
system  development  and  maintenance  as  well  as  customs  coordination.  The 
Commission’s 2022 costs for e-Customs amounted to EUR 125,941,320.66. 

Figure 10: Commission’s costs in 2022 (expressed in EUR) 

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As illustrated in Figure 11, compared to 2021, there was an increase in the ‘Studies and 
Development’ category. The ‘Maintenance of customs systems’ and the ‘Operations of 
IT  systems’  categories  remained  nearly  at  the  same  levels,  while  a  decrease  was 
observed in some of the other categories. 

Figure 11: Main categories of the Commission’s costs in 2021 and 2022 

Figure 12 depicts the total cost of the Commission for customs IT systems from 2008 to 
2022. A steady growth in the overall cost has been noticed throughout the years until 
2017,  when  several  systems  entered  into  operations.  Between  2017  and  2020,  there 
was  a  declining  tendency,  while  since  2021,  the  Multi-Annual  Financial  Framework 
(MFF)  (2021-2027)  has  provided  a  new  opportunity  to  continue  the  delivery  of  the  IT 
systems (e.g. UCC ICS2). During the reporting year, a 7.54% increase of the overall cost 
has been observed in comparison to 2021 (EUR 117,110,611.19). 

Figure 12: Commission’s costs for customs IT systems, 2008–2022 

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5.2  Costs incurred by the Member States in 2022 

The  total  costs  by  the  Member  States  on  customs  IT  systems  in  2022  were  EUR 
251,941,496.64, showing a slight decrease of 4.63% compared to 2021. Figure 13 below 
illustrates  the Member  States’  investment  per  project  based  on the MASP-C  Revision 
2019, as provided in the national annual reports. Following the MASP-C Revision 2019, 
the Member States have reported on 33 projects. 

The following factors should be taken into consideration when analysing the cost figures 
reported by the Member States:  

(cid:129)  The number of Member States that contributed budgetary information has not 
been 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; 

(cid:129)  The  various  development  and  implementation  approaches  adopted  by  the 
Member States resulted in diverse reporting for the project phases and/or costs 
associated  with  them  (i.e.  project  progress,  software/hardware  costs).  The 
aforesaid expenditure is aggregated under the respective project as reported; 

(cid:129)  The Member States’ national systems may have been developed on common 
platforms and thus, the costs of numerous systems could then be reported under 
one  reference  baseline.  Consequently,  this  has  affected  the  results  and  the 
accuracy of the data. 

According to Figure 13, the main allocation of the Member States’ budget124 in 2022 was 
used for UCC ICS2 (1.19) project, which constituted 22.14% of the total cost. The UCC 
AES  (1.6)  and  UCC  NCTS  (1.7)  projects  comprised  the  next  major  costs,  accounting 
respectively for 14.95% and 13.75% of the grand total, demonstrating the focus of the 
Member  States  towards the  preparation  of their  National  Transit  and  Export  evolutive 
applications. The next considerable cost was related to the Adjustments of the existing 
import applications under the UCC (2.10) system at 12.91%. The next projects that the 
Member States focused on were Maintenance125 and Updates of Operational IT Systems 
(4.8), e-Commerce and Customs Procedure (CP) 42/63 (1.17) and UCC AN/PN/TS (2.1) 
and represented, respectively, 6.01%, 5.2% and 4.35% of the total cost. 

The non-MASP-C Revision 2019 projects accounted for 2.87% of the overall Member 
States costs. The projects categorised under ‘Other’ amounted to 5.18% of the total cost, 
representing the efforts of the Member States towards the development of mostly UCC 
AEO and the impacts of Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) (1.5), UCC GUM (2.5), 
UCC SP (2.6), UCC EORI 2 (1.15), CCN2 (4.5) and COPIS (1.12) systems, absorbing 
0.92%, 0.73%, 0.52%, 0.49%, 0.43% and 0.40%, respectively. 

124 The budgetary data are imprecise due to the aggregated information received from some Member States. 

125 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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Figure 13: Member States’ costs of customs IT systems in 2022

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Figure 14 shows the comparison between the costs of the IT systems development and 
operation through the years 2019 to 2022. During that period, there was an increase in 
costs for the development and a decrease in the operations. Comparing the costs of IT 
systems  in the  last  two years,  the  investment  in  development  remained almost  at the 
same levels. In 2022, the development reached 93.99% and the operations 6.01%, while 
the  related  percentages  in  2021  were  respectively  87.06%  and  12.94%.  The  figures 
reconfirm the steady growth in the development.  

Figure 14: Costs of IT systems in Operation and in Development, as part of all systems in 
2019–2022 

Figure 15 displays the shares of the different MASP-C Revision 2019 project groups as 
well as non-MASP-C projects and SLA and ToC as part of all the Member States’ costs. 
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 represents 
customs  cooperation  initiatives  and  technological  developments  to  facilitate  Customs 
EIS, along with the maintenance of the existing projects. 

In  2022,  the  focus  of  the  Member  States  remained  on  the  implementation  and 
development  of  the  Group  1  projects.  According  to  the  UCC  legislation,  the  Member 
States and Commission should deploy a significant number of system releases by the 
legal  deadlines.  The  main  budget consumption  of  68.38%  was  absorbed by  Group  1, 
followed  by  Group  2  with  18.89%  and  Group  4  with  8.89%.  Group  3  remained  at  the 
same level of the overall Member States’ budget consumption in 2022 (0.01%) compared 
to 2021 (0.04%). 

The SLA and ToC consumed 0.96% of the budget, which represents only FI budgetary 
impact, as the other Member States (BG, EE, IE, AT, PL, SI, SK, and SE) did not submit 
the pertinent information. 

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Figure 15: Cost per MASP-C and non-MASP-C Revision 2019 Project Groups and SLA 
and ToC 

As  depicted  in  Figure  16:  Distribution  of  Member  States’  costs,  the  development  and 
implementation  of  the  MASP-C  Revision  2019  projects  were  the  primary  focus  of  the 
Member  States,  accounting  for  90.16%  of  their  total  costs  on  the  electronic  systems, 
representing an increase of 12.51% compared to 2021 (80.14% of the overall budget) to 
sustain the operation of the UCC projects. The maintenance costs accounted only for 
6.01%, a declining tendency that was observed in the past years, and the non-MASP-C 
Revision  2019  projects absorbed  3.83%.  The  last  two  aforesaid  categories  registered 
decreases of 53.56% and 44.71%, respectively, in contrast with the 2021 costs. 

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Figure 16: Distribution of Member States’ costs 

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Figure  17  below  represents  the  total  cost  of  the  Member  States  in  the  customs  IT 
systems for the period 2008–2022126. The cited figures are not directly comparable due 
to  the  inconsistent  number  of  Member  States  reporting  over  the  years,  which  is 
respectively presented with a red line for every year the data was collected. In addition, 
out of the total number of the Member States that report each year, one or more do not 
submit cost reports. In 2022, one Member State did not report costs. 

Figure 17: Member States’ costs between 2008–2022 

Figure 18 outlines the average Member States’ cost through the years 2008–2022. The 
total sum they allocated for each year is divided by the number of Member States127 that 
reported during this time frame. The average Member States’ dispensed cost has slightly 
decreased by 4.63% in 2022 (average cost of EUR 10,077,659.87) compared to 2021 
(average cost of EUR 11,006,716.76). However, the average cost gradually increased in 
the period 2012–2019, with a remarkable rise between 2019–2021. 

Figure 18: Average Member States' costs between 2008–2022 

126 As of 2013, the total number of the Member States was 28 and as of 2021 it is 27. 

127 For the number of Member States please refer to Figure 17. 

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As depicted in Figure 19, the cost for the seven Member States that reported in all years 
(LT, HU, NL, PL, PT, FI, and SE) has been rising steadily over the years. This reconfirms 
the increase in the Member States' budget in order to implement the growing number of 
projects and to comply with legislative acts. 

Figure 19: Total costs over the years 2008–2022 for seven Member States that reported in 
all years 

The  Member  States’  consumption  of  man-hours  is  illustrated  in  Figure  20  for  each 
project of the MASP-C Revision 2019. The majority of man-hours in 2022 was allocated 
to the UCC ICS2 (1.19) project, amounting to 17.99% of the total time spent. The UCC 
NCTS (1.7), Adjustments of the existing import applications under the UCC (2.10), UCC 
AES  (1.6)  and  Maintenance  and  updates  of  operational  IT  systems  (4.8)  projects 
accounting, respectively, for 16.77%, 15.44%, 15.17% and 7.22% of the total man-hours. 

Comparing the man-hours with the Member States’ costs in Figure 13, it is evident that 
the project costs are aligned with the efforts reported by the Member States. As concerns 
the SLA and ToC, the impact on the Member States was insignificant. 

The man-hours for the non-MASP-C Revision 2019 projects accounted for a percentage 
of 2.48%, while the projects categorised under ‘Other’ consumed 4.67%. The SLA and 
ToC absorbed 0.34% of the total man-hour budget. The latter represents only FI and SK 
efforts impact as the other Member States (BG, EE, IE, AT, PL, SI, and SE) did not report 
such information. 

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Figure 20: Member States’ man-hours for customs IT systems in 2022

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Figure  21  displays  the  man-hours  that  the  Member  States  consumed  in  2022  per 
category. The total Member States’ internal and external man-hours were 43.96% and 
56.04%, respectively. As depicted in the figure below, the internal man-hours (42.09%) 
of the MASP-C Revision 2019 projects activities in 2022 were less than the external man-
hours  (55.09%).  A  comparison  with  internal  and external man-hours  in  2021  (41.46% 
and  57.06%  respectively)  shows  that  the  Member  States  retained  most  of  the 
deployment  and  development  activities  for  the  systems  externally,  in  order to  achieve 
the goals of the MASP-C Revision 2019 projects. 

Figure 21: Member States’ man-hours consumed in 2022 per category 

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ANNEX 1 – IT SYSTEMS PROGRESS ACTIVITIES 

1  MASP-C PROJECTS 

MASP-C  is  a  living  document  evolving  continually  in  response  to  the  effective 
implementation of the UCC and the e-Customs projects. This section summarises the 
efforts made by the Member States and Commission in 2022 towards the implementation 
of  the  e-Customs  projects  foreseen  in  the  MASP-C  Revision  2019  and  related 
achievements thereunder. 

1.1  MASP-C Group 1 – Customs European Information Systems (EIS) 

1.1.1  UCC Customs Decisions System (CDS) (1.2) 

UCC CDS allows the electronic processing and central storage of the applications and 
authorisations  as  well  as  publication  of  the  list  of  holders  on  the  internet.  The  central 
storage of the applications and authorisations enables the consultation and validation of 
customs decisions by the Customs 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. 

Since  the  entry  into  operations  in  October  2017  and  until  mid-2022,  approximately 
47,300 applications were submitted, and 27,900 decisions were taken. In addition, more 
than 43,700 decisions were entered as pre-existing authorisations.  

2022  marked  significant  progress  towards  UCC  CDS  v1.29,  which  was  deployed  in 
September  2022  following  an  iterative  approach,  with  three  iterations  prepared  and 
presented  to  the  Member  States  in  dedicated  project  group  meetings.  Following  the 
aforesaid deployment, activities related to the subsequent UCC CDS v1.30, which will 
be  similarly  developed  in  three  iterations,  were  initiated  and  the  second  iteration  was 
completed in November 2022. Concomitantly, pertinent training sessions and workshops 
were organised by the Commission for the national users. Additional developments in 
2022 included the preparation of a UCC CDS Agile Pilot report to capture all lessons-
learnt from the deployment of the latest UCC CDS versions in an iterative method.  

The  UCC  CDS  project  group  convened  periodically  throughout  2022  with  the  active 
contribution of customs experts from 21 Member States128. The objective was to analyse 
and solve operational business issues raised by the Member States and to proactively 
develop  solutions  for  the  continuous  improvements  of  the  UCC  CDS  system.  The 
amendment of Annex A to the UCC DA and UCC IA in relation to the Deferred Payment 
(DPO) and Comprehensive Guarantee (CGU) authorisations was additionally discussed 
during the project group meetings, while further cooperation and consultation with the 
CEG-DIH took place on the change requests to Annexes A and B as an outcome of the 
UCC  CDS  project  group  activities.  With  regards  to  the  UCC  GUM  project,  additional 
insight was also provided during the reporting year, within the UCC CDS-GUM project 
group.  

In  2022,  each  Member  State  continued  having  its  own  method  of  monitoring  national 
guarantees, while having developed national systems to manage and oversee the ‘non-
transit’  guarantees.  Some  Member  States  with  a  national  GUM  system  already  in 
operation  were  adapting  their  national  systems  to  the  provisions  of  the  UCC.  On  this 

128 BE, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, ES, FR, HR, IT, LV, LT, HU, NL, AT, PL, PT, RO, SK, FI, and SE. 

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basis, a need emerged to develop a central IT system that will ensure the effective and 
efficient management of the different guarantee types, while managing both the CGUs 
that may be used in more than one Member State and the ones valid in a single Member 
State. After considering several identified solutions, it was decided to proceed with a light 
implementation  option  and 
the  central  component 
(Component 1) and the national component (Component 2), whose communication was 
foreseen to be achieved through Customer Reference Services (CRS). While UCC CDS 
already handles multi-Member States' CGU authorisations and applications, the central 
system approach was deemed more appropriate for this light implementation option. The 
CGU application and authorisation forms should be modified to cover the needs of UCC 
GUM, while the required changes originate from the Member States' proposals to amend 
Annex A and are submitted to the DIH Committee. 

two  components: 

introduce 

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, BG, DK, 
DE, EL, FR, HR, IT, LT, HU, MT, AT, PL, PT, SI, and FI), ‘On hold’ (RO) or ‘Finished’ 
(CZ, EE, IE, ES, CY, and SE). Concerning the current phase, the majority of the Member 
States reported being in operation (BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, IE, ES, HR, IT, CY, LT, HU, 
PT,  SI,  SK,  and  SE),  upgrade  of  the  national  system  (EL,  AT,  and  FI)  or  deployment 
activities  (FR,  MT,  and  PL).  EE  and  RO  reported  status  ‘Other’.  In  addition,  several 
Member  States  reported  carrying  out  activities  related  to  analysis  and  modelling  (CZ, 
DE, HR, IT, MT, AT, and PL), maintenance (BE, CZ, DE, HR, IT, MT, AT, PL, SI, and 
SK)  and  upgrades  (CZ,  DE,  ES,  HR,  IT,  HU,  MT,  AT,  PL,  SI,  and  SK).  During  the 
reporting  year,  AT  communicated  performing  an  upgrade  to  the  national  system  (AT) 
also as its preceding phase, while PL communicated being in national acceptance testing 
(PL) as its preceding phase. 

BG  established  NSDs  to  monitor  the  CDS  Specific  Trader  Portal  (STP)  and  manage 
related incidents from the economic operators. CZ updated its national CDS application 
and reported the use of the CRS and CDMS web services in production for downloading 
authorisations.  DK  used  the  EU  transnational  systems  and  therefore,  did  not  have  a 
national CDS. DE informed that the development and maintenance activities for CDMS 
were carried out within the framework of the overall ATLAS system. The national ATLAS 
R9.1 has been in operation as of March 2021, while the next ATLAS R10.1 is expected 
in 2023. EE performed testing activities for the national CDS system, developed a CRS 
system and attended the various meetings organised by the Commission. IE reported 
training  activities  and  attendance  at  the  UCC  CDS  project  group  meetings  as  well  as 
testing the new UCC CDS releases to identify issues that required attention.  

EL  informed  that  the  interoperability  functionality  between  the  National  Customs 
Information System and UCC CDS was implemented. ES reported the implementation 
of new functionalities to its national CDS system. FR ran several tests in the conformance 
environment, including data integration tests with the reception of error feedback from 
the Commission. Thus, FR integrated all data contained in its national CDS application 
and transferred all granted files for the Recovery Point (RP) formulas. HR informed that 
the project was in stable operation. IT participated in the UCC CDS project group and 
other  IT  meetings  organised  by  the  Commission  and  translated  the  labels  for  Testing 
Protocol  (TP),  CDMS  and  CS/RD2.  LT  updated  its  web  services  for  receiving  CDMS 
data,  in  accordance  with  CDMS  v22.9.  HU  reported  testing  new  versions,  handling 
issues,  supporting  economic  operators  and  users,  and  participating  in  the  relevant 
meetings. 

MT  reported  using  the  central  system  developed  by  the  Commission.  Nonetheless,  a 
National Authorisation System was being developed in phases and is planned to be fully 
deployed  by  the  end  of  2023.  AT  progressed  with  bug  fixing  and  implementation  of 
change requests for CDS v1.28 and v1.29, analysis and implementation of changes in 

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CDS v1.30 and analysis of upgrades in its national system. PL informed that it tested the 
CDS processes and reported corrections and changes, in preparation for the deployment 
of their national CDS system. PT reported using the CDS system, which was operational, 
while RO remained in the initiation phase, having finalised the FSS and TSS in relation 
to its national CDS. SI’s ongoing activities were focused on implementing national rules 
for utilising the new versions of TP and CDMS (v1.30 and v1.31). SK reported the use of 
the central CDMS system for multi-Member States-related activities. LV and NL did not 
report activities on the project. 

1.1.2  UCC Binding Tariff Information (BTI) (1.4) 

UCC BTI 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 for  the  submission  of  applications  and  issuance  of  BTI  decisions.  This 
system has been in operation since 2019. 

During  2022,  P2  of  the  project,  along  with  EBTI-STP  and  EBTI-CS,  was  closely 
monitored and any identified issues were resolved with no delay. Particularly, a business 
monitoring report on UCC BTI P2 was prepared by the Commission and distributed to 
the Member States on a weekly basis. The aforesaid report contained Key Performance 
Indicators (KPI) based on the data collected and monitored from EBTI-STP and EBTI-
CS.  EUCTP  is  used  since  October  2019  as  a  single  access  point  for  the  economic 
operators to the connected systems including EBTI, UCC AEO, UCC INF and UCC REX. 

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, CZ, DK, 
DE,  and  FR),  ‘On  hold’  (PT)  or  ‘Finished’  (BG,  EE,  IE,  CY,  MT,  PL,  FI,  and  SE). 
Concerning  the  current  phase,  the  majority  of  the  Member  States  reported  being  in 
operation  (BE,  BG,  CZ,  DK,  DE,  IE,  EL,  CY,  HU,  MT,  PL,  PT,  SI,  SK,  FI,  and  SE), 
upgrade of the national system (FR) or completion of activities (HR). EE and PT reported 
status ‘Other’. In addition, some Member States reported carrying out activities related 
to analysis and modelling (DE), maintenance (DE, PL, and SK) and upgrades (SK).  

BG  reported  using  NSDs  for  receiving  and  managing  incidents  from  the  economic 
operators  concerning  the  access  and  work  with  EBTI-STP.  CZ  also  received  and 
managed incidents from the economic operators via its service desk using EBTI-STP. 
DK  did  not  have  a  national  BTI  system  and  used  the  EU  transnational  systems.  EE 
participated  in  monthly  UCC  BTI  webinars.  IE  reviewed  the  issues  that  arose  after 
testing, submitted the relevant change requests and attended the monthly electronic BTI 
(eBTI)  webinars  organised  by  the  Commission.  ES  conducted  conformance  testing 
activities  and  established  continuous  cooperation  with  all  the  parties  involved  in  the 
maintenance of the UCC BTI system. FR informed that, following the delivery of a new 
version of the system, errors were identified during the granting access process. Thus, 
FR worked on an update to improve its national application. CY, MT, and RO reported 
using  the  central  system  developed  by  the  Commission.  PL  added  supplementary 
validation rules to the eBTI forms, deployed the national EBTI-STP, developed and used 
new reports to the business intelligence module and introduced new functionalities to its 
national  system, thus,  improving  the  operation of the  system  and  the  UI.  SK reported 
using  the  central  EBTI  system  and  EUCTP.  EL,  IT,  LV,  LT,  HU,  NL,  AT,  PT,  and  SI 
reported no major activities on the project. 

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1.1.3  UCC Authorised Economic Operators (AEO) and impacts of Mutual 

Recognition Agreement (MRA) (1.5) 

The  UCC  AEO  system  is  a  tool  for  the  management  of  AEO  applications  and 
authorisations  and  requires  standard  decision-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.  Minor 
Enhancement contains updates to the codelists managed in the CS/RD2 application and 
in the EOS-AEO applications’ UI. Major Enhancement is needed for the alignment of the 
existing EOS-AEO system to the application of the UCC legislation. Direct Trader Access 
allows data exchange between economic operators and customs authorities in a uniform 
and harmonised manner, while MR Enhancement provides a standard interface for the 
UCC AEO data exchange with partner countries. 

The first implementation of the UCC AEO system was related to the Minor Enhancement 
and was completed in 2016, as planned. The second implementation was focused on 
the Major Enhancement and was finalised in 2018. Therefore, the current status of the 
project covers the two remaining components. 

The activities for the UCC AEO Direct Trader Access continued during 2022 and were 
focused  on  monitoring  and  managing  the  eAEO-STP  module,  which  has  been  in 
operation since 2019. 

The UCC AEO MRA component was already in production for China, Japan, Norway, 
Switzerland, Great Britain, and the United States of America. Business negotiations for 
an MRA with Hong Kong are on hold, while for the MRA with Canada the business and 
IT activities have restarted at the end of 2022. 

An MRA IT module with Moldova was tested in January 2022 and entered in production 
during  November  2022,  following  the  signed  agreement  between  Moldova  and  the 
Commission in October of the reporting year. Moreover, during 2022, the UCC AEO MRA 
negotiations with Türkiye continued concerning how the process of the MRA exchange 
of  data  should  be  arranged.  On  this  basis,  the  legal  comparison  of  their  respective 
regimes have continued during 2022, while the signing of the agreement and IT activities 
are planned for the end of 2023. 

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (DK, DE, ES, 
HU, PL, PT, and FI) or ‘Finished’ (BG, EE, IE, CY, MT, RO, SI, and SE). Concerning the 
current phase, the majority of the Member States reported being in operation (BG, CZ, 
DK, IE, ES, CY, HU, MT, PT, SI, SK, FI, and SE) or upgrading the national system (DE). 
PL  carried  out  activities  related  to  the  national  acceptance  testing.  The  remaining 
Member States reported status ‘Other’, with activities such as participation in UCC AEO 
webinars and eAEO/EOS translation (EE) as well as translation of the various eAEO and 
EOS  labels  and the  eAEO-STP  v1.4.0.0 manual  into  the  national  language  (RO).  RO 
provided  support  to  all  the  economic  operators  who  encountered  problems  in  using 
eAEO-STP. In addition, CZ, DE, and IE reported carrying out activities associated with 
analysis  and  modelling,  while  CZ  and  DE  also  performed  activities  related  to 
maintenance  and  upgrades.  During  the  reporting  year,  some  Member  States 
communicated their preceding phase and indicated being in operation (DE and EE).  

BG, CZ, and SK used UCC AEO and eAEO-STP. DK reported using the EU transnational 
systems and therefore, not having a national AEO system. DE carried out development 
and  maintenance  activities  of  UCC  AEO  within  the  framework  of  the  overall  ATLAS 

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system.  The  national  ATLAS  R9.1  has  been  in  operation  as  of  2021,  while  the  next 
ATLAS  R10.1  is  foreseen  for  March  2023.  EE  participated  in  UCC  AEO  webinars 
organised  by  the  Commission  and  prepared  eAEO/EOS  translations.  IE  analysed  the 
documentation  prepared  by  the  Commission  and  provided  proposals  for  the  proper 
development  from  a  business  perspective.  In  addition,  monitoring  activities  were 
reported to ensure correct use of the system. Finally, IE offered support to the operational 
teams and organised pertinent IT training activities for the new staff. ES informed about 
its ongoing activities to develop a monitoring application.  

HR attended regular meetings organised by the Commission on the UCC AEO network 
and  prepared  EOS  translations.  HU  reported  on  activities  related  to  testing  the  new 
system  versions  and  the  support  of  the  national  users  and  economic  operators.  PL 
prepared for the deployment of the national eAEO system and developed upgrades to 
address  issues  identified  during  the  national  acceptance  testing.  More  concretely,  PL 
developed and tested the national system, reported errors and submitted proposals for 
changes.  RO  used  the  central  system  developed  by  the  Commission  and  reported 
supporting activities for the economic operators on issues encountered while using the 
central eAEO-STP system. BE, CZ, EL, FR, IT, LV, LT, NL, AT, SI, FI, and SE reported 
no activities on the project.  

1.1.4  UCC Automated Export System (AES) (1.6) 

UCC  AES  aims  at  automating  the  completion  of  the  export  procedures  (including  re-
export) and exit formalities covering common, national and external domains. Comprised 
of two components, the project entails implementing the UCC simplifications offered to 
trade to facilitate the export of goods for the EU companies. The first component relates 
to the trans-European AES, while the second component concerns the upgrade of NES. 

In February 2022, ES started the UCC AES operations. In April 2022, the exchange of 
export  messages  between  DE  and  ES  was  initiated,  using  the  CCN  application  and 
C/ieCA to ensure communications with the ECS systems and CS/MIS2 and monitor the 
operations. Moreover, the updated UCC AES Business Guidance was approved by the 
ECCG in May 2022 and translated into French and German in December 2022.  

