CELEX: 51990PC0605
Language: en
Date: 1990-12-12
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION ON THE ADOPTION OF A PROGRAMME OF COMMUNITY ACTION ON THE SUBJECT OF THE VOCATIONAL TRAINING OF CUSTOMS' OFFICIALS ( THE MATTHAEUS PROGRAMME )

N o C 13/12                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                  19. 1.91
              Proposal for a Council Decision on the adoption of a programme of Community action on the
                     subject of the vocational training of customs officials (The Matthaeus Programme)
                                                COM(90) 605 final — SYN 315
                                     (Submitted by the Commission on 21 December 1990)
                                                         (91/C 13/07)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                          Whereas a greater awareness of the principles and
                                                                  procedures applied in Member States can only increase
                                                                  the degree of harmonization of customs practice within
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European             the Community and help to create the necessary climate
Economic Community and in particular Article 100a                 of mutual confidence;
thereof;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                Whereas the implementation of a large scale programme
                                                                   of training for customs officials (The Matthaeus
                                                                  programme) constitutes one of the most appropriate
In cooperation with the European Parliament,                      ways to achieve this result;
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee,                                                 Whereas the Commission has adopted a training
                                                                  programme for 1990 based on the exchange of customs
                                                                   officials between national administrations (the pilot
Whereas the establishment of the single market                    project (')); whereas the aim of this programme was to
necessitates a new definition of the role of Community             collect useful material to allow the implementation of a
customs officials in ensuring the proper functioning of            more ambitious training programme to extend over
the Customs Union;                                                 several years and to be supplemented by other training
                                                                   actions;
Whereas this role will, in future, focus on the uniform
application of customs legislation at the Community's
external border which is an essential prerequisite for the        Whereas the experience acquired during the pilot project
execution of the various Community policies governing              showed the necessity of officials being fully operational
foreign trade;                                                     in their workplace; whereas this requirement will be met
                                                                   only if the exchange officials have sufficient knowledge
                                                                   of the language of the host country; whereas for this
Whereas it is advisable that the abolition of internal             purpose it is essential that the national administrations
borders does not give rise to distortions in competition,          organize intensive language courses for their officials
deflection of trade, or increased risk of fraud; whereas it        who are likely to participate in the Matthaeus
is consequently important to stimulate an intensive and            programme; whereas these courses must be of a
ongoing cooperation at all administrative levels in the            permanent nature and concern all the Community
customs services with a view to preparing them for                 languages;
working together within the framework of the single
market;
                                                                   Whereas, equally, the essential requirement of making
                                                                   customs officials operational in the host offices can be
Whereas it is a question of improving the effectiveness of
                                                                   achieved only if the exchange officials are able to
the Customs Union as provided for in Article 9 of the
                                                                   perform the duties which are inherent to the actions
Treaty;
                                                                   entrusted to them; whereas this condition should be
                                                                   subject to certain restrictions in order to take into
Whereas this improvement is achieved through the                   consideration the legal requirements of each Member
valorization of human resources in the Member States               States; whereas it is consequently essential to ensure that
 and therefore through suitable vocational training;               exchange officials receive the same legal status as
                                                                   national officials if, whilst performing their duties, their
                                                                   civil liability is put in issue by a third party; whereas in
Whereas the programmes already established in this
                                                                   these conditions it appears necessary to submit the
 sphere by each of the national administrations are not
                                                                   exchange officials to the same rules of professional
 sufficient to fulfil the objective pursued; whereas it is
                                                                   secrecy as national officials;
 consequently essential to reinforce national efforts
 through joint action to increase the awareness of
 customs officials of the increasing Community dimension
 of their task and of the necessity of close collaboration
 with each other;                                                   (') Communication from the Commission dated 20 April 1989.
 ---pagebreak---  19. 1.91                               Official Journal of the European Communities                               N o C 13/13
Whereas training actions supplementary to the exchange            HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:
of officials between administrations are essential to the
achievement of the required objectives; whereas these
                                                                                             Article 1
actions might consist of training seminars and the
implementation of common training programmes to be                 1.    This Decision establishes the Community action
taught in Member State customs schools;                           programme on the subject of the vocational training of
                                                                  customs officials of national administrations, hereafter
Whereas seminars form an ideal arena for the                      called 'the Matthaeus Programme'.
comparison of ideas between Community customs
officials; whereas in these seminars suggestions may              2.     For the purposes of this Decision:
evolve capable of improving the legal instruments in
force and of harmonizing work methods in each admin-              (a) 'exchange official' means the official of a Member
istration;                                                             State required to perform his duties in a customs
                                                                       office situated in another Member State;
Whereas the seminars should concern all customs
officials especially customs school trainers, officials who       (b) 'host office' means the customs service in which the
implement Community law and officials fighting against                 exchange official is required to perform his duties;
all types of fraud;
                                                                  (c) 'donor office' means the customs service in which the
                                                                       official normally performs his duties.
