REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL pursuant to Article 14(3) of 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
Date: 2023-12-05
Institutions: Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission
Subjects: cultural heritage, exchange of information, fight against crime, heritage protection, illicit trade, import (EU), import licence, information system, surveillance concerning imports, third country

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 5.12.2023  COM(2023) 758 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL pursuant to Article 14(3) of 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     
 
 
Table of Contents 

1. 

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 3 

2.  OBJECTIVES TO BE MET ................................................................................................................... 4 

3.  PROJECT ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING APPROACH .................................................................... 5 

Phase 1 – Conceptualisation ............................................................................................................... 5 

Phase 2 – System development .......................................................................................................... 5 

Phase 3 – Deployment and Operation ................................................................................................ 5 

4.  PROGRESS OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 6 

Project development ........................................................................................................................... 6 

Methodology: approach used for the implementation of the ICG System ......................................... 6 

High-level planning .............................................................................................................................. 7 

Request for Changes (RfCs) ................................................................................................................. 7 

External synergies................................................................................................................................ 7 

Cooperation between DG TAXUD and DG SANTE ............................................................................... 7 

Work with the Project Group on ‘Digitalisation of Cultural Goods’ .................................................... 8 

5.  RISKS FOR DELAYS ........................................................................................................................... 9 

Risk 1 – Staff allocation ....................................................................................................................... 9 

Risk 2 – The overall customs IT development priorities...................................................................... 9 

Mitigation actions ................................................................................................................................ 9 

6.  CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................. 9 

ANNEX I: MULTIANNUAL STRATEGIC PLANNING............................................................... 11 

ANNEX II: MAIN PROJECT PHASES AND CRITICAL MILESTONES TIMELINE ............ 13 

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Business Case 

Vision Document 

ICG system 

TRACES 

GLOSSARY 

The  document  that  provides  the  IT  project  justification 
and defines its budgetary requirements. 

The  Vision  Document  elaborates  on  the  assumptions 
made  in  the  Business  Case  Document.  It  records  the 
system 
and 
partnership 
understanding of the system at the time of writing. 

owner/system 

supplier 

Import  of  Cultural  Goods  system  -  the  centralised 
electronic system for the import of cultural goods. 

Trade  Control  and  Expert  System  -  the  European 
Commission's  multilingual  online  platform  for  sanitary 
and phytosanitary certification. 

EU CSW - CERTEX 

EU Customs Single Window - Certificates Exchange. 

MFF 

BPM 

BAC document 

Multiannual  Financial  Framework;  the  EU  long-term 
budget, running from 2021 to 2027. 

Business Process Model - the application-level Business 
Process  Model  describes  the  entirety  of  the  business 
process  and  flow  of  information  for  an  application, 
completing the System Business Process  Model  created 
during  the  “System  Specification”  phase,  to  take  into 
account the application’s own needs. 

The Business Acceptance Criteria document 

2 

 
 
 
 
 
1.  INTRODUCTION 

Regulation (EU) 2019/880 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 20191 
on  the  introduction  and  the  import  of  cultural  goods  (hereafter  “the  Regulation”)  aims  to 
prevent the illicit trade in cultural goods, in particular when it contributes to the financing of 
terrorist  activities,  and  to  prohibit  the  import  into  the  customs  territory  of  the  Union  of 
cultural goods exported illegally from third countries.  

The  Regulation  subjects  the  import  of  certain  cultural  goods  that  are  considered  to  be 
particularly  endangered  (namely,  archaeological  objects  and  parts  of  monuments  that  have 
been dismembered) to  import licences and others, which  are considered  less endangered, to 
importer statements and  ensures that they undergo uniform  controls  when imported into the 
Union.  Certain  imports  of  cultural  goods  that  are  intended  for  specific  uses  (educational, 
scientific or research-related) are exempted from these documentary requirements. 

The obligation for importers to obtain an import licence or draw up and submit an importer 
statement  to  customs  will  only  start  to  apply  from  the  moment  that  a  centralised  electronic 
system (the ICG system) will become operational.  