With the start of the exchanges between DE and ES,  the Commission’s C/ieCA system 
entered  in  operation  to  facilitate  the  transition  period  by  converting  the  exchanged 
messages  in  UCC  AES,  upon  request  from  the  legacy  format  to  the  UCC  transitional 
format. In this context, a Real-Time Exercise (RTE) P2 was successfully performed in 
February  2022  for  simulating  the  operational  activities  of  the  convertor  system.  In 
addition,  two  new  releases,  ieCA  R1.0.3.0  and  R1.0.4.0  were  deployed  in  May  and 
October 2022, respectively.  

Furthermore,  the  UCC  AES  DDNXA  5.15.0  TSS,  which  includes  the  RfC-List.36 
alignment to the latest updates of Annex B to the UCC DA and UCC IA, was approved 
by the ECCG in April 2022. On this basis, an update of the FSS was initiated and a new 
package of updated BPMs was delivered for UCC AES. Specifically, the updated L2-L3-
L4 BPM/FSS package for UCC AES, which was approved by the ECCG in November 
2022 and published in December of the same year, aimed at aligning the UCC AES FSS 
to  the  latest  versions  of  the  TSS.  Moreover,  the  Central  Services/Management 
Information  System  2  (CS/MIS2)  R2  entered  in  production  in  January  2022  and  the 
transition from CS/MIS to CS/MIS2 was successfully initiated during the second quarter 
of the reporting year. In this respect, in March 2022, DE and ES performed conformance 
testing activities for CS/MIS2.   

The Commission also continued organising several bilateral meetings with the Member 
States  to  support  them  in  the  implementation  of  UCC  AES  in  order  to  monitor  their 
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progress according to the NPPs and to encourage them to take all the necessary steps 
to  comply  with  the  legal  deadline  set  by  the  UCC  WP.  Within  this  context,  the 
Commission  supported each  Member  State  individually  to  provide  a  seamless  testing 
experience, speeding up its readiness and mitigating its technical risks. For the same 
purposes,  several  virtual  meetings  with  the  Member  States  took  place  at  operational, 
middle and senior management levels. Concomitantly, in the framework of the ‘National 
Administration  Coordination  Programme’,  the  Commission  continued  to  assist  and 
monitor the development and deployment of the national components for UCC AES by 
the Members States.  

Already  founded  in  2019,  the  aforesaid  programme  has  proven  to  be  instrumental  in 
identifying challenges in the deployment of the TES systems and maintaining a high level 
of transparency on the progress of the Member States. On this basis, over the course of 
2022,  all  national  administrations  confirmed  or  updated  their  NPPs  to  foster  a 
collaborative culture between the Member States and Commission and ensure a cost-
effective allocation of resources during the development of the UCC AES TES systems 
to meet the milestones of the UCC WP. In 2022, the Commission also reported to the 
ECCG and CPG the ongoing progress of the Member States, providing the KPI of the 
aggregated  NPPs.  A  quarterly  consolidated  progress  report  on  the  transition  of  UCC 
AES was issued by the Commission as from the first quarter of 2022.  

The Commission further provided consistent support to the trade community throughout 
2022,  considering  that  the  foreseen  national  deployment  deadlines  of  the  UCC  AES 
system were delayed leading to the submission of derogation requests by the Member 
States.  The  main  objective  of  such  assistance  was  to  safeguard  the  operational 
continuity  of  UCC  AES  by  providing  visibility  on  the  state  of  progress  of  the  Member 
States  and  intensifying  the  common  efforts  between  the  national  administrations  and 
economic  operators  during  the  last  year  of  the  transition  window.  In  particular,  the 
Commission  ensured  that  any  updates  on  the  NPPs  were  timely  and  adequately 
communicated to the trade community through dedicated active forums organised in the 
national administrations as well as frequent information sessions and seminars between 
the latter and the economic operators.  

Finally, in view of the identified risks of delays on the side of the Member States and the 
economic  operators,  internal  discussions  took  place  between  DG  TAXUD  and  other 
relevant units and departments on the establishment of compatibility measures to ensure 
the  continuity  of  operations.  More  concretely,  the  Commission  examined  different 
courses of actions to identify a solution for the communication between the legacy and 
new systems of the national administrations at the end of the TES’ transitional period. 

Thus, taking into consideration that Annex B to the UCC DA and UCC IA is the applicable 
legal basis for UCC AES and UCC NCTS-P5, in addition to the CTC in the case of UCC 
NCTS-P5, the first possible course of action to the rising problem that the Commission 
examined  was  to  ‘Do  Nothing’.  Namely,  as  of  1  December  2023,  the  national 
administrations having deployed new systems would use the new message format as 
defined in the applicable legal basis and implemented in the TSS of UCC AES and UCC 
NCTS-P5. The legacy systems would continue using the message format as defined in 
the legacy TSS. However, in this case, the communication between the legacy and new 
systems would not be feasible since the Common Domain Information Exchanges would 
be  rejected  due  to  certain  incompatibilities  in  several  data  elements.  As  a  result,  this 
solution was not further considered by the Commission.  

The second possible course of action that was analysed was the ‘Flat Extension of the 
Transitional Period’ for a given period, for example, until the end of 2024 to provide the 
national  administrations  using  legacy  systems  with  a  sufficient  timeframe  to  properly 

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develop and test their new systems. Even though this solution would immediately resolve 
all  incompatibility  issues,  it  would  not  enforce  the  lodging  of  the  UCC  compliant 
declarations by all new economic operators as of 1 December 2023, following the legal 
the  national 
basis 
administrations and economic operators from accelerating their overall efforts for UCC 
AES  and  UCC  NCTS-P5.  Finally,  such  solution  could  solely  postpone  the  current 
problem until the end of 2024, when it would be encountered again. 

this  solution  might  discourage 

requirements.  Additionally, 

The  third  and  recommended  possible  course  of  action  that  was  examined  was  the 
‘Parallel Operation’ of the new and legacy systems after the end of the TES transitional 
period and the proposal of specific technical compatibility measures to be followed by all 
stakeholders to circumvent any incompatibility issues. This solution would minimise the 
impact on the national administrations that would be ready to deploy the new systems 
by  the  legal  deadline,  while  also  allowing  the  national  administrations  using  legacy 
systems to develop the new ones, without having to republish the economic operators’ 
specifications129. 

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, BG, CZ, 
DK, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, LV, HU, MT, AT, PT, RO, SI, FI, and SE), ‘On hold’ (SK) 
or  ‘Finished’  (DE,  CY,  LT,  and  PL).  Concerning  the  current  phase,  several  Member 
States reported being in operation (DE, IE, ES, and CY), upgrade of the national system 
(MT),  deployment  (IT),  conformance  testing  activities  (DK,  HR,  PL,  and  SI),  national 
acceptance testing (EE), design of the national system (BE, BG, CZ, FR, LV, LT, HU, 
and  FI),  creation  of  the  national  technical  specifications  (AT)  and  national  functional 
specifications (EL) or analysis of the national user requirements (SK). PT, RO, and SE 
reported  status  ‘Other’.  In  addition,  several  Member  States  reported  carrying  out 
activities related to analysis and modelling (BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, 
IT,  HU,  MT,  AT,  PL,  SK,  FI,  and  SE),  maintenance  (DE,  IE,  IT,  CY,  and  MT)  and 
upgrades (CZ, DE, ES, HR, IT, MT, and PL). During the reporting year, some Member 
States communicated their preceding phase and indicated being in conformance testing 
activities  (ES),  designing  the  national  system  (HR),  performing  national  acceptance 
testing (DK and PL) or carrying out analysis of the national user requirements (BG and 
EL). FR, AT, SI, and FI communicated being in the same phase as their preceding phase. 

BG  finalised  the  elaboration  phase  in  July  2022  and  initiated  the  development  of  the 
project.  In  addition,  BG  attended  all  webinars,  workshops  and  training  activities 
organised by the Commission and published the national technical specifications for the 
economic operators, providing the latter with the necessary support concerning the UCC 
AES project. Lastly, BG performed CCN Connectivity setup and testing activities as well 
as updates in relation to CS/RD2. CZ initiated the conformance testing activities for Mode 
1 in July 2022. In October 2022, CZ provided an update to its NPP, informing that the 
development of UCC AES would be completed later than expected.  

Preparations for the development of the new National Export Control Application (NECA) 
were  ongoing  in  EE.  ΙΕ  provided  policy  advice  and  support  to  the  UCC  AES  system 
development in relation to the Simplified Procedures. EL issued a call for tender on 13 
October 2022, published the necessary UCC AES-related informational material for the 
economic  operators  and  carried  out  an  analysis  of  the  functions  related  to  the  export 
customs procedures based on EL's national legislation. FR reported delays against the 
legal deadline of 1 December 2023, due to the redesign of the national AES system. HR 

129  Considering  that  the  TSS  and  FSS  are  binding  only  for  the  messages  and  processes  between  the  national 
administrations, each national administration undertakes the production and publication of distinct specifications for its 
economic operators. The latter use these specifications to develop and deploy their own systems that will be then used 
to communicate with the UCC AES and UCC NCTS systems of each national administration.   

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held regular workshops for the analysis of the UCC AES business processes and started 
conformance testing activities in Mode 1 as well as pre-conformance tests in Mode 2. 
HR  also  analysed  and  deployed  the  changes  from  the  RfC-List.36  and  updated  the 
national technical specifications for the economic operators and the National Rules and 
Conditions  documentation.  LV  informed  that  the  development  of  UCC  AES  would  be 
carried out in stages. The first five stages were completed, while work was ongoing on 
the specifications, design and development of the sixth, seventh and eighth stages of 
the system. LT prepared the draft interface specifications (iMDAS client portal) for the 
economic operators, in accordance with EUCDM.  

AT compiled all national requirements and specifications and made preparations for the 
‘Fit-Gap’ analysis130. AT further informed that the initial version of UCC AES is expected 
to be released in the third quarter of 2023. Besides attending all UCC AES meetings and 
analysing  the  relevant  documentation  prepared  by  the  Commission,  PL  performed 
testing  activities  on  the  new  NECA.  RO  focused  on  the  finalisation  of  the  national 
functional and technical specifications for its export system. SI performed conformance 
tests in Mode 2. SK created a detailed impact analysis of the system. FI and SE reported 
being in the development phase of UCC AES. In particular, FI progressed with bug fixing 
and stabilisation of the implemented features, which led to the initiation of conformance 
testing  activities  in  Mode  1  as  of  23  November  2022.  However,  due  to  recruitment 
difficulties encountered by the supplier, the creation of new features progressed slowly. 
Therefore, FI requested a derogation until the second quarter of 2024. 

1.1.5  UCC  Transit  System  including  New  Computerised  Transit  System 

(NCTS) (1.7) 

The UCC NCTS-P5 project updated the UCC NCTS-P4 system, which automated the 
common and community transit procedure and controlled the movements covered under 
the International Road Transports (TIR) procedure within the EU. 

Activities on UCC AES and UCC NCTS ran in parallel during 2022. As a result, in April 
2022, the UCC NCTS-P5 DDNTA 5.15.0 TSS was approved by the ECCG, including the 
RfC-List.36 alignment to the latest updates of Annex B to the UCC DA and UCC IA. At 
the  same  time, the  DDCOM  20.4.0  was  also  approved  by the  ECCG. In  addition,  the 
UCC NCTS-P6 DDNTA 6.2.0 TSS and DDCOM 21.2.0 were approved by the ECCG by 
written procedure.  

During 2022, constant collaboration with the UCC ICS2 team was also ensured through 
weekly internal meetings. Building a bridge between UCC NCTS and UCC ICS2 would 
enable the synchronisation of the entry and transit formalities at the border by allowing 
the CTC countries to use a combined transit declaration and therefore, avoiding different 
declarations for the same consignment. Additional benefits for the aforesaid countries 
would  contain  the  use  of  central  validation  services  for  optimising  the  data  quality, 
validation of the EORI information and MR for SSA. In this regard, extensive work was 
carried out together with the UCC ICS2 CR team on the preparation of the transit ENS 
TED. Although this work is expected to be concluded in 2023, a PoC to extract the ENS 
declaration for UCC ICS2 R3 from a combined transit declaration under UCC NCTS-P6 
became available during the last quarter of 2022.  

2022 further marked significant progress towards updating the FSS for UCC NCTS-P5 
and UCC NCTS-P6 in parallel with the TSS development. The updated L3-L4 BPM/FSS 

130 Fit-Gap Analysis 

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for  the  UCC  NCTS-P5  and  UCC  NCTS-P6  packages  were  approved  in  writing  in 
December 2022. 

Furthermore,  over  the  course  of  2022,  the  discussions  on  the  revision  of  the  Transit 
Accompanying Document (TAD) and Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in the context of 
the  UCC  NCTS-P5  deployment  continued  within  the  EU-CTC  WG.  Moreover,  in  April 
2022,  the  eTIR  Business  Case  was  formally  adopted  by  the  ECCG.  The  aforesaid 
development led to the revision of the MASP-C Revision 2019 fiche for transit and the 
integration  of  eTIR  project  under  the  UCC  NCTS  scope,  allowing  the  future 
interconnection between the two systems.  

Similar to the UCC AES project, the Commission also performed several coordination 
activities throughout the reporting year, organising bilateral meetings with the Member 
States and CTC countries, and monitoring the deployment of the national components 
for the UCC NCTS system. 

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, BG, CZ, 
DK, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, AT, PL, PT, RO, FI, and SE), ‘On hold’ (LT and 
SK)  or  ‘Finished’  (DE,  HU,  MT,  and  SI).  Concerning  the  current  phase,  the  Member 
States reported being in operation (DE and SI), deployment (IT), conformance testing 
activities (CZ, DK, EE, HR, and PL), design of the national system (BE, BG, IE, FR, CY, 
LV, MT, and FI), creation of the national technical specifications (ES, HU, and AT) and 
national functional specifications (EL) or analysis of the national user requirements (LT 
and SK). PT, RO, and SE reported status ‘Other’. In addition, several Member States 
reported carrying out activities related to analysis and modelling (BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, 
IE, EL, ES, HR, IT, CY, MT, AT, PL, SK, and FI), maintenance (DE, IT, CY, MT, and PL) 
and  upgrades  (CZ,  DE,  ES,  HR,  IT,  MT,  and  PL).  During  the  reporting  year,  some 
Member  States  communicated 
in 
conformance  testing  activities  (SI),  performing  national  acceptance  testing  (DK), 
designing the national system (HR), creating the national functional specifications (CY) 
or analysing the national user requirements (BG and EL). AT, PL, and FI communicated 
being in the same phase as their preceding phase. 

their  preceding  phase  and 

indicated  being 

BG, HR, LV, AT, and SK performed in parallel the same activities carried out for UCC 
AES.  CZ  reported  that  conformance  testing  activities  in  Mode  1  took  place  between 
January  and  June  2022,  while  the  conformance  tests  for  UCC  NCTS-P5  in  Mode  2 
started in October 2022 and were finalised in December of the same year. CZ further 
informed that a test environment for the economic operators became available as of 1 
March  2022.  EE  focused  on  the  analysis  of  the  UCC  NCTS  project  through  regular 
internal  meetings,  performed  several  conformance  testing  activities,  started  the  pre-
conformance tests in Mode 2 and published the UCC NCTS-P5 TSS for the economic 
operators on its national website.  

EL  issued  a  call  for  tender  on  13  October  2022  and  published  all  the  necessary 
informational material on UCC NCTS-P5 for the economic operators. HR finalised the 
construction phase and initiated the transition from UCC NCTS-P4 to UCC NCTS-P5, 
deploying  the  main  functionalities  into  a  pre-production  environment.  EE  successfully 
connected to the CCN system. LT reported activities related to the public procurement 
procedures  for  the  redevelopment  of  the  National  Transit  Control  System,  for  its 
compatibility with UCC NCTS-P5. MT reported that a call for tender for the procurement 
of UCC NCTS-P5 was published.  

PL  conducted  analysis  and  development  activities  for  UCC  NCTS-P5,  including  the 
development of the necessary interfaces with the interoperable systems. Moreover, PL 
executed conformance testing activities in Mode 2 and reported that UCC NCTS-P5 is 
planned to enter in production in June 2023. FI reported that the UCC NCTS project was 

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under development, while its scope has been under investigation considering that some 
features might be excluded to adhere to the deployment schedule for UCC NCTS-P5. FI 
finalised  the  conformance  testing  activities  in  Mode  1  on  25  November  2022, 
approximately  two  months  later  than  the  original  plan,  due  to  issues  in  the  ‘To-Be’ 
system.  Thereupon,  conformance  tests  in  Mode  2  started  and  are  expected  to  be 
completed by 20 June 2023. SE was in the development and conformance testing phase.  

1.1.6  UCC Registered Exporter System (REX) (1.11) 

The  main  purpose  of  the  UCC  REX  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. The project provides the Member States 
with the opportunity to enhance their national systems for customs declarations with an 
automated  verification  of  REX  numbers  from  the  declarations  against  that  central 
database. 

The UCC REX1 system entered in operation in 2017, while UCC REX2 was successfully 
deployed in 2018. The UCC REX3 system is organised in two phases. P1, which went 
live  in  2021,  aimed  at  introducing  the  general  requirements  of  the  UCC  REX  Trader 
Portal  as  well  as  enabling  the  registration  of  the  economic  operators  and  the 
modification, consultation and printing of the UCC REX numbers. Additionally, P2 aimed 
at  enabling  the  revocation  and  annulment  of  the  REX  numbers,  while  adding  new 
features and functionalities, as requested by the Member States. 

In 2022, UCC REX3 P2 entered in operation. In particular, the new UCC REX Trader 
Portal 2.0 was deployed on 5 May 2022, and online trainings to representatives from the 
Member  States  were  conducted  between  April  and  May  2022.  In  addition,  the  UCC 
REX3-STP Single Page Application (SPA) was released in March 2022. Lastly, a new 
release, UCC REX v3.4 containing a UI for the REX partner countries was successfully 
delivered in October 2022 and is expected to enter in production in 2023. Specifically, 
the aforesaid UI became accessible to Andorra and San Marino, introducing both as REX 
countries.  

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, DK, HR, 
LV, HU, and RO) or ‘Finished’ (BE, CZ, EE, IE, FR, IT, CY, MT, PL, PT, SI, and SE). 
Concerning the current phase, several Member States reported being in operation (BE, 
CZ, DK, EE, IE, EL, FR, HR, IT, CY, LV, HU, MT, PL, PT, SI, SK, and SE), upgrading 
the national system (BG), designing the national system (ES) or analysing the national 
user  requirements  (RO).  DE  was  the  only  Member  State  that  reported  status  ‘Other’, 
indicating that the central UCC REX system is used by the national users as of 2017. In 
addition,  some  Member  States  reported  carrying  out  activities  related  to  analysis  and 
modelling (PL), maintenance (BE, IT, PL, and SK) and upgrades (IT and SK). 

BG  participated  in  training  sessions  organised  by  the  Commission  and  helped  the 
economic  operators  in  the  application  process  for  the  UCC  REX  Trader  Portal.  CZ 
similarly attended all training sessions on UCC REX and analysed the documentation for 
the UCC REX3 system. DK reported using the EU transnational systems and therefore, 
not  having  a  national  REX  system.  In  DE,  CY,  and  SK,  since  2017,  the  central  REX 
system has been used by the national users and the UCC REX Trader Portal by external 
users.  EE  performed  the  necessary  tests  for  the  deployment  of  the  system  and 
participated in online webinars and training activities on UCC REX P2. HR reported that 
the UCC REX Trader Portal P2 was deployed, which included revocation for both request 
and  annulment.  IT  informed  that  a  mixed  approach  was  used  in  the  reporting  year. 
Namely, both paper-based and electronic REX registration requests were submitted to 
ensure  that  the  economic  operators  would  gradually  adapt  to  the  new  electronic 

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procedure.  Nevertheless,  the  latter  were  invited  to  opt  in  favour  of  the  electronic 
procedure  in  anticipation  of  UCC  REX  P2.  HU  successfully  deployed  and  tested  new 
versions of the national REX system and resolved all issues on its side. PL implemented 
several  changes  to  its  national  system,  in  view  of  the  creation  of  an  e-Client  module 
functionality  to  handle  eREX  applications.  RO  informed  that  REX3  was  in  its  initiation 
phase,  while  the  national  functional  and  technical  specifications related  to  the  system 
development services were being developed. IE, EL, ES, ES, FR, LV, LT, NL, AT, PT, 
FI, and SE reported no project activities. 

1.1.7  Anti-Counterfeit and Anti-Piracy System (COPIS) (1.12) 

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

COPIS  interfaces  with  the  European  Anti-Fraud  Office  (OLAF)  and  Anti-Fraud 
Information  System  (AFIS).  The  system  additionally  interconnects  with  the  European 
Union  Intellectual  Property  Office  (EUIPO)  and  the  Intellectual  Property  Enforcement 
Portal (IPEP). 

COPIS  v4.0.0  introduced  the  electronic  Application  for  Action  (eAFA)  integrating  with 
IPEP.  COPIS  eAFA  aims  to  provide  economic  operators  with  the  possibility  to 
electronically submit and amend an application. During 2022, the development activities 
of  COPIS  eAFA  continued,  with  the  deployment  and  rollout  to  production  of  COPIS 
v4.0.5.0 and v4.0.6.0 taking place in February and March 2022, respectively. The latest 
release COPIS v4.1.2.0 entered in production in July 2022.  

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, DK, DE, 
HU, SI, and FI), ‘On hold’ (PT and SK) or ‘Finished’ (BE, EE, ES, FR, CY, MT, AT, PL, 
and SE). Concerning the current phase, the Member States reported being in operation 
(BG, CZ, DK, DE, EL, CY, HU, MT, AT, PL, SI, FI, and SE) or upgrading the national 
system (EE and IT). The remaining Member States reported status ‘Other’ (BE, ES, FR, 
and  PT).  In  addition,  some  Member  States  reported  carrying  out  activities  related  to 
analysis and modelling (IT, AT, and FI), maintenance (BG, CZ, DK, DE, IT, and AT) and 
upgrades  (BG,  CZ,  DE,  IT,  and  AT).  During  the  reporting  year,  BG  communicated  its 
preceding phase and indicated being in conformance testing activities. 

BG reported that following the deployment of the national application for infringements 
and  risk  information,  the  operations started  immediately.  Furthermore,  upgrades  were 
performed in conformity with COPIS and any new pertinent requirements, while a link 
was established between COPIS and the national register. CZ deployed a new release 
of the national system. DK provided economic operators with the option to use IPEP. EE 
participated in two webinars related to the COPIS project. ES cooperated with EUIPO to 
ensure  the  availability  of  IPEP  to  the  economic  operators  and  the  hybrid  architecture 
agreed  upon  for  the  eAFA  management  through  EUIPO  became  operational.  HR 
attended  all  the  meetings  of  the  CEG  on  the  IPR  enforcement  section.  IT  reported 
performing  all 
the  national 
COPIS/FALSTAFF  system  with  the  new  COPIS  R4.1  and  R4.2,  based  on  the 
documentation provided by the Commission. MT used the central system developed by 
the Commission. FI reported that the usage of eSignature was put on hold. IE, EL, FR, 
CY, LV, LT, HU, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, and SE reported no activities on the project. 

the  necessary  activities 

the  alignment  of 

for 

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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:  (a)  EU  CSW-CVED,  (b)  EU  CSW-CERTEX,  and  (c)  Potential  legislative 
initiative on the EU SWE-C. The first component is implementing the automatic validation 
of the CVED for animals and animal products as well as the Common Entry Document 
(CED). The second component builds on the outcomes of EU CSW-CVED and foresees 
expansion  of  its  scope with  additional  certificates  as  well  as  enhanced  functionalities. 
Finally, the third component concerns the definition of a broader scope of EU SWE-C 
(beyond the certificates’ exchange), the preparation of the pertinent legal framework and 
the action plan for its implementation. 

EU CSW-CVED is planned to be decommissioned in 2023. As of that time, EU CSW-
CERTEX  will  be  the  only  IT tool  for  customs to report  the  quality  management to the 
Information Management System for Official Controls (IMSOC). Currently, the EU CSW-
CVED component is operational in one Member State131. 

The 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 and 
permits other documents, currently available for exchange via EU CSW-CERTEX. The 
following  certificates  and  licences  are  covered:  FLEGT,  COI,  CHED,  ODS,  F-GAS, 
DuES, CITES and ICGS. 

Since 2020, the re-engineering of EU CSW-CERTEX has been investigated to provide 
the Member States with access to all PCA documents covered by the scope of the project 
via a single interface. This approach is expected to 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. On this  basis,  EU  CSW-CERTEX  R2,  covering 
CHED-A, CHED-P and F-GAS, was finalised in 2021, allowing Member States to initiate 
their  testing  activities  as  of  July  of  the  same  year  and  throughout  2022.  EU  CSW-
CERTEX  R3  entered  in  conformance  testing  as  of  May  2022,  including  the  DuES  e-
licencing  system.  In  addition,  an  addendum  to  the  Vision  Document  for  EU  CSW-
CERTEX R4 adding the EU CITES domain and extending EU CSW-CERTEX with new 
functionalities132 was produced in the first quarter of 2022. The aforesaid release was 
delivered in October 2022 and entered in conformance environment in December of the 
same year.   

The  ‘Potential  legislative  initiative  on  the  EU  SWE-C’  scheme,  which  is  the  third 
component, does not envisage the development of a new IT solution, but rather deals 
with the interoperability of already existing solutions. In 2022, the Commission continued 
the work towards the completion of the initiative. More information can be found under 
section 4.3. 

