ICS2 : release 3 : prepare your business for sending goods to or via the EU by rail.
Date: 2024-05-29
Institutions: Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union
Subjects: EU customs procedure, business management, carriage of goods, customs cooperation, customs regulations, data collection, electronic document management, exchange of information, information system, rail transport, surveillance concerning imports

Release 3:
Prepare your business for sending goods to or 
via the EU by rail

If you are involved in handling and transporting goods (including postal consignments) 
to  or  through  the  EU,  Northern  Ireland,  Norway,  or  Switzerland  by  rail,  you  will  need  to 
comply  with  the  European  Union’s  customs  pre-arrival  safety  and  security  system  – 
Import Control System 2 (ICS2) – data reporting requirements from 1 April 2025. These 
requirements also concern e-commerce businesses.

The third release of ICS2 will already be live from 3 June 2024, when all EU Member States 
should be ready to accept ICS2 filings from all economic operators (first maritime and inland 
waterways, followed by rail and road).

What are the key requirements?

The rail carrier will be legally responsible for ensuring that a complete and accurate Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) 
dataset is submitted in the ICS2 system for all goods before their arrival into the EU. 

The ENS will have detailed safety and security information about the transported goods that includes a complete commercial description, an 

HS6 digit commodity code, and additional details of involved parties (e.g. information about the buyer or seller).

How do you prepare the ENS?

From 1 April 2025, the carrier will have to declare safety and security data to ICS2 in a complete ENS. 

The carrier has to obtain the necessary data (e.g. consignment note, commercial invoice, additional details of involved parties) from all underlying 
house transport documents/consignment notes from the issuing freight forwarders (e.g. based in China) and other house filers involved (e.g. 
exporters, EU based consignees, including postal operators, issuing equivalent transport documents). 

ENS

1 April 2025

What is multiple ENS filing?

By the end of 2025, in addition to single ENS filing, ICS2 will also enable multiple filing of ENS data, where more than 
one partial ENS filing is submitted by different parties in the supply chain. 

In  case  of  multiple  filing,  the  carrier  and  house  filers  need  to  proactively  communicate  with  each  other  to  agree  who 
provides the partial ENS filings and to exchange the necessary information (e.g. number of consignment note, EORI of the 
carrier, EORI of the house filer) that will be used for linking the partial ENS filings in ICS2. 

Where  you  are  the  carrier  issuing  a 
master 
level  transport  document/
consignment  note  you  will  need  to  
submit a partial ENS based on your master 
transport  document/consignment  note 
and  declare  the  EORI  of  the  freight  
forwarder  in  your  filing.  The  freight  
forwarder will then become responsible 
for  the  house  level  data  filing  to  ICS2 
and will have to obtain data from other 
house  issuing  parties  or  declare  in  its 
partial  ENS  filing  the  identity  of  parties 
(EORI number) still required to file. 

Where you are the house filer (freight 
forwarder,  consolidator,  importer  in 
the EU) issuing a house level transport 
document/consignment  note,  you  will 
have  to  communicate  with  the  carrier 
that you issue house level documentation 
and  file  a  partial  ENS  to  ICS2  yourself 
that  contains  only  the  house  level  
transport document information.

Where  you  are  the  importer  in  the 
EU,  depending  on 
the  contractual 
arrangements with other involved parties,  
you will have to either provide the buyer 
and seller information to the party filing 
the  ENS  data  or  file  directly  to  ICS2  an 
ENS containing this information.

Are there other ways to file ENS data? 

The national customs administrations may also offer the possibility 
in  the  future  to  file  a  combined  transit  declaration  containing 
ENS  particulars  in  the  New  Computerised  Transit  System 
(NCTS)  Phase  6  instead  of  ICS2.  This  will  be  possible  if  you  plan 
to file transit declarations through NCTS Phase 6 from March 2025. 

Only  a  full  ENS  data  set  can  be  filed  with  the  transit  declaration 
in  NCTS,  and  multiple  filling  cannot  be  used.  The  combined 
transit  declaration  will  be  used  for  the  entry  formalities  until  the 
presentation of the goods at the first customs office of entry to the 
EU. More information is available at this link.

Important dates to remember: 

1 April 2025: Rail carriers and house level filers have to connect to 
ICS2 and start filing ENS data into the system.

If you are not ready to start filing on 1 April 2025, you need to contact 
the National Service Desk of the EU Member State (National Customs 
Authority) where your EORI number was registered and request by 
end of March 2025 at the latest a deployment window.

How do you get ready for ICS2? 

FAMILIARISE yourself with the new requirements:

European Commission website and FAQ
European Commission CIRCABC document sharing 
platform

ARRANGE  –  as  a  carrier  –  to  obtain  all  the  information  that 
is  necessary  to  lodge  a  complete  ENS  filing  in  ICS2  or  PLAN 
contractually  with  all  involved  parties  that  as  a  carrier  you 
submit  the  master  level  data,  and  they  submit  the  necessary 
house level information to ICS2 under their responsibility and 
within the legal time limit. In case of multiple filing, exchanging 
the information among the stakeholders is essential.

OBTAIN  an  EORI  number  from  one  of  the  EU  Member  States’ 
customs  authorities  to  be  able  to  submit  ENS  filings.  More 
information here.

UPDATE  your  IT  systems  to  connect  directly  with  ICS2,  or 
instead,  CONTRACT  an  IT  service  provider  to  offer  IT  services 
for ENS filing. Contact the National Service Desk of the Member 
State where your EORI number is registered to get guidance on 
the steps to follow.

March
2025

1 April
2025

1 April - 30 August
2025

1 September 
2025

Request 
deployment 
window

Start date
for connection
to ICS2

Deployment
window to 
connect to ICS2

ICS2 is mandatory
for all rail economic 
operators

To take the first steps in your technical preparation consult this 
factsheet.

ENSURE you have the necessary business processes in place to 
comply  with  ICS2  requirements,  including  having  operational 
protocols  in  case  of  system  failures,  for  multiple  filing  or  for 
receiving notifications from the customs authorities.

TRAIN your staff and allocate resources to operate the updated 
IT systems and business processes.

RUN the mandatory self-conformance tests, to make sure that 
your IT systems can be used for sending and receiving technical 
messages  to  and  from  ICS2.  Check  the  Self-Conformance 
testing organisation document for next steps.

START ENS filing with ICS2 from 1 April 2025 or REQUEST the 
Member State of EORI registration for a deployment window if 
you are not ready on the go-live date. More information about 
the go-live procedure is available here.

What will happen if you’re not ready in time?

Goods will be stopped at the EU customs borders.

  The goods in question will not be cleared by the customs authorities. 

Inadequate declarations will either be rejected or subject to intervention, with possible 
sanctions imposed for non-compliance.

STAY ON TRACK FOR ICS2 
Find out more on the website: ec.europa.eu/ICS2

EN PDF

ISBN 978-92-68-14990-4

doi:10.2778/263037

KP-02-24-452-EN-N

© European Union, 2024