The  ICG  system  will  not  only  serve  as  a  means  for  the  accomplishment  of  formalities  by 
operators, but  also  for the storage  and the  exchange of information  between Member States 
administrations in charge of implementing the Regulation (customs and cultural authorities).  

The  functioning  of  the  ICG  system  depends  on  the  EU  Single  Window  Environment  for 
Customs  established  by  Regulation  (EU)  2022/23992,  which  provides  a  legal  basis  for  the 
functioning of the EU Customs Single Window Certificates Exchange (EU CSW-CERTEX).  

The EU CSW-CERTEX  represents  the  central  component of the EU Single Window  and is 
developed by the Commission to link the national Single Window Environments for customs 
to  Union  systems  or  databases  managing  non-customs  requirements  so  that  all  relevant 
authorities can access the relevant data and collaborate more easily on border checks.  

Every  12  months  from  the  entry  into  force  of  the  Regulation  and,  until  the  ICG  system 
becomes operational, the Commission is to present a report to the European Parliament and to 
the Council on the progress made with establishing this electronic system.  

The first Commission annual progress report3 outlined the action taken by its services during 
the  first  year  after  the  Regulation  entered  into  force,  namely:  (a)  the  preparatory  work  for 
adopting the necessary implementing provisions, and (b) the consultations with the Member 
States via the Expert Group for customs issues related to cultural goods and the Project Group 
for the import of cultural goods.  

The  second  Commission  annual  progress  report4  presented  the  progress  achieved  with  the 
adoption of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/10795, as well as the roll-

1 OJ L 151, 7.6.2019, p. 1–14 
2 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, 9.12.2022, p. 1–23   
3 COM(2020) 342 final 
4 COM (2021) 358 final 

3 

 
 
 
 
out of Phase 1 – ‘Conceptualisation’ of the ICG project, the work carried out by the Project 
Group  created  for  this  purpose  and  the  advancement  of  the  Business  Case  and  the  Vision 
Document for the ICG project. 

The third Commission annual progress report6 covered:  

(a) the finalisation of the first version of the package of Business Process Models for the ICG 
system. Additional updates of the package will be required during the development phase. 

(b)  the  finalisation  of  the  Business  Acceptance  Criteria  (BAC)  document,  describing  all  the 
test  scenarios  required  to  test  comprehensively  the  business  requirements  and  functional 
requirements  for  the  ICG  system,  so  as  to  ensure  that  all  identified  business  needs  can  be 
implemented by it. 

(c) the creation of  user stories and  their alignment with  the BAC, verifying  the information 
needed for the developers to estimate and implement the functionalities necessary to meet the 
requirements.  

The present fourth annual progress report covers the period from July 2022 to June 2023. For 
the sake of completeness, the objectives to be met, the project architecture and the planning 
approach,  which  are  detailed  in  previous  progress  reports,  are  also  briefly  mentioned  here. 
The overall assessment of the progress made and the identified risks for delay are summarised 
in the conclusions section of this report. 

2.  OBJECTIVES TO BE MET 

The ICG system is to become operational by 28 June 2025 at the latest, as on that date, it will 
become mandatory for all operators to obtain import licences or submit importer statements to 
customs through that electronic system, in order for them to be able to import7 legally specific 
categories of cultural goods into the Union.  

After the adoption, in June 2021, of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1079 
and the approval of the Vision Document, the development phase of the ICG system began in 
the second quarter of 2022. It will cover about two years, at the end of which the third phase 
will  start.  In  the  third  phase,  the  ICG  system  will  be  interconnected  to  the  EU-CSW 
CERTEX,  to  allow  the  exchange  of  documents  with  Member  States’  customs  systems.  In 
parallel, training sessions will be organised to familiarise their administrations with the ICG 
system’s operational functionalities.  