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, BG, DK, 
EE, IE, EL, FR, CY, AT, PL, PT, RO, SI, FI, and SE), ‘On hold’ (HU and SK) or ‘Finished’ 
(CZ, DE, and MT). Concerning the current phase, the Member States reported being in 

131 LV is the only Member State that still utilises EU CSW-CVED.  

132 Two new features have been added in EU CSW-CERTEX R4: the Request for list and Push notification. 

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operation (BG, PL, and PT), upgrade of the national system (CZ and IE), deployment 
(BE),  conformance  testing  activities  (EE  and  SI),  national  acceptance  testing  (FR), 
design of the national system (DE, ES, RO, FI, and SE), creation of the national technical 
specifications (CY, HU, and MT) or analysis of the national functional specifications (EL 
and  AT).  DK  reported  status  ‘Other’.  In  addition,  several  Member  States  reported 
carrying out activities related to analysis and modelling (BE, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, EL, FR, 
CY, MT, AT, PL, SI, and FI), maintenance (BE, CZ, FR, and PL) and upgrades (BE, CZ, 
EE, IE, and PL). During 2022, two Member States communicated their preceding phase 
and  indicated  being  in  deployment  activities  (PL)  or  performing  national  acceptance 
testing (DE). 

BG provided daily monitoring and supporting activities to economic operators, through 
the service desk platform and official national customs website. In parallel, BG reviewed 
all project’s documents distributed by the Commission and maintained the national EU 
CSW-CVED  component.  Lastly,  BG  performed  an  analysis  of  the  requirements  and 
changes needed to migrate to the new version of EU CSW-CERTEX and finalised the 
national  technical  specifications  for  the  upgrade  of  the  national  system,  including  the 
documents  for  a  call  for  tender.  CZ  focused  on  developing  a  new  functionality  to  be 
connected to EU CSW-CERTEX R2. In DK, all governmental projects should qualify and 
be validated through an obligatory governmental project model, which consists of several 
phases. One of these phases is the ‘idea/pre-analysis’ phase, in which DK entered in 
2022.  More  specifically,  throughout  the  reporting  year,  DK  focused  on  the  primary 
investigation  of  the  national  user  requirements,  national  functional  and  technical 
specifications and high-level architecture of the new national system. DK further informed 
that the next phase of the EU CSW-CERTEX project, namely, a thorough analysis on 
the  national  system’  specifications  and  requirements,  is  planned  to  take  place  at  the 
beginning  of  2023.  EE  reported  that  the  ODS,  CHED-D,  CHED-P  and  CHED-PP 
certificates were launched.  

EL selected its contractor and in July 2022, signed the related contract for the EU CSW-
CERTEX project, which was agreed to be deployed within an eighteen-month period. EL 
also participated in several meetings with relevant agencies to discuss and determine 
the interoperability between the involved information systems. Since the adoption of the 
Regulation  (EU)  2022/2399  of  the  European  Parliament  and  Council  establishing  the 
European Union Single Window Environment for Customs in November 2022, ES had 
started  preparations  for  the  connection  to  EU  CSW-CERTEX  and  work  on  the 
development of the B2G domain at the national level. FR implemented the COI certificate 
and  designed  the  upgrades  for  the  national  interconnections  with  the  national  UCC 
Customs  Clearance  System.  HU  participated  in  a  relevant  meeting  organised  by  the 
Commission and started planning the necessary national developments for handling the 
CHED  certificates  through  EU  CSW-CERTEX,  based  on  the  legal  obligations.  AT 
prepared the national tender procedure and attended the various meetings organised by 
the Commission.  

to 

PL held several NSW project group’s meetings with the objective of preparing all national 
project  documentation  related 
the  NSW  system.  Similarly,  PL  organised 
communication activities and professional trainings for the end-users of the system. At 
the same time, PL finalised the conformance testing activities for EU CSW-CERTEX R1 
and in September 2022, the integration between the latter and NSW went live. FI focused 
on planning and designing the integration to EU-CSW CERTEX, finalising the national 
specifications for NIS. In addition, FI participated in all pertinent CBG meetings. HR, IT, 
LV, LT, NL, PT, SK, and SE 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 manner that ensures transparency. 

The system has been put in production since June 2019, with the identified issues being 
thoroughly analysed. The extension of the system under a second phase, delivered in 
two  iterations,  was  considered  necessary  to  support  the  integration  of  EBTI  and  the 
European Customs Inventory of Chemical Substances (ECICS) into the platform.  

During  2022,  the  Commission  continued  its  work  on  the  development  of  CLASS  P2, 
which  is  scheduled  to  be  deployed  by  the  end  of  2023.  Hence,  in  July  2022,  CLASS 
v2.0.0.0  (Iteration  1),  allowing  the  integration  with  the  ECICS2  data,  entered  in 
production. Additionally, throughout the reporting year, the Commission completed the 
impact analysis for the development of CLASS v2.1.0.0 (Iteration 2) for the integration of 
the EBTI data.  

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (DK), ‘On hold’ 
(PT and SK) or ‘Finished’ (BE, BG, EE, IE, CY, MT, SI, and SE). Concerning the current 
phase, several Member States reported being in operation (BG, DK, IE, EL, CY, MT, FI, 
and SE). In addition, some Member States reported status ‘Other’ (BE, EE, PT, and SI). 
IE  informed  on  activities  related  to  reviewing  all  identified  issues  and  submitting  the 
related RfCs for the CLASS system. MT and RO indicated that their customs officials are 
using the central CLASS system. The majority of the Member States (CZ, ES, FR, HR, 
IT, LV, LT, HU, NL, AT, PL, RO, and SK) 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 EORI project is to establish a unique system of registration 
and  identification  of  the  economic  operators  and  other  persons  for  the  purposes  of 
applying the customs legislation of the Union. The project aims to update the existing 
EORI  system  and  the  UCC  EOS  web  services  in  alignment  with  the  legal  changes 
resulting  from  Annex  12-01  to  the  UCC  DA  and  UCC  IA.  The  system  has  been  in 
operation since 2018. It is currently stable and no activities were performed in 2022. 

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (DK, DE, EL, 
LV,  HU,  and  PT)  or  ‘Finished’  (BE,  BG,  EE,  ES,  FR,  HR,  CY,  MT,  PL,  and  SE). 
Concerning the current phase, the great majority of the Member States reported being 
in operation (BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EL, ES, HR, CY, LV, HU, MT, PL, PT, RO, SI, and 
SK).  EE  and  FR  reported  status  ‘Other’.  In  addition,  some  Member  States  reported 
carrying out activities related to analysis and modelling (DE), maintenance (DE, HR, PL, 
SI, and SK) and upgrades (DE and SK).  

BG, CZ, DE, EE, HR, RO, and SK maintained and operated the national EORI systems. 
BG  provided  daily  support  for  economic  operators  and  customs  officers  through  the 
service  desk  platform  and  the  official  national  customs  website.  EE  tested  the 
interoperability between EORI and other systems and corrected the economic operators’ 
data.  ES  developed  the eAEO  community  portal functionalities.  RO  indicated  that  the 
EORI2 project was implemented, including the conformance tests. IE, IT, LT, NL, AT, FI, 
and SE reported no activities on the project. 

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1.1.11 Customs Risk Management System 2 (CRMS2) (1.16) 

CRMS2  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.  It is  meant  to provide  support for  EU  wide  collaboration  among 
customs offices in the fight against financial and safety and security threats for the EU 
and its citizens, and therefore, complements the national customs activities and systems. 
The CRMS2 system reshapes the existing CRMS system created in 2005 to increase 
the clarity of the different functions to be developed. 

CRMS2 connects the customs community from the EU’s 27 Member States, including 
all  international  ports,  airports,  major  land  border  posts  and  all  national  risk  analysis 
centres. 

CRMS2 R1.0.0.0 has been in production since October 2021, aiming to help the customs 
authorities  quickly  exchange  information  in real time  on  dangerous  goods  and  protect 
the  health  and  safety  of  the  EU  citizens.  The  software  application  includes  multiple 
capabilities, such as handling Requests for Information (RIF)133 and establishing digital 
cooperation  between  customs  and  Priority  Control  Area134,  Crisis Management135  and 
Risk  Control.  It  also  provides  reports,  surveys  and  feedback  functionalities  as 
enhancements to CRMS. The first transactions of the system were processed in January 
2022. 

On 27 June 2022, CRMS2 v1.1.1.0 and v1.1.1.1 went live, while an updated v1.2.0.0 
entered in production on 25 November of the same year. Concurrently, minor releases 
to improve the system continued throughout 2022.  

CRMS2  R1.3.0.0  will  implement  necessary  changes  and  updates  identified  since  the 
time the system went live in 2021. It offers new characteristics, opportunities and several 
significant simplifications that bring tangible benefits to the customs business. R1.3.0.0 
will be delivered in 2023. 

In addition, in 2022, preparatory activities on CRMS2 R2 were initiated. On this basis, 
the Commission started the elaboration of the Vision Document for R2, and in November 
2022,  the  CRMS2  R2  Project  Charter  was  approved.  The  software  application  will 
include new capabilities, such as Risk Management Data Consolidation Module (RMDC), 
Advanced Statistical Reporting, UCC ICS2 Integration, Data Migration from CRMS and 
extending the use of CRMS2 to third countries. 

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, DK, EE, 
ES,  HU,  and  AT),  ‘On  hold’  (HR  and  PT)  or  ‘Finished’  (DE,  IE,  CY,  MT,  FI,  and  SE). 
Concerning the current phase, the Member States reported being in operation (BG, DK, 
EE, IE, CY, MT, AT, SI, FI, and SE), upgrade of the national system (ES), deployment 
(DE and HU) or conformance testing activities (SK). HR and PT reported status ‘Other’. 
In addition, some Member States reported carrying out activities related to analysis and 
modelling  (EE  and  IE),  maintenance  (AT)  and  upgrades  (EE  and  ES).  During  the 

133 The purpose of the RIF domain is the exchange of information in the form of Risk Information Forms, feedback and 
messages  between  Member  States  to  establish  digital  cooperation  between  customs,  Priority  Control  Area  and  the 
Commission. In principle, a RIF can be created by any of the actors having the appropriate role. 

134 Priority Control Area is the ability of the Commission to define and subsequently initiate a campaign within a controlled 
environment amongst Member States over a given duration possibly against predetermined risks. At any point within a 
Priority  Control  Area's  duration,  Member  States’  actors  must  know  which  of  the  identified  predetermined  risks  (i.e. 
Common Risk Criteria) require further monitoring. A Priority Control Area can only be initiated by the Commission. 

135 Crisis Management is designated for the efficient reaction to fast-moving crisis situations by using a set of functionalities 
offered to the involved parties. 

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reporting year, ES communicated performing an upgrade to the national system also as 
its preceding phase. 

BG  reported  nearly  96  registered  users  of  CRMS2,  assigned  by  the  national 
administrators with the relevant profiles and functionalities. DK informed that the CRMS2 
platform  was  being  monitored  on  a  24/7  basis  throughout  2022.  DK  also  reported  its 
participation  in  the  CRMS2  workshops  organised  by  the  Commission.  Similarly,  DE 
attended and contributed to the CRMS2 working groups convened by the Commission. 
EE  identified  and  corrected  some  bugs  in  its  national  system.  HR  informed  that  the 
national  integration  of  CRMS2  had  not  started,  while  MT  and  RO  reported  using  the 
central system. AT and SI participated in CRMS2 training activities. SI further focused 
on monitoring the new functionalities and upgrades of the national system. BG, CZ, EL, 
FR, IT, LV, LT, NL, PL, and RO reported no activities on the project. 

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

The objective of e-Commerce and CP 42/63 is to automatically validate the individual 
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, e-Commerce and CP 42/63 capture 
and offer all relevant data to tax authorities that are needed for validation purposes. 

To  achieve  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 recorded from the customs import declarations in all Member 
States  and  subsequently,  be  accessible  in  an  automated  manner  to  the  relevant  tax 
authorities. The new legislation136 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 ‘IOSS’. 

The e-Commerce and CP 42/63 system has been in operation since July 2021 and is 
currently stable.  

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, EE, EL, 
LV, LT, and PT) or ‘Finished’ (BG, CZ, DK, DE, IE, ES, HR, CY, MT, PL, RO, SI, and FI). 
Regarding the current phase, several Member States reported being in operation (BE, 
BG, CZ, DK, DE, IE, EL, ES, HR, CY, LV, LT, HU, MT, PL, PT, SI, and SE) or upgrade 
of the national system (EE and FI). RO reported carrying out other activities related to 
this project. In addition, several Member States reported carrying out activities related to 
analysis and modelling (BE, DK, DE, EE, and PL), maintenance (BE, BG, CZ, DK, EE, 
IE, EL, HR, CY, LV, PL, SK, and FI) and upgrades (BE, BG, CZ, DK, EE, EL, HR, PL, 
SK, and FI). During the reporting year, DK communicated being in deployment activities 
as its preceding phase. 

CZ and DK developed upgrades to the e-Commerce and CP 42/63 system. EE corrected 
errors  in  the  system.  LT  reported  that  queues  were  prepared  for  sending  the  Super 
Reduced Data Set (SRDS) of the import declaration (H7)99 and postal declaration (HC) 
to the SURV-RECAPP system. With the initiation of the conformance testing, H7 data 
was sent on a regular basis, while the Lithuanian Post was not ready to provide the H699 
data to the Lithuanian customs, and therefore, no such data (UCC Postal Surveillance 
Declaration Record (SDR)) was sent to SURV-RECAPP. MT reported an extension of 

136 Council Directive (EU) 2017/2455 of 5 December 2017 amending Directive 2006/112/EC and Directive 2009/132/EC 
as regards certain value-added tax obligations for supplies of services and distance sales of goods, OJ L 348, 29.12.2017, 
p. 7–22.  

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the current NIS with the e-Commerce and CP 42/63 functionality. SK informed that the 
national SURV system was upgraded. FR, IT, NL, AT, and SE reported no activities on 
the project. 

1.1.13 Import of Cultural Goods (ICG) (1.18) 

This  project  aims  to  introduce  implementing  measures  governing  the  ICG  and  new 
customs business and IT processes and procedures in this area. Based on the agreed 
approach, the ICG project will be divided into three different main areas of activity: (a) 
the legislative process, (b) the establishment of a central e-licencing system, and (c) the 
development of a system interface within EU SWE-C. 

The legislative process component includes the preparation and progressive refinement 
of the draft implementing act to the Regulation on the ICG137, stipulating the e-licencing 
system-related aspects. The central e-licencing system will be introduced to ensure the 
uniform controls for the import of cultural goods upon their entry into the customs territory 
of the EU. 

A dedicated project group has been established to act as a discussion platform where 
experts  from  national  customs  administrations  and  competent  authorities  assist  the 
Commission with the creation of the import licence template and the development of the 
format  for  the  importer  statement.  During  2022,  the  project  group  discussed  the 
preparation of the technical activities for the ICG system and the extension of the latter 
to the export domain138. 

The project was in an early phase and few Member States reported activities for 2022. 
The Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, DK, MT, and PL) 
or ‘On hold’ (EE, PT, SI, and SK). Concerning the current phase, some Member States 
reported  analysing  the  national  user  requirements  (EE  and  MT)  or  carrying  out  other 
activities related to the project (BG, DK, PL, and PT). 

Customs  experts  from  BG  participated  in  the  project  group  organised  by  the 
Commission. DK entered in the ‘idea/pre-analysis’ phase for the ICG project. Namely, 
DK  focused  on  the  primary  investigation  of  the  national  user  requirements,  national 
functional  and  technical  specifications  and  high-level  architecture  of  the  new  national 
system. DK also reported that the ICG project would be integrated with its Declaration 
Management System (DMS) and EU CSW-CERTEX. EE informed that its activities were 
at the initial stages. In particular, EE initiated discussions with the permit issuer, namely, 
the Heritage Protection Board. Both Customs and Heritage Board participated in the ICG 
project group. MT reported that a call for tender was published for the implementation of 
an NSW that would incorporate the ICG processes. 

1.1.14 UCC Import Control System 2 (ICS2) (1.19) 

The UCC ICS2 programme is set up for the development of the new version of the current 
ICS system that is used for the lodgement and processing of the ENS. The programme 
consists of several projects and activities, including CR, CRMS2 link, Trader Interface 
(national interface/STI) and related Monitoring and Business Statistics. It also involves 
the National Risk Management Systems, Risk Management support, e-screening, TES 
Helpdesk,  National  Declaration  Processing  Systems  and  AN/PN  controls  for  national 

137 Regulation (EU) 2019/880 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on the introduction and the 
import of cultural goods, OJ L 151, 7.6.2019, P. 1–14. 

138 More information about the project group on the Digitalisation of Cultural Goods can be found in section 4.10.  

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systems. The UCC ICS2 system is supported by DG TAXUD’s newly built Access Point 
for AS4 System (TAPAS) for exchanging UCC ICS2 messages with economic operators, 
CCN2ng for exchanging UCC ICS2 messages with Member States, and UCC Uniform 
User Management & Digital Signature (UUM&DS) for managing the economic operators’ 
digital certificates and securing the data exchanges. 

The  programme  implementation  contains  three  releases.  UCC  ICS2  R1  covers  the 
obligation of the relevant economic operators (postal operators and express carriers in 
air  transport)  to  provide  advance  cargo  information  for  postal  consignments,  enabling 
customs to address a wide range of unsafe traffic in the context of massive and growing 
flows  of  e-commerce.  UCC  ICS2  R2  incorporates  the  implementation  of  new  ENS 
obligations and related business and risk management processes for all the goods in the 
air  traffic  as  well  as  SSA  capabilities.  UCC  ICS2  R3  further  includes  the  goods  in 
maritime and inland waterways, road and rail traffic.  

UCC  ICS2  R1  has  been  in  operation  since  15 March  2021.  During  2022,  its  common 
components were running on a 24/7 basis, without any major incident being reported. A 
maintenance  window  was  designated  for  scheduling  all  planned  activities  to  avoid 
extended  downtime  periods.  At  the  same  time,  further  activities  were  carried  out  to 
improve the UCC ICS2 technical and business monitoring and increase high availability 
by applying zero downtime design for many services as well as tuning and scaling up 
ICS2, CCN2ng and TAPAS performance.  

Concerning UCC ICS2 R2, several preparatory activities took place during the reporting 
year. More concretely, a number of business documents were produced and published. 
Particular emphasis was placed on the finalisation of the Pre-Arrival Referral Guidance, 
Operational  Guidance  for  Member  States  and  Operational  Guidance  for  postal  and 
express consignments. The Go-Live procedure, Operational Guidance for air cargo and 
the  update  of the  UCC ICS2  R1  to  UCC  ICS2  R2  transition  strategy  were  also  under 
preparation. Moreover, the BCP was updated for the Member States in April 2022 and 
for the economic operators in June 2022, with the objective to cover the UCC ICS2 R2 
operations. The end-to-end testing organisation document was also published in April 
2022 for both the Member States and economic operators, introducing as further steps 
the elaboration of pertinent test scenarios. These scenarios aimed at encouraging the 
Member  States  to  carry out  end-to-end testing activities  with the  economic  operators, 
providing the opportunity to test real message exchanges with the national and economic 
operators’ systems and the central components. 

The common components, such as STI and CR as well as the baseline for the Common 
Functional  System  Specifications  (CFSS)  and  TSS  for  all  three  releases  have  been 
completed since 2018. In 2022, the CFSS v2.0.1 was produced for UCC ICS2 R2, while 
three  updates  of  the  TSS  were  delivered  in  February,  March  and  September.  The 
objective of the first update was to align the TSS with the latest version of the CFSS. The 
second update contained the specifications applicable for UCC ICS2 R3, in addition to 
the  specifications  related  to the  UCC  ICS2  R1 and  R2  business  processes.  The  third 
update aimed at implementing the latest Known Error List (KEL) and integrating the last 
changes  that  were  raised  by  the  business  experts  for  the  UCC  ICS2  R2  and  R3 
processes as well as additional business processes necessary for the integration of the 
CR and SSA. At the same time, the third major software release, R1.6.0.0 was delivered 
in 2022, which implemented all the functionalities required for the production of the UCC 
ICS2 R2 system, apart from the integration with UCC ICS2 SSA. This software version 
was utilised by the national administrations for their conformance testing activities, which 

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started  as  of  1  July  2022139.  The  launch  of  the  conformance  testing  activities  for  the 
economic operators was delayed until 1 September 2022 due to identified issues in the 
UCC ICS2 software. The UCC ICS2 R2 SSA delivery was also ongoing through several 
iterations. The Iteration 2.3, which will provide the final version for the go-live, is planned 
to be finalised in early 2023.  

the  Commission  marked  significant  progress 

Additionally, 
launching 
coordination activities that contributed to the implementation of UCC ICS2 R2 through 
the  facilitation  of  the  operational  preparedness  of  the  Member  States’  customs 
authorities,  national  administrations  and  economic  operators.  On  this  basis,  several 
bilateral technical meetings were organised with the Member States that had requested 
a  derogation  against  the  legal  milestone  of  1  March  2023.  Correspondingly,  regular 
online  communication  and  social  media  campaigns  were  launched,  aiming  to 
disseminate  the  various  activities  carried  out  with  reference  to  the  UCC  ICS2  R2 
programme implementation.  

towards 

With regard to UCC ICS2 R3, the elaboration phase was finalised in June 2022 and the 
development activities were initiated in September of the same year. The relevant CFSS 
were updated in March 2022 and the Common Technical System Specifications (CTSS) 
in March and September 2022. Additionally, in 2022, the UCC ICS2 R2 to R3 migration 
strategy was published, while the Guidance document for the maritime transport mode 
was under elaboration. The development of Iteration 1 for the UCC ICS2 R3 CR and STI 
v2.1.0.0  started  during  the  reporting  year,  and  is  expected  to  be  completed  in  2023, 
followed by the delivery of Iteration 2. Concomitantly, the development of the UCC ICS2 
R3 Monitoring and Shared Trader Portal applications, along with the elaboration of the 
SSA P3, also started in 2022.  

Furthermore, the analyses of changes required for the integration of UCC ICS2 R3 with 
UCC NCTS-P6 were finalised in 2022. On this basis, the final date for deploying the UCC 
ICS2  R3  system  was  rescheduled  from  the  last  quarter  of  2024  to  the  first  quarter  of 
2025, with the purpose of being aligned with the end of the UCC NCTS-P6 deployment 
window. This change will provide Member States and economic operators with a legal 
and IT basis to ensure an effortless transition from the ENS requirements covered by 
UCC ICS2 and UCC NCTS-P5, into the new ENS requirements under UCC ICS2 and 
UCC NCTS-P6.  

Moreover, preparations for the training strategy for UCC ICS2 R3 were ongoing during 
2022. The Commission also organised a bilateral meeting with the Federation of National 
Associations of Ship Brokers and Agents (FONASBA)/European Community Association 
of Ship Brokers and Agents (ECASBA) in June 2022 to discuss their collaboration on 
UCC  ICS2  R3.  In  July  of  the  same  year,  a  workshop  was  conducted  by  CLECAT  to 
provide  high  level  information  on  UCC  ICS2  R3,  while  further  information  on  the 
aforesaid release was exchanged during bilateral meetings with customs administrations 
of third countries. 

During 2022, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, 
BG, DK, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, CY, LV, HU, MT, AT, PL, PT, SI, and SE) or ‘Finished’ 
(CZ,  DE,  IT,  LT,  and  FI).  Concerning  the  current  phase,  the  Member  States  reported 
being in operation (BG, DE, IE, EL, AT, PT, SI, and SK), upgrade of the national system 
(BE),  deployment  activities  (EE  and  HU),  conformance testing  activities (CZ,  FR,  HR, 
CY, and MT), national acceptance testing (LT and PL) or design of the national system 
(DK, ES, LV, and FI). IT and SE reported status ‘Other’. Furthermore, several Member 
States  reported  carrying  out  activities  related  to  analysis  and  modelling  (BE,  BG,  CZ, 

139 From the non-EU national administrations, Switzerland was the first to perform conformance tests in September 2022. 

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DK, DE, EE, IE, ES, FR, HR, IT, MT, AT, SI, SK, and FI), maintenance (BE, BG, CZ, DE, 
EE, IE, EL, FR, HU, MT, AT, SI, SK, and FI) and upgrades (BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, 
EL, FR, IT, HU, MT, AT, SI, SK, and FI). During the reporting year, some Member States 
communicated their preceding phase and indicated being in operation (BE), designing 
the national system (PL), developing the national technical specifications (DK, EL, and 
FR) or creating the national functional specifications (FI). ES communicated being in the 
same phase as its preceding phase.  

BG  participated  in  coordination  meetings,  webinars  and  workshop  activities  related  to 
the  project.  Furthermore,  BG  successfully  executed  conformance  testing  activities  for 
UCC ICS2 R2 in Mode 1 and Mode 2. BG also started the design of the national ICS2 
R3  system  and  informed  that  a  tender  process  was  ongoing  for  the  IT  provider 
concerning both UCC ICS2 R2 and UCC ICS2 R3. CZ developed the national component 
of ICS2 R2. DK informed that although the UCC ICS2 R2 planning and development was 
progressing,  a  derogation  request  until  31  October  2023  was  submitted  to  the 
Commission in September 2022. In addition, DK reviewed and analysed the UCC ICS2 
R3 TSS provided by the Commission and participated in the expert group on UCC ICS2 
R3  Operational  Guidance  for  maritime  and  inland  waterways.  DE  reported  that  the 
preparation  for  UCC  ICS2  R2  was  ongoing  in  view  of  R10.1  of  the  national  ATLAS 
system. The development activities for UCC ICS2 R2 were finalised at the end of 2022. 

EE attended regular analysis meetings with the developer. IE reported that the CMU was 
involved in several discussions and workshops with reference to the implementation of 
the project. IT informed that the development phase of UCC ICS2 R2 was finalised and 
the national system was upgraded to align with the requirements of the aforesaid release. 
LT  developed  the  National  Information  System  for  the  Presentation  of  Goods  for 
Customs  Control  (PPMKS),  which  was  integrated  with  the  updated  National  Risk 
Evaluation and Control System (RIKS) for data exchange with UCC ICS2 R2. Analysis 
and development activities on UCC ICS2 R2 were ongoing in AT throughout the reporting 
year.  PL  reported  that  most  of  the  UCC  ICS2  R2  functionalities  were  delivered.  RO 
informed that the documentation for both UCC ICS2 R2 and UCC ICS2 R3 was under 
the approval procedure by the Ministry of Finance. FI reported that the implementation 
of UCC ICS2 R2 was finalised at the end of 2022. SE reported that UCC ICS2 R2 was 
under development.  

1.1.15 UCC Surveillance3 (SURV3) (1.20) 

The UCC SURV3 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.  It  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 2022, multiple quality improvements in data warehouse and data mart have been 
executed, resulting in an increase in the system’s performance. Further enhancements 
and  initiatives  have  been  discussed  and  will  be  added  in  an  update  in  the  system’s 
specifications. 

During 2022, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (DK, 
DE, IE, EL, FR, IT, LV, AT, PT, RO, SI, and FI), ‘On hold’ (SK) or ‘Finished’ (BG, CZ, EE, 
HR, CY, HU, MT, PL, and SE). Regarding the current phase, the Member States reported 
being in operation (BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, EL, CY, LV, MT, PT, SI, FI, and SE), upgrade 
of  the  national  system  (HR),  deployment  activities  (IE  and  HU),  conformance  testing 
activities  (IT  and  RO),  design  of  the  national  system  (PL),  creation  of  the  national 

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technical specifications (FR) or analysis of the national user requirements (AT and SK). 
In addition, several Member States carried out activities related to analysis and modelling 
(CZ, DK, DE, FR, AT, PL, and SK), maintenance (BG, CZ, DK, DE, EL, HR, HU, PL, and 
FI) and upgrades (CZ, DK, IE, EL, HR, and PL).  

BG  informed  that  regular  monitoring  and  data  analysis  activities  were  carried  out.  CZ 
implemented some minor changes at the national level, particularly related to SRDS and 
the H7 data set. EE participated in all webinars held by the Commission and developed 
queues for the new SDR formats (nUCC and UCCp) for deployment in 2023. IE regularly 
analysed  the  national  documentation  to  keep  them  updated  based  on  the  latest 
developments  of  UCC  SURV3,  while  FR  analysed  the  system’s  specifications  for  the 
interconnection with NIS and UCC AES. PL analysed all the documentation prepared by 
the Commission. RO reported that the national SURV system was developed for the H199 
and H699 packages. In addition, the conformance tests regarding the exchange of SURV 
messages  between  the  national  SURV  and  SURV-RECAPP  systems  for  the 
aforementioned packages were completed. The first exchange of messages would take 
place after the deployment of NIS. RO further informed that for the B199 types of customs 
declarations, the development of the national SURV system was in the analysis phase. 
SK  informed  about  the  creation  of  a  detailed  impact  analysis  and  the  ongoing 
development phase. Considering that FI had finalised the implementation of SURV within 
the NIS project and had started the development of new versions according to the UCC 
Customs WP since 2021, only minor regression testing activities were reported in 2022. 
Finally, some Member States reported no IT activities at this stage (BE, ES, LT, and NL). 

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

study and agreement 

The  MASP-C  Group  2  contains  projects  for  which  further  discussion  will  be  required 
before they can be mapped in 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 (AN/PN/TS) (2.1) 

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

However, the interconnection between this project and other systems, such as UCC NIS 
and UCC ICS2, highlighted the complexity of its development. Subsequent to the risks 
identified in the 2021 Annual Progress Report concerning the national entry projects, the 
Commission  addressed  implementation  delays  at  an  early  stage  through  regular 
progress  reporting  and  organising  bilateral  meetings  with  Member  States  at  the  CIO 
level. More specifically, following the derogations requested by the Member States, the 
Commission  initiated  discussions  on  the  draft  Commission  Implementing  Decisions, 
highlighting that the proposals referred to the delays in the development of the national 
IT systems. The Member States were invited to submit their comments by October 2022 
in order for the text to be finalised and the interservice consultation to be launched.   

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During 2022, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, 
BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, EL, ES, FR, CY, LV, HU, MT, PT, SI, FI, and SE), ‘On hold’ (RO 
and  SK)  or  ‘Finished’  (IE,  HR,  IT,  LT,  and  AT).  Concerning  the  current  phase,  the 
Member States reported being in operation (IE, LV, and FI), system upgrade (DE, EE, 
and PT), deployment activities (IT), national acceptance testing (HR, LT, and AT), design 
of the national system (BE, CZ, DK, FR, CY, and HU), creation of the national technical 
specifications  (EL  and  SE)  and  national  functional  specifications  (SI),  analysis  of  the 
national user requirements (ES and MT) or carrying out other activities (BG and RO). In 
addition, several Member States reported carrying out activities related to analysis and 
modelling (BE, CZ, DK, DE, EE, EL, ES, FR, HR, MT, PT, SI, and FI), maintenance (BE, 
DK, DE, EE, IE, FR, PT, and FI) and upgrades (BE, DK, DE, PT, AT, and FI). During the 
reporting year, some Member States communicated their preceding phase and indicated 
performing conformance testing activities (IT), designing the national system (HR and 
AT),  creating  national  functional  specifications  (DK)  or  analysing  the  national  user 
requirements (EL). 

BG reported that UCC AN would be implemented as part of UCC ICS2 R2, while UCC 
PN/TS would be implemented as part of NIS. In June 2022, DK applied for a derogation 
on  UCC  AN/PN/TS  until  31  December  2024  and  in  September  2022,  it  applied  for  a 
derogation on UCC AN/PN/TS for air until 31 October 2023. EL informed that a call for 
tender was issued on 13 October 2022. FR informed about its work on the integration of 
the application code delivered in batches by BE. On this basis, FR reported that monthly 
exchange meetings with BE were convened and work was ongoing on the last iteration 
to integrate the Belgian solution into the French Information System. HR reported that 
the  UCC  TS  application  was  delivered  in  conformance  test  environment.  HR  further 
informed that UCC AN/PN was developed within the framework of UCC ICS2. In addition, 
HR submitted a request for derogation against the UCC AN/PN/TS operational deadline.  

FI  informed  that  an  updated  version  of  UCC  TS  according  to  the  latest  changes  of 
EUCDM entered in production on 15 February 2022. Additional changes for processing 
the location of goods entered in production in FI on 10 August 2022. LT reported that the 
functionality  for  handling  arrival  and  presentation  notifications  within  PPMKS  was 
developed. MT issued a call for tender for the implementation of UCC AN/PN/TS, which 
is expected to be awarded by the end of April 2023. PT focused on designing the national 
system  for  UCC  AN/PN/TS  P2.  RO  reported  that  the  functional  and  technical 
specifications related to the UCC AN/PN/TS development services were established and 
the project entered in the procurement phase. SI informed that activities were ongoing 
and the declaration for UCC TS would be aligned with data set G499 of Annex B to the 
UCC DA and UCC IA. Lastly, UCC TS entered in production in FI on 5 November 2022. 
NL, PL, and SK did not report activities on the project.  

1.2.2  UCC Guarantee Management (GUM) (2.5) 

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

The system is comprised of two components: a central component (component 1), which 
will be implemented through UCC CDS and a decentralised component (component 2), 
which refers to the national GUM systems that will be developed by the Member States. 
The  two  components  will  be  interconnected  via  CRS. The  central  GUM  component  is 
expected  to  be  operational  in  the  first  quarter  of  2024,  while  the  national  GUM 
components  would  be  deployed  until  June  2025.  On  this  basis,  the  hybrid-Member 
States using UCC CDS should be ready to test their systems before the central GUM 

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component goes live in the first quarter of 2024. This allows a window of more than one 
year to develop the national components of the UCC GUM system after the deployment 
of the central component in 2024. 

During  2022,  preparations  for  amendments  of  Annex  A  to  the  UCC  DA  and  UCC  IA 
continued, and an initial draft of the Annex A data elements needed for UCC GUM was 
finalised in the first half of the same year. Specifically, the UCC GUM-related proposals 
for the changes of Annex A to the UCC DA and UCC IA were discussed during the 2022 
meetings  of  the  DIH  Committee,  where  the  UCC  GUM  project  team  participated.  In 
parallel, over the course of 2022, the aforesaid team carried out a thorough analysis of 
the planned changes to Annex A for the implementation both in the UCC CDS and UCC 
GUM systems in comparison with the updated TSS, highlighted the discrepancies that 
were  discovered  and  made  recommendations  for  their  correction  and/or  modification. 
The  corrections  and  creation  of  new  data  elements  related  to  Annex  A  were  also 
discussed in several UCC CDS project groups and during a CPG meeting in March 2022. 

Moreover, the Application and Service specifications for CDMS and TP were completed 
during the second quarter of 2022, while the CRS technical specifications document was 
delivered  in  the  third  quarter  of  the  same  year.  The  UCC  GUM  TSS  were  formally 
approved by the ECCG in September 2022 by written procedure. In addition, by the last 
quarter of 2022, the Commission had carried out a comprehensive review of the UCC 
GUM Business User Guide, providing recommendations for further improvements.  

Furthermore,  during  2022,  bilateral  meetings  with  several  Member  States  were 
organised to discuss potential issues and explore the possibilities for future modifications 
to the system architecture of the UCC GUM components. In this respect, the Commission 
also  completed  several  assessments  of  the  status  of  the  Member  States’  readiness 
concerning the development of the UCC GUM system. Finally, in 2022, the Commission 
coordinated  the  compilation  and  finalisation  of  a  comprehensive  list  containing  the 
Member States’ appointed National Project Managers (NPMs) for the UCC GUM project. 

During 2022, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, 
DK, EE, IE, FR, CY, LT, HU, MT, AT, PL, PT, and FI), ‘On hold’ (DE and SK) or ‘Finished’ 
(BG, CZ, and SE). Concerning the current phase, the Member States reported being in 
operation (BG, CZ, PL, and SE), deployment (LT), design of the national system (FI), 
creation  of  national  functional  specifications  (EE),  analysis  of  the  national  user 
requirements (BE, IE, EL, FR, HU, MT, and AT) or carrying out other activities (DK, DE, 
CY, and PT). In addition, some Member States conducted activities related to analysis 
and  modelling  (BE,  DK,  IE,  FR,  MT,  AT,  and  FI).  During  the  reporting  year,  FI 
communicated being in the same phase as its preceding phase.  

BG informed about the preparation of a ‘Terms of Reference’ document in the last quarter 
of 2022, which foresaw an upgrade of the national GUM system. DK reported that the 
project was under analysis and no issues were encountered in relation to the planned 
operational  deadline  of  2024.  EE  reported  that  weekly  analysis  meetings  with  the 
developer were organised. IE attended all UCC GUM and UCC CDS meetings convened 
by  the  Commission.  FR  made  significant  progress  towards  achieving  its  goals, 
successfully  completing  several  major  steps  and  initiatives  despite  the  encountered 
challenges.  HR  analysed  the  UCC  GUM  Business  Case  and  UCC  GUM  Vision 
Document.  LT  reported  that  additional  integration  testing  of  the  national  Guarantee 
Management System (GVS) with other Customs Information Systems was performed, 
while any errors or inconsistencies found during this activity were corrected. Additionally, 
preparation  activities  for  the  deployment  of  GVS  into  production  were  performed.  MT 
informed on its plan to use the central system developed by the Commission and the 
analysis of changes to the National Accounting System. PL performed changes in the 

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national  system  based  on  the  legal  regulations.  PT  informed  that  its  national  GUM 
system was under development, while RO reported that the update of the national GUM 
was part of the NIS project. Finally, some Member States reported no IT activities at this 
stage (ES, IT, LV, NL, SI, and SK). 

1.2.3  UCC Special Procedures (SP) (2.6) 

The  implementation  of  the  UCC  SP  project  follows  two  approaches.  UCC  SP 
Harmonisation  are  the  national  IT  developments  for  the  harmonisation  of  special 
procedures and alignment with the legal provisions defined in the UCC DA and UCC IA. 
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. 

The UCC INF SP system has been operational in all Member States as of 1 June 2020. 
At the same time, UCC INF-STP has been successfully integrated into EUCTP and in 
production since 2020. EUCTP is the single portal at the Union level to provide economic 
operators with unique access to a number of centralised TES systems apart from UCC 
INF (i.e. UCC EBTI, UCC REX and UCC AEO). 

Since the entry into operations in June 2020 and until mid-2022, approximately 40,200 
UCC  INF  requests  were  sent  by  economic  operators  via  UCC  INF-STP,  out  of  which 
more than 36,000 were validated by the customs officers in UCC INF SP.  

In March 2022, UCC INF-STP v1.3.0.0 and v1.3.1.0 were deployed, while UCC INF-STP 
v1.4.0.0 was delivered in October 2022 and successfully tested in December of the same 
year. In addition, UCC INF SP v1.3.3.0 entered in production in May 2022.  

Moreover, over the course of 2022, the UCC INF project group continued its work and 
carried  out  extensive  discussions  to  conclude  on  business  and  important  operational 
issues. In February 2022, the Commission attended a meeting with representatives of 
the European Association of Sugar Traders (ASSUC), with the aim of providing answers 
and  clarifications  to  crucial  inquiries  and  issues  identified  by  the  economic  operators. 
Internal discussions also took place on the technical solution to be implemented for the 
invalidation of the TARIC codes, considering that the real-time validation in the TARIC 
system for opening each INF would lead to a major decrease in the performance of the 
system.  Additional  deliberations  between  DG  TAXUD  and  Directorate-General  for 
Informatics  (DG  DIGIT)  concentrated  on  reaching  a  common  agreement  on  the 
delegation per STP, instead of a global EUCTP approach with a duplication of profiles. 
For  this  purpose,  a  change  of  the  EUCTP  architecture  and  communication  protocol 
would be required for the division of EUCTP into separate sub-logical modules. Finally, 
over the course of 2022, the Commission further participated in CEG-DIH and ITSDG 
meetings  to  address  the  notion  that several  Member  States  were  no  longer  using  the 
UCC INF system and discuss the outcomes of the UCC INF project group meetings. 

In 2022, several Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, 
BG, CZ, DK, EE, ES, FR, CY, HU, AT, PL, and FI), ‘On hold’ (PT and SK) or ‘Finished’ 
(DE, IE, HR, MT, and SE). Concerning the current phase, the Member States reported 
being  in  operation  (BG,  DK,  DE,  IE,  HR,  HU,  MT,  AT,  PL,  FI,  and  SE),  national 
acceptance  testing  (EE),  design  of  the  national  system  (BE  and  FR),  creation  of  the 
national  technical  specifications  (CY)  and  national  functional  specifications  (ES), 
analysis  of  the  national  user  requirements  (CZ  and  EL)  or  conducting  other  activities 
(PT).  In  addition,  some  Member  States  conducted  activities  related  to  analysis  and 
modelling  (BE,  ES,  CY,  and  PL),  maintenance  (BE,  DE,  IE,  HR,  AT,  PL,  and  FI)  and 
upgrades (HR, AT, and PL). During the reporting year, CY communicated developing the 
national functional specifications as its preceding phase.  
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BG and HR informed that the National SP Import (IMP) was part of NIS. The National 
SP Export (EXP) of both BG and EE was part of UCC AES. DK reported using the EU 
transnational systems and therefore, not having a national INF SP system. EE informed 
that the National SP IMP was in operation. EL also reported that the project would be 
following the upgrade of NIS. FR informed that the different functionalities of the national 
system would be delivered in several iterations, while the National SP IMP project was 
supported by NIS. IT informed that all the activities related to UCC SP were carried out 
within the ‘Adjustments of the existing import applications under the UCC’ project. MT 
reported that despite using the central system developed by the Commission, national 
authorisations  for  SP  would  eventually  be  processed  via  the  national  application  e-
Authorisations, while the multi-Member States’ authorisations would still be processed 
via the central system. AT reported on the operation phase with several upgrades and 
ongoing exchanges with the UCC INF project group.  

PL reported that the implementation of the UCC SP project was carried out in four IT 
system projects: (a) UCC INF SP, (b) Supplementation of UCC AES, (c) AIS, and (d) the 
development and implementation of a new national system concerning the management 
and settlement of SP (RPS). The components of the national UCC SP system would be 
supplemented with additional required functions under a new IT contract, as the second 
phase of the project to implement the national UCC SP system (functional development 
of  UCC  AES,  AIS  and  RPS  systems).  PL  further  informed  that  following  the 
implementation of the RPS system in 2021, additional functionalities were implemented 
in 2022. Furthermore, analytical work was carried out to adapt the RPS, AIS and UCC 
AES systems to a new matrix referred to in Annex B to the UCC DA and UCC IA. RO 
informed that the project was in its procurement phase with the functional and technical 
specifications  related  to  the  SP  development  services  already  being  established.  SI 
informed  that  the  national  SP  were  part  of  the  Slovenian  Automated  Import  System 
(SIAIS2),  which  became  operational  on  1  January  2022.  FI  reported  that  the  INF  SP 
testing  and  updates  in  the  system  were  carried  out  according  to  the  Commission 
updates. Finally, LV, LT, NL, and SK reported no IT activities at this stage. 

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

This  project  pertains  to  the  required  updates  and  further  development  of  NIS  in  the 
Member States, resulting from the implementation of the UCC. The project covers the 
development of two systems: UCC NIS upgrade and UCC CCI (P1 and P2). 

During 2022, the UCC CCI IT project group on P1 held bilateral meetings with 23 Member 
States.  Several  among  them  underlined  the  challenges  and  the  risks  they  faced 
regarding  the  legal  deadline  of  December  2023  for  entering  in  operation.  The 
Commission committed to monitoring the progress of the Member States’ activities and 
providing  assistance  where  needed.  Moreover,  the  Commission  requested  from  all 
Member States to provide their latest NPPs by mid-May 2022. 

In reference to UCC CCI P1, the final package on the conformance testing (specifications 
and  scenarios)  was  delivered.  The  consultation  procedure  between  the  forerunner 
Member States140 was completed and they started conformance testing activities, thus, 
marking a major achievement and a milestone in the UCC CCI project. 

Concerning UCC CCI P2, the UCC CCI P2 TSS package for R1.0.0 was published for 
external review on 10 February 2022 and the deadline for comments was foreseen on 
24 March 2022. The Member States and economic operators successfully finalised the 

140 ES and FR. 

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UCC  CCI  P2  TSS  package  verification,  which  was  formally  approved  by  written 
procedure  on  17  June  2022.  Lastly,  the  UCC  CCI  P2  Specifications  for  Business 
Statistics package and its appendix were internally reviewed and accepted. 

In  2022,  the  majority  of  the  Member  States  informed  about  their  current  status  as  ‘In 
Progress’ (BE, BG, CZ, DK, DE, EE, EL, ES, FR, CY, LV, LT, HU, MT, AT, PT, RO, FI, 
and SE) or ‘Finished’ (IE, HR, IT, and SI). Concerning the current phase, the Member 
States  reported  being  in  operation  (BG,  DE,  IE,  HR,  SK,  FI,  and  SE),  upgrade  of  the 
national  system  (SI),  deployment  activities  (HU),  national  acceptance  testing  (MT), 
design of the national system (BE, CZ, DK, EE, ES, FR, and LV), creation of the national 
technical specifications (CY and AT) and national functional specifications (EL and LT) 
or other activities related to this project (IT, PT, and RO). In addition, several Member 
States conducted activities related to analysis and modelling (BE, BG, DK, DE, EL, IT, 
CY, HU, MT, AT, SI, and FI), maintenance (BE, BG, DE, IE, HR, IT, SI, SK, and FI) and 
upgrades (BE, BG, DE, HR, MT, AT, SI, SK, and FI). During the reporting year, CY and 
AT communicated their preceding phase and indicated developing the national functional 
specifications.   

BG reported that at the end of 2022, preparations for the next upgrade of NIS, which is 
planned for 2023, were initiated and some of the national requirements were specified in 
a  dedicated  meeting.  CZ  informed  that  the  upgrade  of  NIS  was  postponed  until  1 
December 2024. In June 2022, DK applied for a derogation on UCC CCI P1 and NIS 
until 31 December 2024. DE reported that the development and maintenance activities 
of NIS were carried out within the framework of the overall ATLAS system. Moreover, 
DE reported the alignment of NIS to the UCC DA requirements by the end of the reporting 
year.  EE  informed  that  the  development  of  the  UCC  CCI  project,  which  started  as  of 
August 2022, would be performed in iterations, while the initial part of the national testing 
took  place.  EL reported that  a  call  for  tender  was  initiated  on  13 October  2022  and  a 
derogation request was submitted. FR informed about the NIS development. IT informed 
that  the  national  system  was  upgraded  in  order  to  implement  all  the  Hx  messages 
according to EUCDM 5.2 and EUCDM 6.0 for H7. IT also carried out conformance testing 
activities  with  the  economic  operators  to  detect  and  correct  any  identified  errors.  In 
addition,  IT  finalised  the  analysis,  development  and  deployment  of  the  Simplified 
Procedures,  while  ensuring  the  interoperability  of  the  new  system  with  the  other  IT 
National Customs Systems. Lastly, IT started the analysis for the migration to EUCDM 
6.2. 

LV  informed  that  a  new  NIS  development  has  been  started  to  implement  updates 
according to the latest version of EUCDM and UCC CCI. LT reported that a draft for the 
iMDAS Client Specifications was prepared in accordance with EUCDM and shared with 
other  units  to  be  aligned  with  the  preparation  activities  for  the  updated  National  Tax 
Calculation and Validation System (MAPS). MT informed that AIS was being developed 
internally by MT’s Information Technology Agency. AT reported that the national tender 
procedure  for the  core  systems  was  issued  and the  national  project organisation  was 
aligned. SI informed that SIAIS2 was harmonised with Annex B to the UCC DA and UCC 
IA and was put into operation on 1 January 2022. Subsequently, SIAIS2 was upgraded 
based on the users and customs officers’ suggestions and thus, the minor system errors 
identified were eliminated. SK informed about its ongoing work to harmonise the system 
with the revised Annex B to the UCC DA and UCC IA. FI reported that new versions of 
NIS were under development. FI further informed that due to emerging issues concerning 
the  recruitment  of  new  personnel  in  the  supplier  domain,  a  derogation  request  was 
submitted for UCC CCI. However, later during the reporting year, this derogation was 
withdrawn  to  be  re-examined.  SE  informed  that  some  parts  of  the  project  were  in 

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operation,  while  others  were  still  under  development.  NL  and  PL  did  not  report  IT 
activities at this stage. 

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.  

Nonetheless, in February 2022, the development of the CUP-MIS data warehouse was 
completed,  while  the  conformance  testing  activity  for  the  data  warehouse  reports 
continued. In April 2022, CUP-MIS v1.0.1.2 was deployed. Lastly, in December 2022, 
the development of the item/declaration conversion regarding the data warehouse was 
finalised. 

During 2022, some Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ 
(BG, DK, CY, and LV), ‘On hold’ (MT, PT, and SK) or ‘Finished’ (EE, IE, ES, and SE). 
Concerning the current phase, most of the Member States (BE, CZ, DE, EL, FR, HR, IT, 
LT, HU, NL, AT, PL, RO, SI, SK, and FI) reported no activities and no specific status for 
this project. DK, EE, IE, LV, and SE communicated being in operation, while CY reported 
analysing the national user requirements. BG, ES, MT, and PT reported status ‘Other’. 
IE also informed about carrying out maintenance activities.  

BG reported that activities within the CUP-MIS project group were conducted during the 
year. DK informed about the quarterly and yearly submission of CUP-MIS indicators into 
the system and its participation in a workshop organised by the Commission on the use 
of  the  CUP-MIS  system.  IE  performed  analysis  and  collected  the  necessary  data  for 
CUP-MIS. LV worked on system testing and error identification. RO reported using the 
CUP-MIS IT tool developed by the Commission. 

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

The  UCC  PoUS  system  is  a  new  TES  system  designed  to  store  and  manage  the 
electronic T2L/T2LF141 documents and CGM. This project was re-launched in 2019. The 
approach taken on the system architecture involved a centralised system (under a hybrid 
approach). The central component of UCC PoUS includes a Back-Office (BO) module 
where  proofs  are  processed  by  the  customs  office  and  an  STP  for  the  submission  of 
proofs by economic operators. The national administrations of the Member States would 
choose either to use the central system or to develop a national system, which would 
interface  with  the  central  one.  The  Commission  adopted  a  two-phased  approach  to 
developing  the  UCC  PoUS  project.  The  first  phase  consists  of  implementing  the 
electronic T2L/F document with all the necessary functionalities, while the second phase 
involves the implementation of the electronic CGM, including the information exchange 
with the EMSWe.  

In 2022, the project group on UCC PoUS advanced considerably in the elaboration and 
development  of  the  two-phased  approach  of  the  system.  Within  the  framework  of  the 
project group, regular webinars with the Member States were organised to discuss the 
development of the central system and the advancement of the national components. 