Alongside other activities of the Commission services in the field of customs, the project on 
the import of cultural goods is also planned in detail through the Multi-Annual Strategic Plan 
for electronic Customs 2019 revision8 (MASP-C rev. 2019). An excerpt of the planning of the 
project on the import of cultural goods from MASP-C rev. 2019 is provided in Annex I to this 

5  Commission  Implementing  Regulation  (EU)  2021/1079  of  24  June  2021  laying  down  detailed  rules  for 
implementing certain provisions of Regulation (EU) 2019/880 of the European Parliament and of the Council on 
the introduction and the import of cultural goods; OJEU L 234 of 2.7.2021, p. 67. 
6 COM(2022) 580 final 
7 The Regulation defines as ‘import’ the placement of goods under the following customs procedures: release for 
free  circulation;  storage  in  customs  warehouses  or  free  zones;  temporary  admission;  and  end-use,  including 
inward processing. 
8 See https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/general-information-customs/electronic-customs_en. 

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report (table 1). A revision of MASP-C is expected by the end of 2023, and the project fiche 
will be updated at that moment to reflect the actual progress on the project. 

As previously mentioned, part of the project on the import of cultural goods is developed also 
within  the  EU  Single  Window  Environment  for  Customs  of  which  CERTEX  is  a  key 
component. An excerpt of the planning of EU CSW-CERTEX rev. 2019 from MASP-C Fiche 
1.13 is also provided in Annex I to this report (table 2). 

3.  PROJECT ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING APPROACH 

As explained analytically in the first annual progress report, the Project Architecture is based 
on  the  methodology  provided  for  in  MASP-C  rev.  2019  and  its  Annexes,  including  the 
Governance  Scheme9,  the  EU  Customs  Business  Process  Modelling  Policy10  and  the  IT 
strategy11. A comprehensive roadmap, with the main project phases and the critical milestones 
is detailed in Annex II. 

Although the project is progressing on several levels at the same time, it can be figuratively 
divided into three main phases: 

Phase  1  –  Conceptualisation:  Initially,  a  Business  Case  is  prepared,  providing  the  project 
justification  and  defining  budgetary  requirements.  Further,  the  Level  3  (user  requirements 
BPMs) and Level 4 (functional requirements BPMs) are produced, with the aim of providing 
a  visual  representation  of  business  processes  and  detailed  functional  requirements  to 
guarantee that the envisaged operational IT system will function as set out in the legislation. 
Subsequently, a Vision Document is produced, which provides more detailed information on 
the project definition in terms of architecture, cost, time, and risk, as well as information such 
as milestones, deliverables and project organisation. These documents reflect the discussions, 
and the content of the implementing act to be produced by the Commission.  

Phase  2  –  System  development  Based  on  the  provisions  of  the  implementing  act,  the  user 
requirements and the functional specifications for the system, technical specifications on how 
the  system  will  be  constructed  are  developed.  These  technical  specifications  include:  the 
architecture to be used, the messages to be submitted by economic operators, the interfaces to 
other systems, testing plans, etc. 

Once  the  design  of  the  system  is  ready  from  a  conceptual  perspective  and  the  deliverables 
listed in Table 1, Milestones 1 and 3 (see Annex I) are produced, a more in-depth work begins 
and more technical aspects are taken into account in the Application & Service specifications 
and Technical System Specification documents, which are the concretisation of the Business 
Case (prepared during Phase 1) and the Vision Document (prepared during Phase 2). The ICG 
is to be integrated in the existing TRACES platform and therefore reuse  to some extend the 
existing specifications, architecture, messages and interface. 

Phase  3  –  Deployment  and  Operation  The  actual  IT  development  phase  (Construction 
Phase) begins, which is followed by a Transition phase where the early versions of the ICG 
system will be gradually rolled out to the different groups of users and tests are performed to 
ensure that, by 28 June 2025, operators and competent authorities are capable and well trained 
in  the  use  of  the  system.  Then,  a  6  months  after-care  period  will  follow,  during  which  the 

9 https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/2019_masp_annex3_en.pdf  
10 https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/2019_masp_annex4_en.pdf  
11 https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/sites/taxation/files/2019_masp_annex5_en.pdf  

5 

 
 
 
system will be fine-tuned to match any operational needs that may become evident only after 
the  use  of  an  IT  system  becomes  mandatory,  and  to  ensure  that  operations  are  running 
smoothly. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  ICG  system  will  be  interconnected  with  Member  States’  customs 
administrations via the EU CSW-CERTEX by 3 March 2025, following the adoption of the 
Regulation  on  the  EU  Single  Window  Environment  for  Customs12  to  allow  customs 
automated  controls  on  the  documents  issued  for  the  import  of  cultural  goods.  This  activity 
will require Conformance Testing. 