141 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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The development of the first part of the UCC PoUS BO module for P1 was completed 
and installed in a conformance testing environment in January 2022 and included 70% 
of the functionalities. The remaining 30%, along with STP and the S2S interconnection, 
were  nearly  finalised  by  December  2022  and  are  expected  to  be  delivered  in  early 
January 2023. During the course of the above-mentioned webinars, the Member States 
reviewed  and  commented  on  the  BO  and  STP  that  were  provisionally  installed  in  a 
sandbox  environment  to  test  their  functionalities,  allowing  for  early  identification  of 
needed  improvements.  Data  concerning  the  Member  States  T2L(F)  volumes  and 
capacity planning were also collected via a survey.  

Alongside  the  IT  development,  the  L2-L3-L4  BPMs  were  updated  and  implemented 
according to the 59 RfCs registered and analysed in 2021. The related external review 
was  launched  in  May  2022  and  formally  accepted  by  the  ECCG  in  September  of  the 
same year. The changes in Annex B to the UCC DA related to UCC PoUS (E1 column 
T2L/F)  that  were  proposed  and  discussed  in  the  previous  year  were  implemented  in 
2022; however, the relevant updates to the system will be performed in 2023.  

Concerning the preparation of the UCC PoUS P2, the analysis activities for elaborating 
the CGM service specifications started in May 2022. The CGM use case specifications 
for the BO and STP were finalised and published for review by the Member States. As a 
result  of  the  work  on  the  technical  implementation  and  legal  discussions,  a  change 
management activity was undertaken to align the FSS. In 2022, a misalignment between 
the deployment dates of UCC PoUS P2 and EMSWe was observed. Considering that 
UCC PoUS is expected to receive a considerable volume of CGM through the EMSWe 
system,  the  final  deployment  date  has  been  postponed  from  June  to  August  2025  to 
adapt  to  the  EMSWe  planning  and  avoid  unnecessary  burdens  for  the  economic 
operators. 

In  relation  to  the  development  choice,  25  Member  States  decided  to  use  the  central 
system, while two Member States (ES and PL) opted for developing a national PoUS 
system. Considering the challenges faced by the Member States for the implementation 
of  the  e-Customs  systems,  a  six-month  extension  was  granted  to  the  Member  States 
that will use the central system, bringing the deadline to June 2023.  

In 2022, several Member states informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, 
BG, CZ, DK, EE, IE, ES, FR, IT, CY, HU, MT, PL, SI, FI, and SE), ‘On hold’ (PT, RO, 
and SK) or ‘Finished’ (AT). Concerning the current phase, the Member States reported 
being in conformance testing activities (DK), national acceptance testing (MT), design of 
national system (CZ, HU, and PL), creation of the national technical specifications (FR, 
IT,  and  AT)  and  national  functional  specifications  (EE),  analysis  of  the  national  user 
requirements (DE, EL, and FI) or other national activities (BE, BG, IE, CY, PT, RO, SI, 
and SE). In addition, some Member States conducted activities related to analysis and 
modelling (BE, CZ, DK, EE, IE, ES, FR, IT, AT, PL, and SI) and upgrades (ES). During 
the  reporting  year,  two  Member  States  communicated  their  preceding  phase  and 
indicated being in conformance testing activities (ES) and developing the national user 
requirements (FR).   

BG  and  EE  reported  their  participation  in  UCC  PoUS  webinars  organised  by  the 
Commission. FR focused on the implementation of the risk analysis. HR analysed the 
development  of  the  services  that  need  to  be  implemented  by  a  national  PoUS  Risk 
Analysis System to have an S2S communication with the PoUS BO application for the 
risk  analysis  interactions.  IT  reported  activities  for  UCC  PoUS  P1.  PL  carried  out  an 
analysis on the UCC PoUS documentation prepared by the Commission and developed 
the  National  System  Requirements  Specifications.  RO  did  not  foresee  to  develop  a 
national PoUS system due to the reduced number of documents issued in the country. 

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Therefore, RO would use the central system developed by the Commission. SE would 
also use the UCC PoUS system. Lastly, some Member States reported no IT activities 
at this stage (LV, LT, NL, and SK).  

1.2.7  European Maritime Single Window environment (EMSWe) in relation 

to customs systems (2.13) 

EMSWe aims to improve maritime transport administrative procedures by introducing an 
SW for reporting formalities for ships to harmonise processes and data exchange with 
the  economic  operators.  Following  the  EMSWe  Regulation  (EU)  2019/1239142,  the 
system is foreseen to be operational by 15 August 2025. 

Throughout 2022, several joint meetings took place between DG TAXUD and DG MOVE 
to progress on the implementation of the EMSWe Regulation and the related customs 
aspects. With regard to the drafting of the EMSWe DA, the software tool GEFEG.FX143 
was  used  to  prepare  and  maintain  EUCDM,  therefore,  facilitating  the  building  of  the 
EMSWe data set aligned with EUCDM. The consolidated v0.11 of the EMSWe data set 
included  part  A  and  part  B  data  elements  stemming  from  the  EU  and  international 
legislations. In contrast, part C represented data elements stemming from the national 
legislations. Therefore, a harmonised data set was mapped with Annex B to the UCC DA 
and  UCC  IA.  Particularly  for  part  C,  the  Member  States’  additional  contributions  and 
clarifications  were  discussed  among  the  Member  States’  experts  during  the  CBG 
meetings  and  bilateral  meetings.  The  DA144  containing  the  EMSWe  data  set  was 
approved in the fourth quarter of 2022, whereas the IA145 was submitted for opinion at 
the DTTF Committee and was adopted in the third quarter of 2022. 

Furthermore, DG TAXUD and DG MOVE collaborated internally with: (a) the PoUS team 
on CGM, (b) the AES team on the three exit formalities, namely the EXS, the re-export 
notification and the exit notification (foreseen under the EMSWe Regulation), and (c) the 
ICS2 team as regards UCC AN. Lastly, DG MOVE continued its work on the EMSWe 
Message Implementation Guide (MIG), which would contain messages to be exchanged 
in the S2S communication between declarants and the Maritime Single Window (MSW). 

In 2022, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, BG, 
DK, IE, HR, CY, MT, FI, and SE) or ‘On hold’ (EE, PT, and SI). Concerning the current 
phase,  some  Member  States  reported  designing  the  national  system  (FI  and  SE), 
analysing the national user requirements (BG, IE, and MT) or carrying out other activities 
(BE, DK, EE, HR, CY, PT, and SI). In addition, some Member States conducted activities 
related to analysis and modelling (BE, BG, IE, MT, and FI).  

BG informed that the development of the MNSW application would be undertaken by the 
Bulgarian  Ports  Infrastructure  Company  (BPI  Co.)  according  to  the  Bulgarian  Law  on 
Maritime  Spaces,  Inland  Waterways  and  Ports  of  the  Republic  of  Bulgaria.  BG  also 
informed that the Bulgarian Customs Agency and BPI Co. had a cooperation agreement 
to  establish  an  MNSW  environment.  The  customs  authority  coordinated  all  customs-
related  matters  with  BPI  Co.  and  provided  some  technical  specifications  for  the 
integration  between  the  National  Customs  System  and  MNSW.  However,  as  BG 

142 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. 

143  GEFEG.FX  is  an  eBusiness  Interface  Design  supporting  the  definition,  modelling,  validation,  harmonisation  and 
organisation of interfaces with extensive functions. 

144 In this case, the DA is part of the tertiary legislation in relation to the EMSWe Regulation.   

145 In this case, the IA is part of the tertiary legislation in relation to the EMSWe Regulation.   

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reported,  this  integration  had  no  impact  on  the  business  processes  in  the  National 
Customs  System.  For  the  integration  of  the  latter  with  the  MNSW  environment,  BG 
carried out an analysis on the national user requirements and design of the necessary 
changes.  Lastly,  the  S2S  communication,  common  user  registry  and  access  control 
system  were  tested.  DK  informed  that  it  was  yet  to  be  clarified  whether  the  Danish 
Customs  Agency  would  be  the  national  administrator  or  project  owner  of  this  project. 
However, since the project had integrations to the National Customs System domain, the 
interaction  and  interfacing  with  the  current  and  future  setup  in  the  customs  system 
domain was being assessed to secure that the latter could support the strategy and goal 
for EMSWe, as laid out by the Commission. To this end, DK reported being in an ongoing 
dialogue with the Danish competent authorities.  

DE  informed that  as  it  was  necessary  to  establish  the  EMSWe  data  set, DE  customs 
contributed with the definition of part C data elements used at the national level. EE and 
SI  attended  the  related  webinars  organised  by  DG  MOVE  and  informed  that  the 
development of the national system has not yet started. MT would use the central system 
developed  by  the  Commission.  FI  informed  that  the  MNSW  application  would  be 
developed  by  an  authority  other  than  customs.  The  application  would  also  have 
interfaces to FI’s Customs Declaration System. Lastly, several Member States reported 
no IT activities at this stage (CZ, EL, ES, FR, IT, LV, LT, HU, NL, AT, PL, RO, and SK).  

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 Commission play an active role in their development. 

1.3.1  EU  Implementation  of  United  Nations  Economic  Commission  for 
Europe  (UNECE)  electronic  International  Road  Transports  (eTIR) 
System (3.1) 

The eTIR system aims to secure electronic data exchange between National Customs 
Systems  related  to  the  international  transport  of  goods  covered  by  TIR  Carnets  (TIR 
Convention146).  This  project  was  launched  by  the  contracting  parties  of  the  TIR 
Convention under the auspices of the UNECE to provide an exchange platform for all 
actors  involved  in  the  TIR  system,  including  customs  authorities, the  guarantee  chain 
and transport operators. 

Subsequent  to  the  approved  solution  in  the  Business  Case,  the  eTIR  project  will  be 
moved under UCC NCTS and a new phase for UCC NCTS-P7 will be created, which will 
include the NCTS-eTIR international system interconnection. The planning and expected 
IT architecture, including the development and operation method, will be defined.  

During 2022, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BE, 
DE, HR, CY, and FI) or ‘On hold’ (BG, CZ, EE, MT, PT, and SK). Concerning the current 
phase, the majority of the Member States reported status ‘Other’. No other activities were 
initiated by the Member States during the reporting year. 

1.3.2  electronic Temporary Admission (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 (e.g. economic 

146 The TIR Convention refers to the Customs Convention on the International Transport of Goods under cover of TIR 
Carnets and was drafted in 1975. 

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operators,  chambers  of  commerce  and  customs  administrations)  involved  in  the 
temporary admission of goods procedure in various countries or customs territories. The 
project aims to replace the current paper-based ATA Carnet with a global eATA Carnet 
system. 

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 the 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,  ICC  WCF  is  currently 
implementing  a  system  to  replace  paper-based  ATA  Carnet  modalities  using  a  digital 
solution called ‘Mercury II’. During 2022, the eATA Carnet project was at its development 
stage,  which  included  the  involvement  of  EU  Member  States  and  third  countries  in 
several  pilot  projects.  The  business-related  activities  included  support  and  service 
optimisation,  customs  implementation  and  training  of  the  National  Guaranteeing 
Association  (NGA).  Since  October  2022,  a  light  issuance  platform,  the  ATA  Gateway 
system, was made available for those NGSs and issuing associations not intending to 
integrate their systems into the eATA Carnet system. In November 2022, the ICC WCF 
published  the  global  transition  plan,  containing  a  proposal  for  the  Member  States' 
transition.  

The Commission's activities for the implementation of the eATA Carnet system included 
the organisation of dedicated meetings within the CBG framework with the invitation of 
third countries and the ICC WCF, promoting the Member States' participation in the pilot 
phase, sharing the results of the pilot projects to support other contracting parties and 
promoting the adoption of the eATA Carnet system. To this end, a dedicated survey was 
published  in  2022  to  obtain  information  on  the  Member  States  and  third  countries’ 
planning, project managers' details, current ATA Carnet volumetric and offices involved 
in the ATA transactions. Another essential activity was the evaluation of the ICC WCF 
eATA Carnet system’s security standards, carried out in cooperation with the Member 
States.  In  February  2022,  a  review  cycle  on  the  above-mentioned  evaluation  was 
launched, and following the Member States’ feedback, a final version was approved in 
July of the same year.  

In 2022, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (DK, EE, 
CY, AT, FI, and SE), ‘On hold’ (MT, PT, SI, and SK) or ‘Finished’ (BG). Concerning the 
current phase, EL and HU reported being in conformance testing activities, while HR, 
AT,  FI,  and  SE  reported  focusing  on  the  analysis  of  the  national  user  requirements. 
Seven Member States reported on other activities (BG, DK, EE, MT, PT, RO, and SI). In 
addition,  three  Member  States  reported  carrying  out  activities  related  to  analysis  and 
modelling (DK, HU, and AT). 

DK reported its participation in two CBG meetings dedicated to the eATA Carnet system. 
Furthermore, DK informed that at the end of 2022, a national project group on the eATA 
Carnet  system  was  established,  whereby  a  preliminary  analysis  of  the  project  was 
performed.  DE  announced  that they  followed the  project-related  activities,  namely the 
pilot  system  from  the  ICC  WCF  and  the  WCO  on  eATA.  EL  informed  about  its 
collaboration  with  the  National  Chamber  of  Commerce.  AT  participated  in  all  the  EU 

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workshops,  while  FI  attended  all  related  meetings  organised  by  the  Commission.  No 
additional activities were initiated from the Member States during the reporting year. 

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

SSTL is a pilot project between the EU (BE, DE, ES, FR, IT, NL, PL), UK, China, and 
Hong Kong 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, China, and Hong Kong customs 
authorities and internal exchanges between the Member States and 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 2022, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (ES and 
HU)  and  ‘On  hold’  (DK, EE,  FR, MT,  PT,  and  SK).  As  regards the  current  phase,  ES 
focused on upgrading the national system, while FR reported the analysis of the national 
user requirements. Six Member States reported other activities (CZ, DK, EE, HU, MT, 
and  PT).  ES  performed  operational  activities  related  to  the  Customs  Enforcement 
Network  Communication  Platform  (CENcomm).  No  further  project  activities  were 
reported by the Member States during the reporting year. 

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  the  Member  States  and  to  accelerate  the  technological 
development of EIS. 

1.4.1  National Systems Implementation by IT Collaboration Projects (4.1) 

Within the context of an IT Strategy for implementing the UCC and e-Customs initiatives, 
a new working method was developed at the EU level already in 2018, which is depicted 
in the joint efforts of the Member States towards building common EU components for 
National  Customs  Systems.  ETCIT  was  launched  in  2018  following  the  Tallinn 
Declaration on eGovernment147 and concluded two iterations since its inception. 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 ETCIT III throughout 2022. Led by 
NL, the 15 participating Member States (BE, CZ, DK, DE, EE, IE, FR, IT, CY, LT, LU, 
MT,  NL,  PT,  and  SE)  cooperated  towards  the  objectives  agreed  in  the  Council 
Conclusions on the way forward to developing customs IT systems148, by studying new 
approaches, analysing the legal and governance framework, providing possible options 
for launching pilot projects and exploring new or alternative possibilities for financing the 
future development and operation of customs IT systems. The main purposes of ETCIT 
III  were  to  share  knowledge  and  initiatives  among  the  Member  States,  build  on  the 
achievements of the previous two phases to advance the possibilities of IT collaboration 

147 Ministerial Declaration on eGovernment – the Tallinn Declaration 

148 Council Conclusions on the way forward of developing customs IT systems 

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further, support pilot projects and identify future IT collaboration activities and exploit the 
established ETCIT methods of cooperation.  

The ETCIT III activities started in April 2022 and are expected to conclude in October 
2023. The Member States reaffirmed their interest in collaborating in areas beyond those 
defined  in  the  MASP-C  Revision  2019  and  continued  working  on  the  pilot  projects 
launched  in  the  previous  ETCIT  iterations,  such as  UCC  PN/TS  and  DiG. In  addition, 
ETCIT III launched a new initiative called ‘CIO Network’, aiming to set up and maintain 
a network of key stakeholders in the customs IT field. The newly created CIO Network 
was established under the Customs Programme 2021–2027.  

Other pilot projects focused on collaboration around the national systems in the areas of 
import,  export  and  transit,  legal  and  procedural  constraints  in  addition  to  practical 
collaboration perspectives. More precisely, the Member States participating in the UCC 
PN/TS pilot project (BE, FR, MT, and SE) advanced in defining the business context, 
use cases and message specifications, validating the non-functional requirements and 
testing  the  application.  The  following  components  were  developed:  presentation 
notification, temporary storage, goods accounting and re-export notification. Concerning 
the DiG pilot project, the ETCIT III activities in 2022 focused on drafting the Business 
Case, the TSS and functional requirements.  

During 2022, most of the Member States (BE, BG, CZ, DE, EE, IE, EL, ES, FR, HR, IT, 
CY, LV, LT, HU, NL, AT, PL, RO, SI, SK, and FI) reported no specific status and activities 
for this project. Some Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ 
(DK, MT, and SE) or ‘On hold’ (PT). DK, PT, and FI reported participating in the ETCIT 
working group activities. 

1.4.2  Common Communication Network 2 (CCN2) (4.5) 

The  CCN2  project  is  the  evolution  of  the  current  CCN  architecture  and  services.  The 
CCN/CSI operational infrastructure consists of a closed, secured network infrastructure 
provided  by  the  Commission  to  facilitate  the  exchange  of  information  between  the 
national  administrations  of  the  taxation  and  customs  areas.  CCN2  applies  a  Service 
Oriented  Architecture  (SOA)  approach  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 the shared services capabilities. 

In  2022,  a  more  agile  release  management  approach  was  followed,  consisting  of  a 
shorter  release  lifecycle  to  achieve  a  better  and  faster  alignment  with  the  business 
needs. CCN2 R2 came into operation in March 2022, whereas the testing for CCN2ng 
R2.1,  which  was rescoped  and  dedicated to Oracle  Identity  and  Access Management 
(IAM)  upgrades,  was  ongoing  during  June  2022,  and  the  production  phase  started  in 
November of the same year. CCN2ng R2.2 was in the construction phase during the first 
quarter of the reporting year, the testing and deployment phase began during the second 
quarter  and  the  entry  into  operations  was  in  November  2022.  This  release  was 
reassessed and addressed the necessary improvements needed to comply with the Gold 
availability level. Furthermore, the elaboration of the system specifications for CCN2ng 
R3 started during the fourth quarter of 2022. During the reporting year, a bridge between 
CCN2 and SPEED2, which allows the national administrations of the Member States to 
connect  to  EU  CSW-CERTEX  through  CCN2,  was  also  developed  and  entered  in 
production  in  May  2022.  The  CCN/CCN2  evolution  project  was  ‘On  hold’  and  under 
impact  analysis  following  the  recommendations  contained  in  the  ‘Report  by  the  Wise 

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Persons Group on the Reform of the EU Customs Union’. In the meantime, evolutions 
are considered by platform and based on the needs of the Member States.  

During 2022, the Member States informed about their current status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, 
CZ, DK, DE, FR, HU, AT, PL, PT, SI, and FI) or ‘Finished’ (EE, IE, HR, MT, and SE). 
Concerning the current phase, the Member States reported being in operation (BE, BG, 
CZ, DK, EE, IE, HR, LV, HU, MT, AT, PL, PT, SI, SK, and SE) or designing the national 
system  (FR).  DE  and  FI  reported  status  ‘Other’.  Furthermore,  some  Member  States 
reported carrying out activities related to analysis and modelling (BE, DE, FR, HU, MT, 
and FI), maintenance (BG, CZ, HR, MT, AT, PL, SK, and FI), and upgrades (BE, BG, 
HR,  MT,  PL,  SK,  and  FI).  During  the  reporting  year,  PL  communicated  its  preceding 
phase and indicated being in upgrade of the national system. FI reported being in the 
same phase as its preceding phase. 

BG informed that the national CCN and CCN2 system components were maintained and 
operated.  CZ  reported  that  CCN2ng  was  used  in  conformance  and  production 
environments for the CDMS, TP, CRS, CS/RD2, EUCTP, INF SP and ICS2 applications. 
DE  focused  on  establishing  an  S2S  connection  as  well  as  user  management, 
maintenance and support when using central web applications, such as UCC INF SP or 
CDMS. HR reported supporting the migration to CCN2ng R2.2 at the end of 2022. HR 
also informed that user management activities were performed in the service operation 
period of the CCN2 infrastructure (e.g. adding new users or permissions, blocking old or 
inactive users and changing system passwords). In addition, the IOSS and ‘Dispositions 
d'Application  du  Code’  7  (DAC7)  systems,  which  entered  in  production  during  the 
reporting year, were connected to the CCN2 network. HR further reported that in October 
and  November  2022,  a  VPN  backup  solution  was  performed  for  the  CCN  and  CCN2 
networks, in collaboration with the Commission.  

HU reported that the modelling and development of the CCN2 network for the UCC ICS2 
R2 communication started in October 2022. HU also participated in the CCN workshops 
organised  by  the  Commission  and  followed  the  new  planning  and  documentation 
updates  for  CCN2.  PL's  activities  focused  on  the  CCN2  user  management,  tests  and 
configuration tasks for the local network. PL reported that the main encountered issues 
related to the considerable number of users in the UCC INF SP system, while additional 
problems emerged from the last update of the CCN2 network to v2.2.0. More concretely, 
the  connection  of  the  latter  to  Oracle’s  Identity  and  IAM  encountered  multiple  issues. 
Nevertheless, all problems caused by the unavailability of the IAM tool were resolved in 
November 2022. Additionally, PL informed that the main activities of the CCN2 national 
project  team  included  the  participation  in  the  CCN  meetings  organised  by  the 
Commission  and  ITTIG,  the  execution  of  CCN2  training  activities  and  the  CCN2 
monitoring for partner countries. FI reported other activities related to CCN2, with a focus 
on development work, maintenance and participation in trainings. 

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  with  a 
unified  access  to  a  single  interface  for  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 CDS, UCC EOS-AEO, COPIS and UCC BTI. Furthermore, UCC 

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UUM&DS provides a mandate capability, allowing economic operators to be represented 
by known mandated individuals and support the use of electronic signatures. 

The activities during 2022 focused on UCC UUM&DS R2.2, which is critical for the two-
factor authentication process and supports the migration to OpenID Connect, Kafka and 
type D migration to the EU Login. The conformance testing was carried out in January 
2022, and R2.2 was deployed in production in March 2022. The development of UCC 
UUM&DS  R2.3  was  completed  in  January  2022  and  came  into  operations  in  August 
2022.  It  covered  the  migration  of  the  Member  States’  nodes  to  the  electronic 
Identification,  Authentication  and  trust  Services  (eIDAS)  v2.5  components,  thus, 
increasing the security level of the authentication communication flow. The development 
phase  of  UCC  UUM&DS  R2.4  proceeded  alongside  the  work  on  the  aforementioned 
releases and was deployed in production in November 2022. In the UCC UUM&DS R2.4, 
the previous UUM&DS Member States’ nodes were replaced by the native standalone 
eIDAS nodes with exclusive local hosting. Additional features included simplifications in 
the certificate registration. The first half of 2022 was also dedicated to developing UCC 
UUM&DS  R2.5  and  the  Site  Acceptance  Testing  (SAT)  was  performed  in  December 
2022. This release introduced the extended cross border delegation allowing employees 
who  represent  their  companies  to  create  and  use  the  delegation  in  a  more  flexible 
manner. In addition, the building of UCC UUM&DS R2.6, R2.7 and R4.0 was initiated in 
the last quarter of 2022, and the SAT for UCC UUM&DS R3.0 was executed in the same 
period.  

In 2022, the Member States informed about their status as ‘In Progress’ (BG, DK, DE, 
EL,  HR,  IT,  HU,  MT,  PL,  PT,  SI,  and  FI)  or  ‘Finished’  (CZ,  EE,  FR,  LT,  LT,  and  SE). 
Concerning the current phase, the Member States reported being in operation (BG, CZ, 
DK,  EL,  FR,  HR,  IT,  LT,  PT,  SI,  SK,  and  SE),  upgrade  of  the  national  system  (PL), 
deployment activities (EE and FI), conformance testing activities (DE and HU) or design 
of the national system (MT). In addition, several Member States reported carrying out 
activities related to analysis and modelling (BG, DE, HU, MT, PL, and PT), maintenance 
(BE, BG, EL, HR, IT, HU, MT, PL, PT, SI, SK, and FI) and upgrades (BE, BG, EL, HR, 
IT,  MT,  PL,  PT,  SI,  SK,  and  FI).  During  the  reporting  year,  three  Member  States 
communicated their preceding phase and indicated being in operation (PL), upgrade of 
the national system (PT) or national acceptance testing (DE). 

BG  reported  the  analysis  and  modelling  of  the  Oracle’s  Business  Critical  Assistance 
(BCA) IAM upgrade for the UCC UUM&DS R2.3 and R2.4 capabilities. BCA IAM was 
successfully upgraded to the last version of NetIQ Access Manager and NetIQ Identity 
Manager  capabilities  and  entered  in  conformance  testing  environment.  CZ  reported  a 
delay in its migration to UCC UUM&DS Admin External (EXT)/Internal (INT), which was 
planned for 2023. DK provided comments on the documentation of UCC UUM&DS R2.4 
and R2.5 and started the preparation activities for the alignment of UCC UUM&DS with 
the national IAM. EE deployed UCC UUM&DS R2.3 and analysed the national technical 
specifications for UCC UUM&DS 2.4 and the national requirements for R2.5. FR reported 
finalising  the  conformance  testing  activities  in  Mode  2  for  UCC  UUM&DS  R2.0  and 
starting  to  analyse  the  UCC  UUM&DS  R2.1  integration.  HR  focused  on  the 
implementation  and  whitelisting  of  algorithms  as  a  prerequisite  for  developing  UCC 
UUM&DS  R2.3  and  R2.4.  In  addition,  HR  participated  in  UCC  UUM&DS  meetings, 
workgroups and webinars organised by the Commission.  

LT  reported  that  subsequent  to  the  upgrade  of  the  national  UUM&DS  Common  User 
Management Portal (BAP), the following changes were introduced: (a) an extension to 
the  automated  registration  process  for  a  legal  entity  was  implemented,  (b)  the  BAP 
security level was increased, (c) the creation of a certificate of short-term validity was 
carried out, and (d) the integration with the State Information Resource Interoperability 

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Platform (VIISP) was extended, covering the use of the e.Resident149 code for logging 
into the system. HU provided support to the economic operators in the use of the system. 
PL upgraded UCC UUM&DS R2.3, which necessitated changing the national system’s 
configuration of the current hashing algorithm. PT performed an error screening in the 
economic  operators’  access  via  the  national  UUM&DS  sub-domain.  SI  performed 
maintenance  in  conformance  and  production  environments  (e.g.  new  certificate 
installation) and started the analysis of UCC UUM&DS R2.4. FI informed that although 
UCC  UUM&DS  R2.1  was  tested  and  operational  in  the  conformance  environment,  it 
could  not  enter  in  production  due  to  security  issues  in  the  connection  to  the  UCC 
UUM&DS  PDP.  Furthermore,  FI  upgraded  the  national  solution  also  to  accept  non-
Finnish  EORI  numbers.  The  UCC  ICS2  automated  testing  encountered  some  issues, 
given that the UCC UUM&DS national testing environment did not allow access to the 
economic  operators.  A  few  incidents  in  the  production  environment  prevented  the 
economic operators from accessing EUCTP. Lastly, several Member States reported no 
IT activities at this stage (BE, IE, ES, CY, LV, NL, AT, RO, and SE). 

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. The Bronze service level is the default availability offering of 99.4% and 
has been ensured since 2015. The Silver service level reflects the maximum capability 
of  99.6%  that  was  in  place  up  to  the  third  quarter  of  2022.  The  Gold  service  level, 
meaning  99.8%  availability,  was  enabled  in  November  2022  after  the  successful 
finalisation of an IT business continuity disaster recovery exercise, which proved the high 
resilience of the electronic systems. 

In 2022, the EU electronic systems achieved a high availability of 99.80%, a value above 
the aggregated target set at 99.65%. In addition, the centralised customs applications 
had  an  average  availability  of  99.04%.  The  availability  of  the  systems  in  production 
(ITSM-operated systems, the CCN/CSI network and the CCN production services) was 
99.98%. More  specifically, the  availability  of  the CCN/CCN2  was  99.49%  (99.98%  for 
CNN and 99% for CCN2), a value slightly lower than the target set at 99.8%, which was 
the result of several planned unavailability for installing patching or fixing problems and 
some unplanned unavailability due to network issues.  

During 2022, two Member States informed about their current status as ‘In progress’ (BG 
and MT) and one Member State as ‘On hold’ (PT). Concerning the current phase, BG 
reported being in operation, while MT and PT reported status ‘Other’. BG informed that 
an effective availability rate according to SLA for all TES systems was provided. 

1.4.5  Maintenance and Updates of Operational IT Systems (4.8) 

This section provides an overview of the TES’ operations in 2022, including the error rate 
evaluation  and  system  availability.  The  figures  presented  in  this  section  depict  the 

149 e.Resident is a status and an identification granted by the Migration Department under the Ministry of the Interior of 
the Republic of LT to the foreigner who seeks to use administrative, public or commercial electronic (remote) services 
provided in the Republic of LT. 

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evolution  of the message  volume  exchanged  in the  common  domain  within  a  specific 
timeframe. 

This section places emphasis on the UCC NCTS, UCC ICS and UCC ECS operations 
and  maintenance  in  the  2022  national  progress  report  of  these  systems.  The  vast 
majority of the Member States reported ongoing maintenance and enhancements of the 
operational systems. Among the maintenance activities carried out, the analysis of RfCs 
and the implementation of the KELs were the most common. 

1.4.5.1 

UCC New Computerised Transit System (NCTS-P4)  

In  2022,  UCC  NCTS  had  an  average  availability  of  99.64%.  14.9  million  transit 
movements were released, indicating an increase of 5% compared to 2021. Figure 22 
depicts the evolution of movements since 2014, the average number of which reached 
59,222 per business day. In addition, the total number of messages exchanged in the 
common domain was approximately 83.2 million, a 4.95% decrease compared to 2021, 
after relative stability between 2017–2020 and a significant increase in 2021. The quality 
of operations was stable throughout the year, despite some increase in the error rate, 
which  was  caused  by  some  temporary  issues  experienced  by  FR  with  no  business 
impact  on  the  national  administrations.  The  average  yearly  error  rate  was  0.25%, 
representing a minor increase compared to the 2021 value (0.22%), and this was due to 
some  scheduled  and  unscheduled  unavailability  events  and 
issues 
throughout the year. 

temporary 

Figure 22: UCC NCTS – Volume of movements, total messages and error rate per year 
since 2014 

1.4.5.2 

UCC Export Control System (ECS P2) 

By the end of 2022, the UCC ECS system had an average availability of 99.78%. The 
quality  of  operations  was  satisfactory,  with  approximately  105.1  billion  movements 
initiated, representing a slight decrease of 4.37% compared to the previous year. The 
same  decline  (4.37%)  was  also  encountered  in  the  total  number  of  indirect  export 

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movements released, which amounted to approximately 21.6 billion150. The total number 
of  messages  exchanged  on  the  common  domain  decreased  by  9%  compared  to  the 
previous year, reaching over 62 million. The evolution of movements depicted in Figure 
23 illustrates that the number of the UCC ECS messages exchanged annually between 
the Member States in the common domain grew by 69% from 2014 to 2022. The error 
rate  in  2022  has  slightly  decreased  from  0.24%  to  0.21%  and  was  mainly  due  to 
temporary issues. Namely, in May 2022, the error rate reached 0.27% as a consequence 
of a high number of messages sent by FR with an incorrect code value and also because 
of rejections sent by DE and FR to follow up on old movements. The highest error rate 
was experienced in December 2022 (0.29%) due to a high number of messages with an 
incorrect code  value sent  by  the  national  administrations to  FR  and  a  high  number  of 
messages  exchanged  between  IT  and  LT  containing  an  element  not  supported. 

Figure 23: UCC ECS – Evolution of movements, total messages and error rate per year 
since 2014 

1.4.5.3 

UCC Import Control System (ICS P1) 

An excellent quality of UCC ICS operations was observed in 2022. The global availability 
rate of UCC ICS was 99.61%. As depicted in Figure 24, approximately 81.4 million ENS 
were lodged in the EU in 2022, with a slight increase of 0.16% compared to 2021. 80% 
of the total ENS were submitted for air transport and about 68% were lodged in BE, DE, 
EL, and ES collectively. The average error rate in 2022 was 0.01%, showing a decrease 
compared  to  the  2021  value  (0.07%)  and  confirming  the  stability  and  quality  of 
operations.  

150 ECS Common Domain messages duplicated by DG TAXUD to OLAF were excluded from the calculations.  

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Figure 24: UCC ICS – Evolution of number of movements, total business messages and 
error rate per year since 2014 

1.4.6  IT Business Continuity (4.9) 

IT  business  continuity  focuses  on  IT  service  continuity  management,  which  aims  at 
reducing the risk and containing the impact of IT disaster events that could negatively 
affect the IT services. Within the framework of the DG TAXUD’s business continuity plan, 
the IT BCMS was revamped in 2020 and is currently in its third phase. The objective is 
to ensure that the Commission's investments in preparedness during the previous years 
are effectively translated into recoverability when required, in alignment with its business 
aims and priorities. In this respect, the IT BCMS is aligned with all other existing levels 
of  business  continuity  management  arrangements  and  considers  all 
the 
interdependencies within the Commission’s complex ecosystem to meet its stakeholders' 
IT service continuity needs efficiently. 

The IT BCMS is based on three pillars: (a) procedures and activation criteria in case of 
IT crisis, (b) development of technology that supports the IT system continuity, and (c) 
personnel preparedness. The above-mentioned three pillars are grounded on the initial 
analysis  of  the  IT  systems  criticalities  and  the  subsequent  definition  of  standardised 
continuity and availability levels. More specifically, the criticality level of each IT system 
was initially analysed as defined by the business needs. The IT systems were assigned 
a 'critical', 'essential' or 'unclassified' criticality level on these bases. Consequently, each 
system was given a standardised availability level (Gold, Silver, Bronze and Best Effort) 
based  on  their  criticality.  Relevant  technology  investments  were  made  to  ensure  the 
defined availability levels.  

In  2022,  the  IT  BCMS  project focused  on  achieving  the  'Gold'  availability  level,  which 
entailed  the  following  arrangements:  (a)  the  development  of  an  IT  infrastructure  that 
supports the 'Gold' availability level, (b) adjustment of IT applications and platforms to 
include 'built-in' features to support the availability levels required, (c) the achievement 
of  a  solid  response  structure  via  24x7  mechanisms,  (d)  monitoring,  managing  and 
controlling  the  IT  systems  through  SLA  with  third  parties  operating  the  IT  systems 
according to the 24x7 mechanism, (e) the development of disaster and recovery plans 

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for all the IT systems, and (f) the creation of an IT service continuity dashboard to monitor 
progress in IT continuity and availability arrangements. Furthermore, particular emphasis 
was placed on personnel preparedness by (a) ensuring that all the involved IT staff is 
trained every year, (b) setting up an IT duty officer roaster, (c) defining a communication 
plan with contact points of the IT staff and third parties, (d) regularly updating the IT crisis 
management structure with a clear definition of roles and responsibilities, (e) creating a 
document repository, and (f) verifying the preparedness and response capability of the 
IT systems through tests and exercises.  

In this regard, the annual disaster and recovery exercise was conducted in November 
2022 and involved all the DG TAXUD data centres. The activity consisted in moving all 
virtual machines, platforms and IT systems from the primary to the alternate data centre 
and then switching back to the primary. During the exercise, 657 virtual machines, seven 
platforms  and  139  IT  systems  were  moved,  including  90  Oracle  databases.  The 
switchover  included  network,  firewalls  and  storage  for  a  total  of  1,4  petabytes.  The 
overall process lasted 6 hours for the switchover and 6 hours for the switchback. During 
the  exercise,  the  IT  systems  remained  available  for  operations,  which  proved  the 
resiliency of the Commission IT ecosystem.  

During 2022, MT informed about its current status as ‘In progress’ and PT as ‘On hold’. 
Other 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  reported  on  three  national  projects.  As  regards  the  national  Control 
Task Management System (TOTS2), EE informed about its division into three phases. 
The first phase was finalised during the reporting year, while the second and third phases 
are expected to be completed in 2023. In particular, in 2022, EE performed conformance 
testing activities for the initial phase of the TOTS2 project, organised pertinent analytical 
meetings  with  the  developer  and  analysed  or  tested  connections  to  other  customs 
applications. Additionally, concerning the national Tariff system, EE reported that TARIC 
measures and modifications were introduced. EE further participated in TARIC meetings 
organised  by  the  Commission.  Finally,  in  relation  to  the  Cash  Control  System,  EE 
informed that an upgrade was performed during the reporting year.  

LV maintained and improved the national Electronic Customs Data Processing System 
modules, containing UCC ICS, UCC ECS, Trade Customs Solutions (TCS), electronic 
cargo Manifest/Trading Services (eMan/TS) and UCC EORI. 

NL informed about the ongoing studies of its Financial and Control Directorate on the 
possibilities  to  align  the  financial  and/or  project  administration  with  the  customs 
requirements. NL further reported that due to the different departmental priorities, some 
MASP-C projects (e.g. UCC ICS2 and UCC AN/PN/TS) would be jointly delivered by one 
national  project,  while  others  (e.g.  UCC  CDS)  would  be  divided  into  more  than  one 
national project. In addition, some projects would also support the national requirements. 

AT informed that other activities included the planning, implementation and deployment 
of the modernised risk management processes for UCC ICS2 R2.  

PL  informed  about  the  creation  of  RfCs for  the Customs  and  Excise Message  Broker 
system and the Integrated Tariff Information System (ISZTAR4). More specifically, two 
RfCs were created for the Customs and Excise Message Broker system. The first one 
suggested  support  for  additional  CCN2  functionalities  to  ensure  communication  with 
UCC CCI. The second one concerned the development of a message translator for the 

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external domain and a message broker for both the external and common domains for 
UCC  AES  and  UCC  NCTS,  in  alignment  with  DDNXA  5.14.0  and  DDNXA  5.15.0.  In 
addition, four RfCs were created for ISZTAR4. Namely, one RfC was for developing a 
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) Application Programming Interface (API) to enable 
external  users  to  retrieve  nomenclature  codelists,  code  descriptions  of  tariff  and  non-
tariff  measures,  and  quota  details.  The  second  RfC  was  for  removing  vulnerabilities 
found during the security audit, while another RfC was for implementing additional data 
elements available for users, including adding new API services. The fourth RfC was for 
implementing changes in the Tariff Calculator according to the NIS requirements. 

SE reported being in progress and creating the national technical specifications for the 
Accounting System as well as entering in operation of the Risk Analysis System. 

1.6  Supporting activities 

One of the objectives of the EU Customs Union in the area of e-Customs is the support 
for cooperation between the different customs administrations of the Member States at 
the  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  2022,  the  Member  States  and  Commission  continued  their  activities  related  to 
trainings  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 actively promote the use of supporting application tools to 
ensure  the  effective  coordination  of  the  e-Customs  projects  and  the  communication 
between the EU and the Member States. CIRCABC, PICS and ARIS Publisher are the 
primary  supporting  tools  developed  to  enhance  information-sharing  and  optimise  the 
business processes. 

CIRCABC is a web-based application employed by the Member States, the Commission 
and  other  stakeholders as  a  private  workspace for  sharing  information  and  resources 
and revising documents. CIRCABC is a multilingual and multi-format platform offering a 
high level of security owing to the two-factor authentication access through the EU Login, 
the  Commission’s  unique  authentication  service.  Other  features  of  CIRCABC  include 
translation  management,  multilingual  search,  scheduling  of  events  and  meetings, 
discussion  forums  and  accessibility  for  users  with  disabilities.  The  platform  is  actively 
features  and 
maintained  and  regular  updates  are 
functionalities.  In  this  respect,  CIRCABC  version  4.2.2.2  was  published  in  December 
2022. 

to  enhance 

introduced 

its 

PICS is a dedicated collaborative online platform administered by the Commission, which 
provides  access  to  diverse  information  related  to  the  implementation  of  the  Customs 
2021–2027 Programme activities. Following a user survey that indicated the need for a 
more intuitive and accessible interface, a new version of PICS was elaborated in 2022.  

In 2022, the number of groups on the online collaborative platforms was 247, out of which 
208  related  to  ‘customs  domain’  groups  and  39  to  ‘other’.  A  clean-up  exercise  was 

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performed  during  the  reporting  year,  not  significantly  impacting  the  number  of  active 
groups, which slightly increased from the previous year. The number of active users on 
the online collaboration platforms was 780, out of which 675 related to groups devoted 
to  customs  while  105  groups  were  classified  as  ‘other’.  The  active  users  included 
customs and Commission officials, international organisations representatives, external 
contractors  and  economic  operators.  The  number  of  interactions  counted  as  items 
created in PICS was 6,555.  

ARIS  Publisher  is  a  software tool  enabling  reusability  and  continuous  improvement  of 
the  business  processes  and  data.  The  Member  States  and  economic  operators  have 
access  to  the  EU  customs  BPMs  via  the  platform,  which  was  introduced  in  2010  to 
support the review of the BPM diagrams. In 2022, a transition from ARIS Publisher to 
ARIS  Connect  was  arranged  as  the  previous  platform  has  been  phased  out  by  the 
software  vendor.  Moreover,  some  minor  editing  and  changes  in  the  use  of  ARIS 
Publisher were implemented, such as the adoption of the Corporate Architecture (CORA) 
methodology, as well as the creation of a new Wiki. 

In 2022, videoconferencing platforms continued to be exploited significantly to organise 
meetings related to the implementation of the e-Customs systems. Microsoft Teams and 
WebEx  software  were  critical  tools  to  enhance  the  collaboration  among  the  Member 
States, Commission and economic operators, while addressing the need to reduce the 
environmental  impact  of  their  activities.  In  2022,  the  Interactio  application  was  also 
successfully used to facilitate remote and hybrid multilingual meetings, thus, enhancing 
further the Commission’s inclusive, accessible and democratic operating methods. 

1.6.2  Promotion and other activities 

An  integral  part  of  optimising  customs  procedures  is  the  promotion  of  the  e-Customs 
projects through various activities. In 2022, the Commission pursued its communication 
campaign  concerning  the  UCC  ICS2  implementation.  The  aforesaid  campaign,  which 
included  the  development  of  factsheets,  a video,  publication  of  social media  posts  on 
Twitter  and  LinkedIn  accounts,  direct  communication  to  the stakeholders and  a  press 
release, was planned to be delivered in two phases. The first phase started in 2021 and 
aimed  at  preparing  the  national  administrations  and  economic  operators  for  the 
conformance testing activities as well as raising the awareness of potential stakeholders, 
particularly  the  economic  operators  from  third  countries.  The  objective  of  the  second 
phase, which was launched in September 2022 and is expected to be concluded in 2023, 
was the preparation of the national administrations and economic operators for entering 
in  operation.  The  campaign  entailed  social  media  publications,  presentations  during 
trade  events,  and  distribution  of  information  to  stakeholder  organisations  and  trade 
media  in  all  Member  States  as  well  as  priority  markets  in  third  countries.  The  2022 
campaign  resulted  in  168  trade,  business  and  general  media  articles.  The  aforesaid 
campaign reached 247 stakeholder organisations and collected 15 million impressions 
and 3.6 million online video views. 

Specifically,  the  budget  was  used  for  the  following  communication  activities:  (a)  the 
production of three information factsheets and one animated video in 10 languages, (b) 
paid advertising on social media (Twitter and LinkedIn), (c) social media communication, 
including production of visuals and messages, (d) press and stakeholder outreach, and 
(e) speaking engagements at trade events. 

Additionally, the first phase of the communication campaign on the development of UCC 
ICS2 R3 was finalised during 2022, which aimed at raising the awareness of the directly 
and indirectly affected stakeholders through informative materials and encouraging the 
directly impacted stakeholders to prepare for the conformance testing activities for UCC 

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ICS2 R3. The aforesaid communication campaign will be organised in three phases and 
the last two are planned to take place in 2023 and 2024. In October 2022, a Commission 
note was sent to the economic operators to request the latter’s feedback on the UCC 
ICS2 R3 communication activity plans.  

As regards the promotional activities on behalf of the Member States, BG reported that 
information  and  guidelines  for  the  economic  operators  on  UCC  REX  were  published, 
adding  that  seminars  with  the  representatives  of  customs  agencies  and  economic 
operators were held.  

CZ informed that a special group exists for the implementation of both UCC AES and 
UCC  NCTS-P5,  composed  of  business  and  IT  experts,  experts  from  customs  offices, 
contractors and a helpdesk. Regarding the EU SWE-C, CZ noted that a presentation on 
NSW  was  given  during  the  Europe  and  Central  Asia  Network  (ECA)  meeting  in 
Prague/Cheb and a CBG project group meeting. 

DK reported participating in promotional activities, including workshops, seminars and 
working groups on UCC CDS, UCC BTI, UCC AEO, UCC AES, UCC NCTS, UCC REX, 
COPIS, CRMS2, UCC e-Commerce and CP 42/67, UCC ICS2, UCC AN/PN/TS, UCC 
SP,  CUP-MIS,  UCC  PoUS,  UCC  eATA,  National  Systems  Implementation  by  IT 
Collaboration Projects and CCN2.  

DE communicated that information on the implementation of the UCC requirements with 
regard to UCC AEO is regularly published on the customs administration website151. In 
addition, DE confirmed the participation of the CRMS2 users in a workshop organised 
by the Commission. Regarding UCC SP, meetings took place with the trade community 
and other UCC INF project group participants. DE underlined that contact with economic 
operators was established via e-mail in order to resolve any outstanding issues. 

EE attended promotional activities for UCC CDS via IT and project group meetings. In 
addition,  training  webinars  were  organised  for  UCC  BTI.  Regarding  UCC  NCTS,  EE 
participated in webinars and trainings organised by DG TAXUD. In relation to UCC EU 
SWE-C, information on changes was sent directly to the declarant e-mailing list, while 
pertinent  documentation  was  provided  on  the  taxation  and  customs  website152. 
Moreover, EE participated in webinars organised by DG TAXUD and DG MOVE for UCC 
PoUS and EMSWe, respectively. 

EL reported that information on UCC AES was published on the national portal dedicated 
to the trade community. Moreover, regular meetings were held with the national postal 
operators with regard to UCC ICS2. 

FR  organised  seminars  with  economic  operators  and  federations  and  held  working 
groups with customs experts regarding UCC SP and UCC CCI. Furthermore, technical 
meetings took place for CCN2. 

HR reported regular meetings held for UCC CDS and UCC NCTS-P5. As regards UCC 
AES, HR noted that workshops took place periodically with the company developing the 
UCC AES application as well as one seminar organised for the trade community in 2022. 
Furthermore, with CCN2 already in operation, HR held presentations during seminars, 
focusing  only  on  specific  systems  integrated  with  the  network.  Lastly,  joint  meetings, 
workshops and seminars took place with the business sector representatives to examine 
the potential usage of the UCC UUM&DS infrastructure. 

151 Customs administration website of DE 

152 Taxation and customs website of EE 

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IT organised events with economic operators to inform them of the expected changes 
regarding UCC ICS2. In addition, IT established working groups with postal operators, 
air  carriers  and  express  integrators  and  a  working  group  with  internal  departments 
responsible for risk analysis and procedures. 

LT communicated that the economic operators were provided with information on UCC 
ICS2.  

HU informed that a webpage dedicated to UCC CCI was created on the national taxation 
and customs administration website153. 

MT reported engaging in promotional activities via the customs web portal for UCC CDS, 
UCC  BTI,  UCC  AEO,  UCC  AES,  UCC  NCTS,  UCC  REX,  COPIS,  UCC  EU  SWE-C, 
CLASS, UCC e-Commerce and CP 42/63, UCC ICS2, UCC AN/PN/TS and UCC SP. 

AT noted that several UCC CDS workshops were held in various parts of the country. 
Regarding  UCC  AES  and  UCC  NCTS,  meetings  with  customs  experts  in  the  Federal 
Ministry  of  Finance  (BMF)  and  the  Customs  Authority of  AT (ZAÖ)  were  organised  to 
understand the impact on national processes and the needs of national organisations. 
Furthermore,  training  videos  on  UCC  ICS2  were  prepared  and  presented  to  customs 
officials.  Lastly,  customs  and  trade  community  activities  took  place  to  support  the 
implementation and rollout of UCC AN/PN/TS and UCC CCI.  

RO reported that information on establishing the UCC AEO connection was published in 
the pertinent section of the customs authority’s website. 

SI  noted  that  a  one-day  workshop  was  organised  on  CRMS2  for  national  users, 
describing  the  necessary  steps  to  follow  when  using  the  system  and  its  main 
functionalities.  

FI  reported  having  organised  workshops  for  UCC  ICS2  and  attended  the  UCC  INF 
project group in 2022. 

Concerning  UCC  EU  SWE-C,  PT reported  keeping  the  interconnection  between  UCC 
NIS and EU CSW-CVED v1.5.1. As regards UCC UUM&DS, PT conducted promotional 
activities  via  working  group  meetings  and  workshops.  More  specifically,  the  following 
workshops took place in 2022: (a) UCC UUM&DS R2.3 and upgrading of the MS node 
component  from  eIDAS  v1.4  to  eIDAS  v2.5  (process  and  status  of  migration),  (b) 
technical  workshop  and  demo  on  ‘Certificates  registration’  simplification,  and  (c) 
technical  workshop  on  the  validation  of  requirements  for  the  Extended  X  Border 
delegation. 

PL  provided  internal  and  external  users  with  information  on  UCC  CDS  through 
newsletters and the national website. Regarding UCC AES, the customs administration 
conducted seminars on the new strategy for implementing the new TES. They were held 
as open webinars with the Customs Department of the Ministry of Finance, project teams 
and  representatives  of  customs  agencies  and  the  software  providers.  In  addition,  the 
national project teams collaborated closely with software providers collecting remarks on 
national IT specifications and practical solutions.  