4.  PROGRESS OVERVIEW  

Project development  
The  technical  activities  have  been  well-progressing  during  the  reporting  period.  As  of  the 
second quarter of 2022 the development of the ICG system has begun, with the first internal 
releases addressing the general functional infrastructure (i.e. support entities, reference data, 
users, roles, search indexes and others), as well as the core workflows (i.e. register/submission 
workflows for the forms required at import, draft saving workflows, etc.).  

Given that the first results are already available, 3 extensive demonstrations were made by the 
Commission to the Project Group, showcasing the system to the participant Member States. 
While  the  efforts  concentrated  on  extending  the  core  functionalities  to  the  complete 
management capabilities, the focus was placed also on defining new functional concepts such 
as the subsequent import facilitation, applying for a licence that covers multiple objects, the 
licence application split or the ICG third countries law compendium feature.  

Additionally, as of the first quarter of 2023, the business activities for the EU CSW-CERTEX 
integration have been launched, so that import licences or importer statements are accessible 
to customs via the EU CSW-CERTEX by early 2025, in line with the schedule for the entry 
into operation of the ICG system.  

Methodology: approach used for the implementation of the ICG System 
The  methodological  approach  used  for  the  implementation  of  the  ICG  represents  a  mix 
between  different  Commission  services’  methodologies  and  practices  for  conceptualisation, 
quality assurance, development and deployment. In this context, the regular internal meetings 
and  demonstration  sessions  allow  for  discussing  and  implementing  real  functionalities, 
avoiding too elaborate mock-up screens. The adaptive planning allows for responding faster 
to  expectations  and  changes  in  a  flexible  way.  To  get  proper  feedback  from  the  field  and 
properly implement the system, the Member States will be associated on a voluntary basis as 
soon as there is a test version. The test environment will be accessible from the outside, using 
generic training profiles, as of the fourth quarter of 2023. 

High-level planning 
The ICG features are classified under different categories as presented below: 

12  After almost 10 years of pilot projects and almost four years of preparations and negotiations, the Regulation 
establishing  the  EU  Single  Window  Environment  for  Customs  made  its  way  into  EU  law  in  December  2022, 
providing  a  new  legal  framework  to  improve  information  sharing  and  digital  cooperation  between  customs 
administrations and other government authorities. 

6 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(a)  “ICG  core  features  with  existing  base  in  TRACES”:  essential  features  where  existing 
functionality will be reused; 

(b) “ICG core features without existing base in TRACES”: essential features to be built from 
scratch; 

(c) “ICG not core features”: important but not essential features; 

(d) “External connections”: features that rely on external inputs; 

(e) “Out of scope”: features not for the first ICG system version (e.g. Artificial Intelligence); 

An  estimation  of  availability  by  quarter  is  given  in  the  table  below.  The  effort  is  currently 
organised in 8 releases from second quarter 2022 to second quarter 2024, with the caveat that 
this organisation is subject to continuous agile refinement and optimisation. 

Table 1: High-level overview of availability targets 

Request for Changes (RfCs) 
As per the Change Management Process, whenever a change is identified, this is registered in 
a Request for Change (RfC) list. While the development activities are progressing and internal 
discussions  are  ongoing,  several  changes  are  identified  to  be  implemented  at  the  Level  2-
Level 4 ICG BPMs. Therefore, the BPMs and BAC document are updated to reflect the latest 
status  considering  the  amendments.  The  Member  States  are  informed  about  the  changes, 
however so far the modifications do not have any impact on them. 