Regarding  UCC  NCTS,  PL  reported  that  all  the  UCC  NCTS  information  (i.e.  the 
registration procedure for traders and their representatives, NCTS manuals for traders, 
Extensible  Markup  Language  (XML)  specifications  and  availability  notices  and 
instructions) was published on the national portal154 together with information on other e-

153 Taxation and customs administration website of HU 

154 The national portal of PL 

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Customs services in PL. Significant changes and announcements were also distributed 
to traders via newsletters sent directly to their e-mailboxes. UCC NCTS was generally 
promoted to the traders operating in their area through NCTS liaison officers and local 
trainers. A number of informative materials (i.e. leaflets, posters) and items (i.e. pens, 
bags, document files, notebooks and calendars) have been distributed to the traders via 
regional  or  local  customs  offices.  Lastly,  traders  were  constantly  informed  about 
upcoming  changes.  The  national  project  team  and  the  Ministry  of  Finance  organised 
seminars  and  bilateral  conference  calls  with  the  trade  community  and  several  IT 
providers. The objective was to clarify doubts regarding the new XML specification and 
the new IT environment and advise them on optimising their software and BCP. 

Concerning UCC EU SWE-C, PL noted the organisation of two pilot phases by national 
project groups and trade representatives. In addition, the Ministry of Finance arranged 
bilateral meetings with the relevant PCAs. Promotional activities took place during the 
9th International Maritime Congress held in Szczecin, while webinars, training and on-
site workshops were provided to trade representatives. In reference to UCC GUM, users 
and  system  administrators  were  trained  after  the  production  launch  and  support  was 
provided as part of the helpdesk. Lastly, PL communicated that knowledge was shared 
via  the  national  points  of  contact  during  meetings  and  reports  in  relation  to  UCC 
UUM&DS. 

1.6.3  Consultations with economic operators 

The  implementation  of  the  e-Customs  projects  requires  that  the  Member  States’ 
administrations  and  Commission  engage  in  a  regular  dialogue  with  the  economic 
operators  and  their  representative  associations  to  ensure  transparency  in  the 
implementation  of  national  and  EU  measures.  Over  the  course  of  2022,  the  Member 
States  organised  a  series  of  seminars,  workshops  and  meetings  in  close  cooperation 
with the 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  the  economic  operators  to  foster  an 
environment conducive to collaboration. 

Both  the  Member  States’  customs  authorities  and  Commission  regularly  informed  the 
representatives  of  the  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 the 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  perspective  of  the  economic  operators.  Furthermore,  several 
Member States published information on their national websites as well as guidelines for 
diverse systems, while national helpdesks were utilised as a means to provide support 
to the economic operators. 

2022  marked  significant  progress  towards  launching  consultation  activities  that 
contributed to simplifying procedures for the economic operators. Common challenges 
related to UCC CDS, UCC AEO MRA, UCC AES, UCC NCTS, UCC REX, e-Commerce 
and CP 42/63, UCC ICS2, CCN2 and UCC UUM&DS were proactively tackled by the 
majority  of  the  Member  States  through  online  meetings  and  publications,  while  a 
substantial amount of work was devoted to developing and refining user manuals and 
training  modules  for  these  systems.  Likewise,  several  Member  States  carried  out 
informational activities on the procedures pertaining to UCC AN/PN/TS, Adjustments of 
the existing import applications under the UCC and other activities.  

During  the reporting  year, particular  emphasis  was  placed  on  informing the  economic 
operators about the progress achieved on the TES systems. A trade outreach strategy 

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for  UCC  AES  and  UCC  NCTS  was  ongoing  to  promote  a  shift  of  focus  towards  the 
preparation of the trade community. On this basis, full transparency of the coordination 
programmes was established to keep the economic operators informed on the national 
administrations’ progress towards implementing the aforesaid TES systems.  

Additionally,  active  forums  for  the  economic  operators  were  organised  in  the  national 
administrations,  where  the  benefits  of  the  new  TES  systems  for  businesses  were 
analysed  using  practical  cases  and  examples.  More  specifically,  the  UCC  ICS2 
communication campaign, launched in 2020, continued running to inform the economic 
operators  involved  in  the  air  transportation  of  the  technical  documentation  in  order  to 
complete the adaptation of their IT systems based on the UCC ICS2 R2 requirements 
by 1 March 2023. To achieve this goal, factsheets and other audio-visual materials were 
produced and disseminated in several languages throughout the campaign. Moreover, 
the Commission maintained a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section in specialised 
and  general  media  publications  and  took  part  in  various  trade  and  customs  events. 
Further  activities  included  the  organisation  of  events  in  collaboration  with  trade 
associations,  such  as  FIATA,  CLECAT,  EurTradeNet,  UPU,  PostEurope  and  ERA  to 
share  information  about  the  UCC  ICS2  R2  project  as  well  as  conducting  related 
presentations  during  bilateral  meetings  with  the  customs  administrations  of  third 
countries. The Commission also organised a bilateral meeting with FONASBA/ECASBA 
in June 2022 to discuss their collaboration on UCC ICS2 R3. In July of the same year, a 
workshop  was  conducted  by  CLECAT  to  provide  high  level  information  on  UCC ICS2 
R3, while further guidance on the aforesaid release was provided in bilateral meetings 
with customs administrations of third countries.  

During the various meetings organised by the Commission in 2022, the necessity of the 
Member States to provide their economic operators with full transparency of their NPPs 
by publishing quarterly reports on the TES systems and adhere to the key milestones 
was  highlighted.  In  addition,  the  Commission  requested  that  the  Member  States 
persistently inform their economic operators on the progress achieved towards creating 
the  latter’s  specifications  and  the  national  testing  environment,  while  considering  the 
potential issues deriving from the derogation requests and the identified delays for the 
deployment of the customs IT systems.  

e-Commerce and CP 42/63 and UCC ICS2 are developed in close cooperation with the 
national  postal  operators  and  express  carriers.  BG  organised  meetings  with  the 
economic  operators  to  clarify  the  functionalities  of  the  UCC  REX  Trader  Portal.  In 
addition, BG offered an opportunity to the economic operators to make inquiries on UCC 
EORI2 and UCC UUM&DS through the service desk platform, e-mail and telephone. Two 
UCC  ICS2  conferences  were  also  held  in  June  and  November  2022  as  part  of  BG's 
information  campaign  to  ensure  an  effortless  transition  period  for  the  economic 
operators.  

CZ organised online meetings and seminars with the economic operators on UCC AES, 
UCC NCTS and UCC ICS2.  

DK used the existing forums to communicate changes and/or upgrades to UCC CDS, 
UCC BTI, UCC AEO MRA, UCC REX, COPIS and UCC SP. Additionally, DK informed 
about  the  organisation  of  several  thematic  meetings  with  the  economic  operators  on 
UCC  AES  and  UCC  NCTS.  Furthermore,  DK  reported  an  ongoing  dialogue  with  the 
customs administrations and associated networks of the economic operators affected by 
the upgrades of UCC SURV3 and UCC AN/PN/TS, while the economic operators were 
also engaged in a dialogue on the eATA Carnet project.  

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DE reported the regular publication of information on its national webpage155, regarding 
the implementation of the UCC requirements for UCC CDS, UCC EORI2, e-Commerce 
and  CP  42/63,  UCC  AN/PN/TS  and  UCC  CCI.  DE  also  held  online  meetings  with the 
economic operators and Commission on UCC SP.  

EE  organised  seminars  and  online  meetings  on  UCC  AEO  MRA,  UCC  AES,  e-
Commerce and CP 42/63, UCC GUM, UCC SP and UCC CCI. EE further informed that 
frequent  UCC  NCTS  meetings  with  the  economic  operators  took  place  quarterly. 
Moreover, EE met with the economic operators in April and November 2022 to introduce 
the state of play of the UCC ICS2 developments and notify that the national deployment 
of UCC ICS2 R2 would be delayed, while the aforesaid information was also published 
on  EE’s  national  website.  Lastly,  EE  informed  about  the  organisation  of  a  bi-annual 
meeting for the economic operators on EU SWE-C. 

EL published the presentations and supporting materials for UCC AES on its national 
website156 to update the economic operators on their legal obligations and the national 
activities related to the system. EL also circulated the informational materials for UCC 
NCTS on the national portal for the economic operators.  

FR  held  several  meetings  and  seminars  with  the  economic  operators  and  service 
providers  as  well  as  working  groups  with  customs  experts  on  UCC  NCTS-P5,  UCC 
AN/PN/TS, UCC SP and UCC CCI.  

HR organised regular online meetings and awareness seminars with representatives of 
the IT application vendors and economic operators on UCC AES and UCC NCTS-P5. 
Similar meetings and workshops with the economic operators were also held on UCC 
ICS2 and UCC UUM&DS.  

IT informed that any requests on UCC REX submitted by the economic operators were 
handled by the national helpdesk. In addition, IT established a permanent working group 
to share information with the economic operators on UCC ICS2.  

LV held regular meetings of the Customs Advisory Council with the participation of the 
economic operators’ representatives.  

LT provided information for the economic operators on UCC ICS2.  

HU arranged a full-day consultation session on UCC CCI for the economic operators and 
the software developers.  

NL reported that the Customs Trade Consultation Group on IT met regularly to discuss 
UCC-related matters. 

AT reported that periodic meetings with the economic operators were held on UCC CDS, 
UCC AES and UCC NCTS. In addition, a national forum was also established for UCC 
ICS2, along with the organisation of weekly meetings with the national postal operators. 
Similarly, AT organised several meetings and forums with the economic operators and 
software suppliers on UCC AN/PN/TS and UCC CCI. Lastly, regarding the e-ATA Carnet 
project, AT informed about the coordination between the national Chamber of Commerce 
and the economic operators concerning the utilisation of the ICC WCO infrastructure.  

PL  reported  that  through  the  regularly  updated  NPPs,  the  economic  operators  were 
informed about changes related to UCC AES and UCC NCTS. In addition, PL organised 
frequent UCC AES seminars and bilateral conference sessions with several IT providers 
and  economic  operators  to  clarify  the  latter's  concerns  regarding  the  new  XML 

155 German customs’ webpage (ZOLL) 

156 Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) 

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specifications  and  the  new  UCC  AES  IT  environment,  and  to  advise  them  on  how  to 
optimise their software and BCP. PL also informed that all the up-to-date information on 
UCC NCTS was published online for the economic operators and their developers. In 
addition, the latter were given access to the UCC NCTS testing environment to adjust 
their applications to the new UCC NCTS-P5 requirements and test the parallel operation 
of  UCC  NCTS-P4  and  UCC  NCTS-P5  in  accordance  with  PL's  transition  strategy. 
Furthermore,  PL  conducted  UCC  NCTS-related  informative  meetings  with  the  local 
trading  communities.  PL  also  reported  organising  several  EU  SWE-C  webinars  and 
online workshops with the participation of the economic operators to consult the latter’s 
business needs as well as to promote the utilisation of the NSW e-services. 

PT  informed  that  UCC  AN/PN/TS  would  be  connected  to  the  MNSW.  To  this  end,  a 
working  group  with  the  participation  of  port  authorities  initiated  its  work  during  the 
reporting  year,  in  addition  to  arranging  meetings  with  the  economic  operators. 
Furthermore, PT published the national instructions on UCC CCI both for the economic 
operators and customs officers on the national administration’s website.  

SI informed that all the UCC AN/PN/TS activities for informing and training the economic 
operators would be performed after the successful execution of the conformance testing 
activities.  

Lastly, FI held meetings with the economic operators on UCC AES, UCC NCTS, UCC 
ICS2,  UCC  AN/PN/TS,  UCC  SP  and  Adjustments  of  the  existing  import  applications 
under the UCC.  

1.6.4  Training for customs officials and other stakeholders157 

The dynamic environment of the e-Customs projects requires high-quality training and 
consultation  on  the  IT  system  procedures  and  customs  legislation.  To  this  end,  the 
Commission,  in  collaboration  with  the  Member  States,  supports  the  development  of 
training solutions and services to provide the customs officials and economic operators 
with the necessary skills and knowledge towards implementing and maintaining the e-
Customs  projects.  A  total  of  8,595111  customs  officials  were  trained158  with  the  EU 
eLearning  portfolio  in  2022.  In  addition,  seven  new  eLearning  modules  related  to  e-
Customs were developed by the Member States and Customs Programme participating 
countries in 31 languages. 

The  creation  of  online  training  tools  and  guidelines  requires  an  ongoing  long-term 
learning  plan  for  customs  officials  and  other  stakeholders.  These  electronic  materials 
aim  to  assist  the  national  customs  administrations,  economic  operators  and  citizens 
across the EU in better understanding and implementing the EU customs legislation and 
its  related  procedures.  Therefore,  the  establishment  of  a  uniform  and  efficient 
environment regarding customs activities enhances consistency in customs operations 
in the EU. 

During  2022,  more  than  69,000  professionals,  including  customs  officers  and 
representatives  from  the  private  sector,  engaged  in  training  activities.  The  most 
consulted courses were those related to CRMS2, UCC CDS, UCC EOS, UCC EBTI3, 
UCC ICS2 and UCC INF SP. As regards the quality of the eLearning modules, the final 
users  trained  through  the  customs  eLearning  services  expressed  their  overall 
satisfaction,  with  an  average  score  of  75.3  out  of  100  compared  to  74.7  in  2021, 

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

158 The figures are approximate as not all Member States provided information regarding customs officials training. 

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according  to  the  principles  of  Kirkpatrick159.  In  2022,  maintaining  the  existing  online 
training courses was very important and three e-Customs-related courses were updated 
in all EU languages to reflect the updates of the related IT systems. 

Throughout  the  reporting  year,  the  majority  of  the  Member  States  organised  several 
seminars, trainings and workshops and prepared manuals. More specifically, with regard 
to  UCC  CDS,  EE  and  FR  reported  organising  training  sessions  and  informational 
meetings for their customs officers.  

In relation to UCC BTI, EE and FI prepared trainings for the customs officials responsible 
for the project, while FI also participated in pertinent trainings at the EU level.  

Concerning UCC AEO MRA, CZ carried out training activities for its customs officials.  

In reference to UCC AES, FR reported that the training activities for its customs and non-
customs  officials  were  initiated  at  the  end  of  the  reporting  year.  LT  informed  that  its 
customs  officials  attended  the  pertinent  trainings  and  webinars  organised  by  the 
Commission, while AT participated in a workshop to analyse the DDNXA for UCC AES.  

As regards UCC NCTS, FR, LT, and AT performed in parallel the same activities carried 
out for UCC AES. PL informed about the execution of a stationary training dedicated to 
the UCC NCTS-P5 administrators, local UCC NCTS trainers and consultants, and the 
staff of the national helpdesk. PL further reported that the local trainers were required to 
transfer their knowledge to the customs officers working at the national level.   

In connection with the UCC REX system, BG informed that the UCC REX registrations 
were provided only at the EU level. EE participated in the UCC REX training organised 
by the Commission. HR also participated in trainings conducted by the Commission and 
performed  educational  activities,  such  as  regular  seminars  and  workshops  for  the 
economic operators and other customs officials. 

Concerning COPIS, BG prepared trainings on the UI and COPIS eAFA for the customs 
officials responsible for the project. CZ organised periodic webinars and seminars on the 
implementation  of  COPIS  v4.  DK  developed  guidelines  for  the  users  of  COPIS  and 
organised internal training activities. In addition, DK informed that onboarding training of 
the new users was carried out by the more experienced users. AT held workshops with 
the Central Customs Department. 

With  reference  to  EU  SWE-C,  CZ  created  guidelines  for  the  customs  officers  and 
economic  operators,  reporting  that  its  main  task  was  to  provide  instructions  on  the 
manner the data should be accurately filled in the customs declarations, including the 
actions  that  should  be  followed  in  cases  of  errors.  DE  carried  out  an  online  multiplier 
training course with the customs officers to provide instructions on the procedure before 
entering in operation. EE also issued guidelines on the usage of the system for both the 
customs  officers  and  economic  operators.  PL  informed  that  trainings  dedicated  to  all 
types  of  the  EU  SWE-C  system,  and  especially  for  customs  and  PCA  officials,  were 
organised by the national unit responsible for the deployment, operation, maintenance 
and support of the NSW platform. 

In relation to EMSWe, EE attended several webinars organised by DG MOVE. Regarding 
the eATA Carnet project, DK utilised the training materials provided by ICC WCF, while 
EE created national instructional materials.  

159 Kirkpatrick Learning Model: D. Kirkpatrick's four levels of training evaluation is the most widely used training evaluation 
model. 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. 

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With regard to CRMS2, DK informed that the national users were onboarded utilising the 
materials  and  guidelines  provided  by  the  Commission.  Moreover,  DK  reported  that 
information  on  the  new  CRMS2  functionalities,  which  were  presented  at  the  CRMS2 
workshop  in  November  2022,  was  shared  and  discussed  with  the  relevant  CRMS2 
national  users.  As  such,  the  latter's  skills  were  maintained  through  peer  learning.  DE 
attended the CRMS2 trainings organised by the Commission. In addition, DE created a 
CRMS2 newsletter for all national users to provide up-to-date information on any news 
and changes as well as national language translations of some of the instructions. Similar 
to DE, EE reported that members of other national units participated in several trainings 
organised by the Commission. SI prepared training materials on CRMS2 and organised 
a one-day workshop to present the correct method of using the main functionalities of 
the new IT system. 

In connection with e-Commerce and CP 42/63, BG issued instructions to the Territorial 
Directorates for processing the consignments. DK organised trainings for the customs 
officials on handling the e-Commerce and CP 42/63 controls, while EE also published 
related training materials.  

Concerning UCC ICS2, CZ conducted trainings for the concerned customs officers, while 
DK created training materials and videos to prepare the customs authorities for the new 
release. EE participated in several webinars and trainings organised by the Commission. 
EL published all related information on UCC ICS2 for the customs officers and economic 
operators  on  the  national  customs  portal.  HR  informed  that,  considering  the  granted 
derogation on UCC ICS2, the training was planned to be performed after the finalisation 
of  the  conformance  testing  activities.  IT  reported  the  dissemination  of  the  UCC  ICS2 
information  to  the  customs  officials.  IT  further  informed  about  its  decision  for  a  fully 
centralised risk analysis office to undertake all the UCC ICS2 activities. On this basis, 
the  aforesaid  office  has  participated  in  the  business  and  IT  analysis  and  acquired 
information  on  the  GUI  and  all  national  interfaces.  In  LT,  onboarding  trainings  for  the 
customs  officials  were  provided  by  the  contractor’s  teams.  AT  informed  that  training 
videos  were  created  and  presented  in  workshops  for  customs  officials.  FI  organised 
trainings  at  different  levels  and  for  several  groups  of  officials,  and  Information  and 
Communications Technology (ICT) personnel. 

In relation to UCC SURV3, FI organised skill maintenance trainings, whenever required. 

With reference to UCC AN/PN/TS, DK conducted seminars, workshops and onboarding 
activities  regarding  the  upcoming  changes  in  the  system.  EE  participated  in  UCC 
AN/PN/TS  webinars  organised  by  the  Commission  and  created  pertinent  training 
materials  for  the  customs  officials.  FR  and  IT  conducted  several  videoconferences  to 
train the customs officials. FI organised UCC AN/PN/TS trainings at different levels and 
for several groups of officials and ICT personnel. 

With  regard  to  UCC  GUM,  PL  reported  that  all  the  national  users  and  system 
administrations  were  trained  following  the  system’s  entry  in  production,  while  user 
support was also provided as part of the national helpdesk.  

In connection with UCC INF SP, DE organised multiple online training courses with the 
customs  officers  to  provide  an  introduction  to  the  Procedures.  PL  informed  that  the 
project team for the maintenance and deployment of the UCC INF SP system consists 
of customs officers having practical experience in the field of SP, by participating in the 
conformance  testing  activities,  preparing  the  relevant  information  documents  for  the 
system's users or performing trainings for customs offices in the form of workshops and 
webinars. The UCC INF SP system was utilised by over 2,000 customs officers in PL.  

Regarding CUP-MIS, DK informed that the new system’s users were onboarded by more 
experienced colleagues, whenever necessary.  
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Concerning CCN2, EE informed about the finalisation of the related guidelines for the IT 
administrators as well as the organisation of different trainings for the existing and new 
personnel. HR offered courses for the customs officers related to the IT Infrastructure 
and  provided  information  on  the  new  CCN2  network.  PL  organised  online  CCN2 
meetings and webinars.  

In relation to the UCC UUM&DS project, BG and LT organised trainings for the customs 
officials and the service desk, while EE provided a manual on how to register a certificate 
for UCC ICS2 for the economic operators. HR organised joint meetings, workshops and 
seminars  with  representatives  of  the  business  sector  to  examine  the  potential  future 
usage  of  the  UCC  UUM&DS  infrastructure.  PL  informed  that  the  national  customs 
administrators were trained, obtaining knowledge from the existing documentation on the 
system. PT also executed internal training activities for the customs officials within the 
scope of the UCC UUM&DS updates and the issues that were identified at the national 
level. 

As regards other national projects, EE further informed that internal trainings on TOTS2 
and TARIC3 were carried out for the customs officers, while training materials on TARIC3 
and the Cash Control System were produced. LV reported that various training courses 
were  created  for  the  customs  officials  regarding  changes  and  improvements  in  the 
National Electronic Customs Data Processing System. AT informed that workshops with 
the NPMs and the UCC ICS2 national risk analysts took place to explain the mode of 
operation  of  the  new  National  Risk  Management  System  provided  for  UCC  ICS2. 
Considering  that  PL's  ISZTAR4  system  has  been  in  use  for  many  years  and  internal 
users have been familiar with its functionalities, PL reported that the latter were regularly 
notified on any upgrades or new capabilities via the customs and tax portals. 

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

activities 

In 2022, the coordination of the 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 the relevant 
stakeholders  on  the  necessary  requirements  for  the  implementation  of  the  MASP-C 
Revision 2019 and other e-Customs-related projects. 

Alongside  the  MASP-C  Revision  2019  coordination  activities  carried  out  by  the 
Commission, presented at length in previous sections, some Member States highlighted 
the following key activity areas during 2022. 

BG reported on UCC CDS that the national applications utilise the EU service to validate 
the  customs  decisions.  In  addition,  BG  established  working  groups  and  organised 
internal  discussions  on  UCC  REX  to  solve  any  potential  issues  in  the  registration 
process. In relation to EU SWE-C, coordination meetings were held with the competent 
authorities,  while  internal  discussions  and  analyses  of  the  impact  of  the  National 
Declaration  Processing  Systems  and  the  preparation  of  the  national  functional 
requirements took place. BG further informed that the EORI web services, which were 
used  by  NIS  and the  national  components  of  UCC  NCTS,  UCC  ICS2  and  UCC  AES, 
were  validated  at  the  national  level.  Coordination  meetings  were  organised  with  the 
national  tax  authorities  regarding  the  national  activities  for  the  e-Commerce  and  CP 
42/63  project.  For  the  UCC  ICS2  project,  BG  established  synergy  between  NIS,  the 
National  Risk  Analysis  System  and  the  national  component  of  CCN2.  Moreover,  BG 
informed  about  the  integration of  UCC  PoUS  with  the  National  Risk  Analysis  System. 
With regard to EMSWe, BG reported coordination with BPI Co. 

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CZ  reported  establishing  integration  of  UCC  AEO  MRA  with  its  customs  office 
responsible  for  conformance  testing  and  the  national  EORI  system,  while  national 
coordination activities for COPIS were also ongoing. In addition, during 2022, CZ was in 
close contact with DG TAXUD and other DGs to discuss the EU SWE-C functionalities. 
With reference to UCC SURV3, CZ informed that the interface with NIS was changed. 

DK  reported  ongoing  dialogues  on  UCC  AES  and  UCC  NCTS  with  the  national 
stakeholders and a continuous national coordination on COPIS. DK also informed that 
CRMS2-related  data  was  applied  to  the  national  ICS2  system.  Concerning  the  e-
Commerce  and  CP  42/63  project,  DK  informed  about  its  integration  with  other  units 
covering OSS-related activities and other systems, such as the Automatic Risk, Profile 
and Analysis (ARPA) system and the Control and Reporting System (KRIA), for handling 
the process flow activities related to controls. DK further reported that the ICG and UCC 
GUM projects require both internal and organisational coordination. Several coordination 
activities were also performed within the context of the UCC INF SP, UCC CCI and CUP-
MIS projects. Lastly, DK informed that UCC UUM&DS was integrated with the national 
Identity Authorisation Management System (DCS).  

DE  informed  that  the  UCC  INF  SP  system  was  implemented  in  EUCTP  and  that 
coordination with the transport authorities was ongoing for UCC PoUS in relation to the 
project activities that were linked with the implementation of EMSWe. 

informed  about  coordination  activities  with 

EE reported changes in the national CRS bridge and messaging process. In addition, 
EE 
the  affected  national  systems, 
departments  and  agencies  with  respect  to  the  UCC  AES  and  UCC  INF  SP  projects. 
Concerning UCC NCTS, EE reported working closely with the national AES project team, 
other units and the national IT department. Moreover, several consultations on the usage 
of the CRSM2 system took place between different units and departments. For the UCC 
ICS2 project, EE cooperated with the IT Centre of the Ministry of Finance (ITC). EE also 
informed  that  UCC  SURV3  was  coordinated  with  the  National  Declaration  Processing 
System, the national SURV and the SURV-RECAPP systems, while further cooperation 
between ITC, the Intelligence Department and the UCC SURV3 developer took place. 
Concerning  UCC  GUM,  EE  worked  closely  with  the  national  NCTS  and  NIS  project 
teams,  while  on  EMSWe,  EE  collaborated  with 
the  Transport  Administration. 
Cooperation between different national units and departments also occurred in EE with 
regard to UCC PoUS. Lastly, EE informed about the automated data transfer from the 
Cash  Control  System  to  the  Financial  Intelligence  Units  Information  System  and  the 
coordination  between  ITC  and  the  developer  of  TARIC3  as  well  as  the  National 
Declaration Processing Systems and TARIC.  

ES executed UCC CCI collaboration activities with risk analysis’ experts and the national 
teams of SP and NSW.  

FR reported progress with the linkage between the changes in UCC NCTS-P5 and the 
national applications. FR collaborated with BE for providing the application code for UCC 
AN/PN/TS. In addition, FR reported that the NIS and UCC INF SP import projects were 
linked and several meetings were held between the competent units and departments to 
analyse the functionalities and build the national system. 

HR integrated the national CDS with other MASP-C projects, such as UCC AES, UCC 
NCTS, CS/RD2, UCC EOS and CS/MIS2 as well as national systems, such as GUM, 
CRS v3.0, National Codelist Registry and Risk Analysis System. In addition, the UCC 
AES projects would be also integrated with UCC NCTS, UCC CDS, CS/RD2, UCC EOS, 
CS/MIS, national CRS v3.0, National Codelist Registry, TARIC and EMCS. UCC NCTS-
P5  would  be  integrated  with  UCC  AES,  UCC  CDS,  CS/RD2,  UCC  EOS,  CS/MIS2, 
national  GUM,  national  CRS  v3.0,  National  Codelist  Registry  and  the  National  Port 

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Community  System,  which  was  developed  by  the  Ministry  of  the  Sea,  Transport  and 
Infrastructure. Concerning UCC AN/PN/TS, HR informed about the coordination with the 
UCC ICS2 and the national AIS projects. For CCN2, collaboration with the department 
for legislation and procedures for additional integration between UCC ICS2, UCC PN/TS 
and the new Customs Declarations Processing System (COPS) also took place in HR. 
Moreover, the communication between the National Tax Administration and the CCN2ng 
network  was  upgraded  with  the  taxation  component  for  DAC7  purposes.  Lastly,  HR 
reported that during the analysis, implementation and deployment of the UCC UUM&DS 
project, the project unit coordinated with other business units and departments, such as 
the  legal  and  procedure  department  for  the  integration  with  the  systems  that  use  the 
UCC UUM&DS infrastructure. 

IT  informed  about  its  coordination  with the following  units  and  departments  of  various 
systems  for  the  UCC  CDS  project:  (a)  the  Legal  and  Procedural  Department  and  the 
local customs offices for the UCC CDS project, (b) other MASP-C projects, such as UCC 
UUM&DS (direct trader access to EIS), UCC AEO MRA, UCC EORI2, UCC NCTS, UCC 
GUM and CCN2, and (c) other national systems, such as NCTS, ICS2, GUM and the 
National  Authorisation  System.  In  relation  to  UCC  REX,  IT  cooperated  with  the  Legal 
and Procedural Department, local customs offices and other MASP-C projects (e.g. UCC 
EORI2,  CCN2  and  the  national  ICS2  system),  and  exchanged  information  with  the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Regarding UCC ICS2, IT reported coordinating with the Legal 
and Procedural Department, other MASP-C projects (e.g. UCC UUM&DS, UCC EORI2, 
CCN2 and UCC AN/PN/TS) and other national systems (e.g. NIS, eManifest and TS). 
Finally, IT informed about the interaction between UCC UUM&DS and IAM as well as 
UCC UUM&DS and the Italian Customs Agency Portal. 

LT informed that the web services for receiving CDMS data were updated to allow the 
national  Customs  Permits  System  (MLS)  to  retrieve  the  necessary  data  from  CDMS. 
Regarding UCC GUM, LT reported that additional integration testing of the national GVS 
system  with  other  Customs  Information  Systems  was  performed  and  any  errors  or 
inconsistencies were corrected.  

HU worked on CCN2 in coordination with the UCC ICS2 R2 project.  

MT informed that the customs authorities were coordinating and discussing aspects of 
the  NSW  and  the  e-Commerce  and  CP  42/63  project  with  the  different  stakeholders 
involved in the process.  

NL  regularly  discussed  the  IT  developments  with  the  different  Ministries  and  national 
agencies associated with the IMP and EXP formalities and logistics, such as the Ministry 
of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economic Affairs.  

AT  reported  that  the  national  CDS  Trader  Portal  was  developed  and  operated  by  the 
Ministry of Finance. With regard to the UCC AES and UCC NCTS projects, cooperation 
with other units and departments was ongoing. AT also reported coordination between 
EU SWE-C and the national project for the adjustment of the import system and UCC 
AES as well as coordination between UCC SURV3 and the National Risk Management 
System.  Concerning  UCC  AN/PN/TS,  AT  informed  that  the  dependencies  and 
interactions with other systems and surrounding processes were analysed and adjusted 
ICS2,  an 
into  production. 
to  allow  a  smooth 
interdepartmental analysis with the National Risk Management System, UCC UUM&DS, 
and national service applications was carried out. In the framework of UCC GUM, AT 
reported the coordination with the national CDS project. Coordination with the National 
Risk Analysis System was also performed for UCC PoUS. AT further collaborated with 
the Ministry of Finance on the software infrastructure for the eATA Carnet system.  

In  relation 

transition 

to  UCC 

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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 UCC UUM&DS. UCC 
NCTS interoperated with several systems, including UCC EORI, UCC EOS, UCC AEO, 
UCC AES, CS/RD, CS/MIS, SPEED, the national Integrated Risk Management System 
(ZISAR), the  national GUM (OSOZ2),  Automatic  Terminal  Information  Service (ATIS), 
AIS, ISZTAR4 and Safe TIR. UCC NCTS also operated in conjunction with TRACES for 
the  verification  of  the  CVED  certificates  and  the  Central  Service  Desk  (CSD)  for  the 
support of all the Ministry of Finance IT systems. UCC NCTS supplied data to the PL 
central data warehouse Ariadna2, which were used for control and statistical purposes. 
In  addition,  the  system  utilised  the  nationally  developed  mechanisms  for  user 
management and authentication, access control and digital signing of messages. PL also 
informed  that  the  economic  operators  could  submit  messages  via  three  different 
channels,  namely,  the  national  SEAP  portal154,  a  web  service  and  e-mail  interfaces. 
Moreover,  PL  reported  the  possibility  to  integrate  the  NSW  platform  and  EU  CSW-
CERTEX R4 in the future, based on the ongoing work at the EU level with regard to the 
re-engineering  of  EU  CSW-CERTEX.  In  relation  to  UCC  SP,  PL  informed  that  three 
national IT projects (i.e. AES-supplementation, AIS-supplementation and RPS) were part 
of  the  IT  Customs  complex  program,  called  the  Electronic  Customs  and  Revenue 
Services 
the  direction  of  the  Ministry  of  Finance.  The 
implementation of the UCC INF SP system took place in cooperation with DG TAXUD. 
Concerning UCC UUM&DS, all activities in PL were coordinated with the changes in the 
internal national portal, which was integrated with the national IAM and UCC UUM&DS 
modules.  

‘PUESC-2020’,  under 

PT  kept  the  interconnection  of  NIS  with  EU  CSW-CVED  v1.5.1.  Furthermore,  PT 
reported  that  the  UCC  AN/PN/TS  system  was  connected  to  both  the  National  Risk 
Management  System  and  UCC  ICS2.  Lastly,  PT  organised  coordination  activities 
between UCC UUM&DS and other e-Governmental systems.  

FI  informed that  the  national  UUM&DS  solution used  authentication  and  authorisation 
services provided by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. 

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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 the 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 the forthcoming projects. Any deviations from the planning of 
the MASP-C Revision 2017 and the MASP-C Revision 2019 Consolidated Project Fiches 
baseline are indicated – either as delays or earlier deployments – in the white bars to the 
right  and  left  of  the  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  Annex  1  of  the  MASP-C  package  (produced  in  Microsoft  Project  Plan 
format) in the revision 2017 and the revision 2019. 

Besides  the  information  provided  in  this  report,  it  is  essential  to  consider  the  UCC 
Progress Reports, which examine in more detail the state of play of the UCC projects 
and  Member  States'  activities.  The  UCC  Progress  Reports160  are  published  on  the 
EUROPA website. 

160  The  latest  version  can  be  found  at  the  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. 

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ANNEX 3 – ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS & KEY TERMS 

Acronym 

Description 

eAEO 

eAFA 

eATA 

ACT 

AEO 

AES 

AFA 

AFIS 

AI 

AIS 

ALM 

AN 

Electronic Authorised Economic Operators system 

Electronic Application for Action 

Electronic Admission Temporaire/Temporary Admission 

Application Configuration Tool 

Authorised Economic Operator 

Automated Export System 

Application for Action 

Anti-Fraud Information System 

Artificial Intelligence 

Automated Import System 

Application Lifecycle Management  

Notification of Arrival 

ANPRS 

Automatic Number Plate Recognition System 

AO 

API 

APoE 

ARIS 

ARPA 

ASEO 

ASSUC 

ATA 

ATIS 

ATLAS 

Architecture Overview 

Application Programming Interface 

Alternative Proofs of Exit 

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 

Automatic Risk, Profile and Analysis system of DK 

National Decision System of CZ 

European Association of Sugar Traders 

Admission Temporaire/Temporary Admission 

Automatic Terminal Information Service 

Automated Customs Tariff and Local Processing Application 
System 

AVSEC 

AViation SECurity 

eBTI 

B2C 

B2G 

BAC 

Electronic Binding Tariff Information 

Business-to-Consumer 

Business-to-Government 

Business Acceptance Criteria 

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Acronym 

Description 

BAP 

BCA 

BCMS 

BCP 

BCP 

BMF 

BOI 

Common User Management Portal of LT 

Business Critical Assistance  

Business Continuity Management System 

Business Continuity Plan 

Business Continuity Procedure 

Federal Ministry of Finance of AT 

Binding Origin Information 

BPI Co. 

Bulgarian Ports Infrastructure Company 

BPM 

BTI 

BVI 

C/ieCA 

CAB 

CAP 

CBAM 

CBG 

CCC-DIH 

CCC-GEN 

CCDT 

CCE 

CCEI 

CCI 

Business Process Model 

Binding Tariff Information  

Binding Valuation Information 

Central Information Exchange Convertor Application 

Change Advisory Board 

Common Agricultural Policy 

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism 

Customs Business Group 

Customs Code Committee on Data Integration and 
Harmonisation 

Customs Code Committee – General Customs Legislation 
section 

Customs Country Desk Team 

Centralised Clearance for Export 

Customs Control Equipment Instrument  

Centralised Clearance for Import 

CCN; CCN2 

Common Communication Network; Common Communication 
Network 2 

CD 

CDCO 

CDMS 

CDS 

CED 

CEG-DIH 

CELBET 

Customs Decision 

Centrally Developed Centrally Operated system of PL 

Customs Decisions Management System 

Customs Decisions System 

Common Entry Document 

Customs Expert Group on Data Integration and Harmonisation 

Customs Eastern and South-Eastern Land Border Expert Team  

CENcomm 

Customs Enforcement Network Communication Platform of ES 

CER 

Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies 

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Description 

Certificates Exchange Project 

Common Functional System Specifications 

Common Technical System Specifications 

Customs Goods Manifest 

Comprehensive Guarantee Authorisation 

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  

Configuration Item 

Chief Information Officer 

Communication and Information Resource Centre for 
Administrations, Businesses and Citizens 

Custom Information System by OLAF 

Certificates for International trade of endangered species of wild 
fauna and flora 

Classification Information System 

Common Learning Event Programme 

Container status message 

Change Management Unit by IE 

Certificate of Organic Inspection 

European Commission 

Acronym 

CERTEX 

CFSS 

CTSS 

CGM 

CGU 

CHED 

CHED-A 

CHED-D 

CHED-P 

CHED-PP 

CI 

CIO 

CIRCABC 

CIS 

CITES 

CLASS 

CLEP 

CMS 

CMU 

COI 

COM 

COPIS 

Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy System  

COPIS/FALSTAFF   The Italian national application used to file and manage eAFA 

COPS 

CoRA 

COREPER 

COTS 

CP 

CPG 

CR 

Customs Declarations Processing System of HR 

Common Reference Architecture 

Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the 
Governments of the Member States to the European Union 

Commercial Off-The-Shelf 

Customs Procedures 

Customs Policy Group 

Common Repository 

CRMS; CRMS2 

Customs Risk Management System; Customs Risk Management 
System 2 

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Acronym 

Description 

CRS 

CS/MIS 

Customer Reference Services 

Central Services/Management Information System 

CS/RD; CS/RD2 

Central Services/Reference Data; Central Services/Reference 
Data 2 

CSD 

CSI 

CSW 

CTC 

CuBus 

CUG 

Central Service Desk  

Common Systems Interface 

Customs Single Window 

Common Transit Convention 

Business Statistics 

Customs Union Group 

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. 

CUWP 

CVED 

DA 

DAC7 

DC 

DCS 

DDCOM 

DDNCA 

DDNTA 

DDNXA 

Customs Union Working Party 

Common Veterinary Entry Document 

Delegated Act 

Dispositions d'Application du Code 7 

Data Centre  

Identity Authorisation Management System of DK 

Design Document for Common Operations and Methods 

Design Document for National Customs Application 

Design Document for National Transit Application 

Design Document for National Export Application 

DevSecOps 

Development, Security and Operations 

DG 

DGCF 

DG BUDG  

DG CNECT 

DG DIGIT 

DG MOVE 

DG SANTE 

DG TAXUD 

DG TRADE 

DiG 

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Directorate-General 

Directors-General of Customs Forum 

Directorate-General for Budget 

Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and 
Technology 

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 

Digital Guaranteed 

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Acronym 

Description 

DIH 

DMS 

DPO 

DR 

DRR 

DTTF 

DuES 

e-PoC 

EAM 

EBTI 

EBSI 

EC 

ECA 

Data Integration and Harmonisation 

Declaration Management System of DK 

Deferred Payment Authorisation 

Disaster Recovery 

Digital Reporting Requirements 

Digital Transport and Trade Facilitation 

Dual-use Export Controls 

electronic Proofs of Origin Certificates  

Enterprise Architecture Model 

European Binding Tariff Information 

European Blockchain Services Infrastructure 

European Commission 

Europe and Central Asia Network 

ECASBA 

European Community Association of Ship Brokers and Agents 

ECCG 

ECG 

ECICS 

ECS  

EDB 

EESC 

eIDAS 

EIDR 

EIS 

eMan/TS 

EMCS 

EMSA 

EMSWe 

ENS 

ENVI 

Electronic Customs Coordination Group 

Export of Cultural Goods  

European Customs Inventory of Chemical Substances 

Export Control System 

Enforcement Database 

European Economic and Social Committee 

electronic Identification and Trust Services 

Entry In the Declarant's Records 

European Information Systems 

electronic cargo Manifest/Trading Services  

Excise Movement and Control System 

European Maritime Safety Agency 

European Maritime Single Window environment 

Entry Summary Declaration 

Environment, Public Health and Food Safety  

EORI; EORI2 

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

EOS 

EP 

ePIC 

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Economic Operators System 

European Parliament 

Electronic Prior Informed Consent 

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Acronym 

ETCIT 

eTIR 

ETS 

EU 

EUCDM 

EUCTP 

EUIPO 

EXP 

EXS 

EXT 

FAQ 

FGAS 

Description 

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

Electronic TIR 

Emission Trading System 

European Union 

European Union Customs Data Model 

European Union Customs Trader Portal 

European Union Intellectual Property Office 

Export  

Exit Summary Declaration 

External 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases 

FINTRAFFIC 

Finnish Maritime Traffic Control  

FLEGT 

Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade 

FONASBA 

Federation of National Associations of Ship Brokers and Agents  

FSS 

G2G 

GA 

GDPR 

GFV 

GMS 

GRC 

GUI 

GUM 

GVMS 

GVS 

H/W 

HA 

HCI 

HLPG 

HLSG 

HMRC 

HTI 

IA 

Functional System Specifications 

Government-to-Government 

Goods Accounting 

General Data Protection Regulation 

Group of the Future of VAT 

Guarantee Management System of CZ 

Governance Risk and Compliance  

Graphical User Interface 

Guarantee Management 

Goods Vehicle Movement Service  

National Guarantees Management System of LT 

Hardware 

High Availability 

Hyper-Converged Infrastructure 

The High-Level Project Group  

High Level Steering Group 

UK Revenue and Customs Service 

Harmonised Trader Interface 

Implementing Act 

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Acronym 

Description 

IaC 

IAM 

IATA 

IE/NI 

ICC 

ICD 

ICG 

ICGD  

ICGL 

ICGS 

Infrastructure as Code 

Identity and Access Management 

International Air Transport Association 

Ireland/Northern Ireland 

International Chambers of Commerce 

Interface Control Document 

Import of Cultural Goods 

General Description for the Import of Cultural Goods 

Import Licence for Cultural Goods  

Import of Cultural Goods Importer Statement  

ICS; ICS2 

Import Control System; Import Control System 2 

ICT 

IDPR 

IDS 

IE 

iMAPS 

IMCO 

iMDAS 

IMP 

IMSOC 

INT 

Information and Communications Technology  

Institutions’ Data Protection Regulation 

Integrated Data Set 

Information Exchange messages 

National Tax Calculation and Validation System of LT 

Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee 

National Customs Declarations Processing System of LT 

Import 

Information Management System for Official Controls 

Internal 

INTERPOL 

International Criminal Police Organization 

INF 

INF SP 

IOSS 

Information Sheet 

Standardised Exchange of Information for Special Procedures 

Import One-Stop Shop 

IOSS-DR 

IOSS VAT identifiers Distributed Registry 

IPEP 

IPR 

IRIS  

IRTA  

IT 

ITC  

ITCB 

ITSB 

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Intellectual property enforcement portal 

Intellectual Property Rights 

Integrated Risk Information System 

Implementing Regulation on Technical Arrangements  

Information Technology 

 IT Centre of the Ministry of Finance of EE 

Information Technology and Cybersecurity board 

 Information Technology and Security board 

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Acronym 

Description 

ITSC 

ITSM 

ITSRM 

ITTI 

JAC 

JRC 

JSON 

KEL 

KPI 

KRIA 

L1 BPM 

L2 BPM 

L3 BPM 

L4 BPM 

 Information Technology Steering Committee 

IT Service Management 

IT Security Risk Management  

Institute for Technology Transfer and Innovations  

Joint Analytic Capabilities 

Joint Research Centre 

JavaScript Object Notation  

Known Error List 

Key Performance Indicators 

Control and Reporting System of DK 

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). 

e-licencing  

Electronic Licencing  

LISO 

LMS 

MASP 

MASP-C 

MASP-T 

MAWP 

MCA 

MCS 

MFF 

MIG 

MIP 

MLS 

MNSW 

MOSS 

MoU 

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Local Information Security Officer 

Learning Management System 

Multi-Annual Strategic Plan 

Multi-Annual Strategic Plan for Customs 

Multi-Annual Strategic Plan for Taxation 

Multi-Annual Work Programmes 

Multi-Criteria Analysis 

Military Customs System 

Multi-Annual Financial Framework 

Message Implementation Guide 

Multi-annual Implementation Plan 

National Customs Permits System of LT 

Maritime National Single Window 

Mini One-Stop Shop  

Memorandum of Understanding 

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Acronym 

Description 

MPR 

MR 

MRA 

MS 

MSW 

NATO 

NCTS 

NECA 

NES 

NETP 

NGA  

NGEU 

NIA 

NICA  

NILT 

NIS 

Customs Client Register of LT 

Mutual Recognition 

Mutual Recognition Agreement 

Member States 

Maritime Single Window 

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 

New Computerised Transit System 

National Export Control Application  

National Export System 

Not Established Taxable Persons  

 National Guaranteeing Associations 

NextGenerationEu 

National Identity Authority 

National Import Customs Application of FR 

Northern Ireland Liaison Team 

National Import System  

NOVIS 

Reference Information Management System 

NPM 

NPP 

NSD 

NSW 

OCTs 

ODS 

OJ 

OLAF 

OLGA 

National Project Manager 

National Project Plan 

National Service Desk 

National Single Window 

Overseas Countries and Territories 

Ozone Depleting Substances 

Official Journal 

European Anti-Fraud Office 

National helpdesk of FR 

OP EX/IM 

Outward Processing Export/Import 

OSS 

P 

PCA 

PEM 

PGS 

One-Stop Shop 

Phase 

Partner Competent Authority 

Pan-Euro-Mediterranean  

Play-Ground System 

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Acronym 

Description 

PICS 

PIM  

PKI  

PKWD 

PLACI 

PN 

PoC 

PoUS 

PPMKS 

PUESC 

QUOTA 

R 

REN 

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) 

Privileged Identity Management  

Public Key Infrastructure  

PL national system related to Single Window 

Pre-Loading Advanced Cargo Information 

Presentation Notification 

Proof of Concept 

Proof of Union Status 

National Information System for the Presentation of Goods for 
Customs Control of LT 

National Trader Portal of PL 

Electronic system for quota management / allocation 

Release 

Re-export Notification 

REX; REX2; REX3  Registered Exporters System; Registered Exporters System 2; 

RfC 

RFCS 

RIF 

RIKS 

RIM 

Registered Exporters System 3 

Request for Change 

Russian Federal Customs Service 

Request for Exchange of Information  

National Risk Evaluation and Control System of LT 

Reporting Interface Module 

RMDCM  

Risk Management Data Consolidation Module 

RP 

RRF 

RRP 

RSB 

RSP 

RTC 

RTE 

S/W 

S2S 

SAD 

Recovery Point 

Recovery and Resilience Facility 

Recovery and Resilience Plan 

Regulatory Scrutiny Board 

 Reusable Solutions Platform  

Rational Team Concert 

Real-Time Exercise 

Software 

System-to-System 

Single Administrative Document 

SAMANCTA 

Sampling Manual for Customs and Taxation Authorities 

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Acronym 

Description 

SAT 

SCI  

SD 

SDLC 

SDR 

SEED 

SG 

SIAIS2 

SLA 

SME 

SMS 

SMT 

SOA 

SOC 

Site Acceptance Testing 

Supervising Customs Office for Centralised Clearance for Import 

Security Dashboard 

Software Development Life Cycle 

Surveillance Declaration Record 

System for Exchange of Excise Data 

Secretariat General 

Slovenian Automated Import System 

Service Level Agreement 

Medium-Sized Enterprises 

Specimen Management System 

Service Management Tool (Synergia) 

Service Oriented Architecture 

Security Operations Centre  

SOFT-DEV  

Software development 

SP  

SPA 

Special Procedures 

Single Page Application 

SPEED; SPEED2 

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

SPS 

SRDS 

SRR 

Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS)  

Super Reduced Data Set 

Security Risk Rules 

SRV4DEV 

Service for developers  

SSA 

SSL 

SSTL 

STI 

STP 

SURV 

Safety and Security Analytics 

Secure Sockets Layer 

Smart and Secure Trade Lanes 

Shared Trader Interface 

Specific Trader Portal 

Surveillance 

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 

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Single Window 

Single Window Environment for Customs 

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Acronym 

Description 

T2L 

T2LF 

TAD 

TAPAS 

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 

Transit Accompanying Document 

DG TAXUD Access Point for AS4 System 

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 

TCA 

TCG 

TCS 

TDA 

TED 

Terabyte 

Trade and Cooperation Agreement 

Trade Contact Group 

Trade Customs Solutions 

Transitional Delegated Act 

Transit ENS Data Processing Bridge 

TEMPO 

TAXUD Electronic Management of Projects Online 

TES 

TIR 

 TNA 

ToC 

TOR 

TOTS2 

TP  

TRACES 

TS 

TSD  

TSI 

TSL 

TSS 

U2S 

UCC 

Trans-European System 

Transports Internationaux Routiers / International Road 
Transports 

Transition Network Analysis  

Terms of Collaboration  

Traditional Own Resources 

Control Task Management System of EE 

Testing Protocol 

Trade Control and Expert System 

Temporary Storage 

Temporary Storage Declaration  

Technical Support Instrument 

Trusted Service List 

Technical System Specifications 

User-to-System 

Union Customs Code 

UCC WP 

Union Customs Code Work Programme 

UFST 

UI 

UNECE 

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Ministry of Taxation of DK 

User Interface 

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe 

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2022 E-CUSTOMS ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 

Acronym 

Description 

UPU 

UTU 

 Universal Postal Union 

 National Declaration System of FI 

UUM&DS 

Uniform User Management & Digital Signature 

VAT 

VIES 

VIISP 

VoW 

VLS 

WA 

WAF 

WAN 

WCF 

WCO 

WG 

WPG 

WTO 

XML 

 ZAÖ 

ZISAR 

Value Added Tax 

VAT Information Exchange System 

State Information Resource Interoperability Platform of LT 

Vies on the Web 

National Single-Window System of LT 

Withdrawal Agreement 

Web Application Firewall  

Wide Area Network 

World Chambers Federation 

World Customs Organisation 

Working Group 

Wise Persons Group 

World Trade Organisation 

Extensible Markup Language 

Zollamt Österreich (Customs Authority of AT)  

Integrated Risk Management System of PL 

Country codes 

http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes.htm (ISO 3166)161 

Table 1: Abbreviations and acronyms 

161 According to the Interinstitutional Style Guide, EL is recommended as an ISO code for Greece and will be used throughout this 
document (instead of the ISO code GR). The former abbreviations (generally taken from the international code for automobiles) 
were used until the end of 2002. 

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2022 E-CUSTOMS ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT 

GETTING IN TOUCH WITH THE EU 

In person 

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 e-mail  

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 e-mail 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 data sets from the EU. 
Data can be downloaded and reused for free, for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.  

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ISBN 978-92-68-04516-9