External synergies 
During  the  reporting  period,  the  Commission  has  been  liaising  closely  with  international 
organisations,  such  as  the  International  Council  of  Museums  (ICOM)  for  ensuring  that  the 
system  incorporates  elements  of  risk  management,  notably  from  the  ICOM  Red  Lists13  and 
Unesco. In addition, other tools used by ICOM to protect cultural heritage (i.e. Object  ID14, 
Observatory15, etc.) were explored with the aim of combating illicit trafficking.  

Internal Cooperation 
An extensive cooperation exists between the Commission’s services responsible for customs 
and for health, who are responsible for a number of policies that are deeply intertwined. The 
operational framework of cooperation has been agreed between services and has been further 
enhanced during the reporting period through continuous monitoring.  

13 https://icom.museum/en/resources/red-lists/ 
14 https://icom.museum/en/resources/standards-guidelines/objectid/  
15 https://www.obs-traffic.museum/  

7 

 
 
 
 
 
Work with the Project Group on ‘Digitalisation of Cultural Goods’ 
The  Commission  has  created  a  Customs  Project  Group  on  the  Digitalisation  of  Cultural 
Goods16  which  serves  as  a  discussion  forum  for  experts  from  Member  States’  national 
customs administrations and competent (cultural) authorities with experience in carrying out 
licencing formalities in  heritage matters, in particular digitally. The Group provided support 
in  the  preparation  of  the  implementing  act,  and  is  assisting  the  Commission  services  with 
defining  the  parameters  and  elaborating  the  criteria  for  the  functional  specifications  of  the 
ICG system. 

The  Project  Group17  currently  consists  of  delegates  from  15  Member  States  (AT,  BE,  BG, 
DK, DE, EE, EL, ES, FR, HU, IT, LV, NL, PT and RO) and to-date it has met twenty times 
(six during the reporting period 29.6.2022 – 28.6.2023). 

During this reporting period, the Project Group mainly examined and provided their expertise 
and insight on the following subjects: 

•  Guidelines for competent authorities for the validation of registrations in the ICG system 
of  entities  which  may  benefit  from  the  exemptions  from  licencing  or  statement 
requirements  for  temporary  imports  that  have  an  educational,  scientific  or  research 
purpose.  Creating  a  best  practices  document  to  ensure  that  the  same  evaluation  criteria 
are used by all Member State competent authorities when they validate such registrations. 
•  Understanding  the  administrative  structure  of  the  competent  authorities  in  the  Member 
States and harmonising it with the configuration and concepts of the ICG and TRACES 
systems,  so  as  to  direct  licence  applications  each  time  to  the  appropriate  competent 
authority. 

•  How to organise best in the ICG system the facilitation offered to importers in the case of 

subsequent import of a previously licenced cultural good. 

•  With the aim of creating a third country law library feature within the ICG system to help 
competent  authorities,  customs  and  importers  to  identify  whether  there  is  an  export 
certification requirement or an export prohibition in third countries, a template has been 
designed  in  close  cooperation  with  the  Project  Group  members,  to  serve  as  a  library 
specimen profile. 

•  How  to  handle  in  the  ICG  system  applications  for  import  licences  that  cover 
consignments  of  multiple  cultural  goods;  drawing  from  the  practical  experience  of 
competent authorities in the context of export licences under Regulation (EC) 116/2009. 
•  Brainstorming  on  the  most  efficient  and  effective  way  to  organise  the  workflow  of  an 
import  licence  application  with  multiple  objects,  in  the  case  where  the  competent 
authority  intends  to  grant  the  licence  for  some  of  the  objects  but  reject  the  application 
with regard to the rest.  
In  the  context  of  reducing  the  free  text  fields  within  the  import  licence  and  importer 
statement templates, the members were consulted on creating lists of values to improve 
the collection of statistical data. 

• 

16  The  Project  Group  on  Digitalisation  of  Cultural  Goods  serves  as  a  discussion  platform, where  experts  from 
national customs administrations and competent (cultural) authorities with experience in carrying out licencing 
formalities in heritage matters, in particular digitally, come together to provide support with the activities related 
to the development of the ICG System.  
17 For more details on the Project Group’s mandate and work, please see the Commission’s first Progress Report 
COM(2020) 342 final. 

8 

 
 
 
Additionally, during the reporting period and as new functionalities were created and added to 
the system, the ICG developers team made three demonstrations to the Group to get feedback 
on the implementation of the new features. 

5.  RISKS FOR DELAYS 

Risk 1 – Staff allocation 
The initial  proposal  from  the Commission  did not  provide for the creation  of an  IT system. 
Thus,  resources  were  not  allocated  accordingly.  However,  in  the  course  of  the  negotiations 
and  at  the  request  of  the  co-legislators,  the  creation  of  the  ICG  system  was  included  in  the 
Regulation,  which  called  for  additional  resources  that  were  unforeseen  at  that  point.  The 
needs  for  this  six-year  project  in  terms  of  IT  development  personnel  were  estimated,  at  the 
time of the final political trilogues in December 2018, to be two full time Administrator posts. 
However, only one full time Administrator could be allocated since mid-July 2020. 

Risk 2 – EU Single Window Environment for Customs and overall customs IT 
development priorities 
The ICG system is interdependent on the correct implementation of EU CSW-CERTEX, the 
core  component  of  the  EU  Single  Window  Environment  for  Customs,  to  exchange 
information with the national single window environments for customs. The risks are situated 
mostly on the side of the Member States and linked to resource constraints, the complexity of 
the  projects  and  their  integration,  contractual,  as  well  as  possible  procurement  and  funding 
issues.  These  risks  need  to  be  considered  in  the  context  of  the  Member  States'  overall  IT 
activities, particularly the UCC IT projects (such as import systems) which have an indirect 
impact on the overall ICG implementation. Some Member States have experienced additional 
resources  impact  related  to  the  war  in  Ukraine.  To  tackle  the  funding  issues,  COM  has 
promoted  the  use  of  the  relevant  instruments,  including  the  Technical  Support  Instrument 
(TSI).  

Mitigation actions 
The risks have been reported internally.  

6.  CONCLUSIONS 

The main actions to develop the ICG system that were undertaken during the period covered 
by the present 4th progress report can be summarised as follows:  

•  The ICG system development has began and the first basic results can already be seen on 
the screen. The ICG core functions, such as for instance the document creation, saving as a 
draft, and the submission or registration of documents for all types of cultural goods, are 
already operational. 

•  The  focus  is  now  on  extending  these  core  functionalities  to  the  complete  management 
capabilities  of  the  system.  The  efforts  planned  under  the  8  internal  releases  from  the 
second quarter of 2022 to the second quarter of 2024 are on track, with their organisation 
being subject to continuous Agile method adaptations. 

•  Close collaboration with the members of the Project  Group on ‘Digitalisation of Cultural 
Goods’ has allowed to advance the technical activities and three demonstrations of the ICG 
system took place in the context of the regular Project Group meetings. 

9 

 
 
•  New ICG functional concepts were agreed and implemented such as the facilitation in the 
case of subsequent import of previously licenced cultural goods, multiple objects under the 
same import licence, licence application split, etc. 

•  A functional template was created for the third country law profiles. This third country law 
Library  feature  of  the  ICG  will  help  administrations  and  operators  alike  in  identifying 
whether the export of cultural goods from a given third country is subject to restrictions or 
prohibitions.  

•  The business activities for the EU CSW-CERTEX integration has been launched in order 
for the ICG system documents to be accessible to customs by early 2025, in line with the 
entry  into  operation  of  the  ICG  e-licensing  system.  Work  on  other  external  connections 
such as for instance with EORI has been progressing. 

•  As  per  the  MASP-C  2019  milestones,  the  work  on  the  Application  &  Service 

Specifications and Technical System Specifications has been launched. 

•  The  Commission  has  been  so  far  on  schedule  with  development  deadlines  and  no 

significant risks for delays have been identified.  

10 

 
 
 
 
ANNEX I: MULTIANNUAL STRATEGIC PLANNING 

The  MASP-C  ensures  an  effective  and  coherent  management  of  IT  projects  by  setting  out  both  a 
strategic framework and milestones within the legal deadlines established in legislation. It is ultimately 
endorsed by the Member States in the Customs Policy Group (CPG) based on advice provided by the 
Electronic  Customs  Coordination  Group  (ECCG)  and  consultations  with  trade  at  the  Trade  Contact 
Group (TCG). 
The planning for the electronic system has been discussed and approved by the Member States and is 
described in detail in Fiche 1.18 of the MASP-C rev. 2019. 

Table 1 below provides an excerpt of the planning of the project on the import of cultural goods from 
MASP-C rev. 2019 Fiche 1.18. 

Table 1 - Excerpt of MASP-C rev. 2019 Fiche 1.18 

Milestones 

Estimated completion date 

1  Business Analysis and Business Modelling 

- Business Case Document 
- Level 3 (User Requirements BPM) 
- Level 4 (Functional Requirement detailed BPM) 

2  Legal Provisions 

3 

4 

- Current provisions adopted* 
- Future provisions adopted** 
Project Initiation Phase 
- Vision Document 
- GO decision 
IT Project 
- Application & Service Specifications 
- Technical System Specifications 
Construction Phase 
- Central services implementation 
- Service integration in National Systems 
- National implementation 
Transition Phase 
- Deploy and rollout 
- Conformance tests 

5  Operation 

- Commission, Member States administrations and 
Traders 
- Non-EU Countries and non-EU traders (in case 
required) 
Implementation support (training and communication) 
- Centrally developed training and communication 
- National training and communication 

6 

Q4 2020 
Q1 2022 
Q1 2022 

Q2 2019 
Q2 2021 

Q2 2021 
Q2 2021 

Q2 2023 
Q2 2023 

Q3 2024 
N/A 
N/A 

Q4 2024 
Q2 2025 

Q2 2025 

N/A 

Q4 2024 
Q4 2024 

*Current provisions refer to Regulation (EU) 2019/880 
**Future provisions refer to the implementing provisions to be adopted according to Regulation (EU) 
2019/880 

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Table 2 provides an excerpt of the EU CSW-CERTEX project, with a focus on Component 2 of the 
EU-CSW CERTEX project, interconnecting the ICG system. 

Table 2 - Excerpt of MASP-C rev. 2019 Fiche 1.13 – Component 2 “EU CSW- CERTEX” 

Milestones 

Estimated completion date 

1  Business Analysis and Business Modelling 

- Business Case Document 
- Business Case Annex 
- Level 3 (User Requirements BPM) 
- Level 4 (Functional Requirement detailed BPM) 

2  Legal Provisions 

3 

4 

- Current provisions adopted* 
- Future provisions adopted** 
Project Initiation Phase 
- Vision Document 
- Vision Document Annex 
- GO decision 
IT Project 
- Application & Service Specifications 
- Technical System Specifications 
Construction Phase 
- Central services implementation 
- Service integration in National Systems 
- National implementation 
Transition Phase 
- Deploy and rollout 
- Conformance tests 

Q1 2017 
Q2 2023 
Q1 2024 
Q1 2024 

In force 
2021 

Q3 2017 
Q3 2023 
Q3 2023 

Q2 2024 
Q2 2024 

Q3 2024 
From Q4 2024 onwards 
From Q4 2024 onwards 

Q4 2024 
From Q1 2025 onwards 

5  Operation 

- Commission, Member States administrations and 
Traders (NB: This is the Operations date for the 
Commission, MS will conformance test from Q2 2020) 
- Non-EU Countries and non-EU traders (in case 
required) 
Implementation support (training and communication) 
- Centrally developed training and communication 
- National training and communication 

6 

Q2 2025 

N/A 

N/A 
N/A 

*Current provisions refer to Regulation (EU) 2019/880 
**Future provisions refer to the implementing provisions to be adopted according to Regulation (EU) 2019/880 

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ANNEX II: MAIN PROJECT PHASES AND CRITICAL MILESTONES TIMELINE 

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