Whereas the establishment of common training
programmes constitutes the most suitable means of
ensuring that identical training is received by Community         3.     The Matthaeus Programme will be implemented
                                                                  from 1 January 1991.
officials; whereas these programmes should focus on the
teaching of Community law as well as on the study of
Community institutions and their foundations, since                                          Article 2
customs officials are having increasingly to integrate the
Community and national components of their work;                  The objectives of the Matthaeus Programme are as
                                                                  follows:
Whereas the implementation of these common
programmes can be accomplished only if Member States              (a) to prepare customs officials of Member States for the
provide the necessary facilities on their territories;                 implications of the single market with regards to the
                                                                       uniform application of Community regulations at the
                                                                       external border of the Community;
Whereas for the implementation of the Matthaeus
programme it is advisable to predetermine the division of         (b) to increase awareness in the customs services that, in
expenses of this programme between the Commission                      the single market, each national administration will
and the Member States, in accordance with the dispo-                   be working, even more than at present, on behalf of
sitions of the Commission's communication; whereas                     the Community as a whole;
consequently this division might be carried out by
assigning the expenses relating to the language training          (c) to provide supplementary, specially adapted, voca-
of their officials to the Member States, and the expenses              tional training to the greatest possible number of
relating to the travel and accommodation of officials                  customs officials;
participating in the exchanges and officials required to
attend seminars in Member States other than their own             (d) to utilize to maximum advantage the know-how of
to the Commission;                                                     customs services in the Community through greater
                                                                       mobility of staff and thus to improve the
Whereas it is necessary to ensure uniform application of               management of the Customs Union and the
this Decision and, for that purpose, to provide for a                  application of the fiscal provisions relating to imports
Community         procedure   for     the    enactment      of         and exports;
implementing rules; whereas a committee should be set
up to provide a forum for close and effective cooperation         (e) to stimulate intensive and ongoing cooperation at all
between the Member States and the Commission in this                   levels of the relevant administrations with a view to
field;                                                                 preparing them for working together within the
                                                                       context of the single market.
Whereas this action programme covers certain aspects
which, to date, have not been included within the                                            Article 3
customary framework of collaboration and adminis-
trative assistance; whereas these aspects of the                  The Matthaeus Programme is composed of the following
programme may contribute, in close liaison with the               training actions:
objectives of the vocational training progamme, to the
harmonious        development     of    business    activities    (a) exchanges of customs officials        between    national
throughout the Community,                                              administrations;
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 13/14                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                 19. 1.91
(b) training seminars for customs officials, especially          required to move to a Member State other than their
     trainers in customs schools, officials who apply            own.
     Community law and officials who fight against all
     types of fraud;                                             3.     Member States shall pay the expenses resulting
                                                                 from the linguistic training of their staff provided for in
(c) the application in Member State customs schools of           Article 5.
     common vocational training programmes;
                                                                                           Article 7
(d) the organization of language training courses in the          1.    The Matthaeus Programme shall            operate   in
     Member States for exchange officials.                       accordance with Annexes I, II and III.
                          Article 4                              The Commission shall be responsible for its implemen-
                                                                 tation.
1.     The Member States should take the steps necessary
to enable exchange officials to be operational in the host
                                                                 2.     In carrying out its task, the Commission shall be
office. T o this end exchange officials shall be authorized
                                                                 assisted by a committee of an advisory nature composed
to carry out the formalities relating to the duties
                                                                 of representatives of the Member States and chaired by
entrusted to him.
                                                                 the representative of the Commission.
2.     If circumstances demand it, the competent auth-
orities in the Member States may limit the authorization         The representative of the Commission shall submit to the
referred to in paragraph 1 to certain formalities relating       committee a draft of the measures to be taken. The
to the duties entrusted to exchange officials.                   committee shall deliver its opinion on the draft within a
                                                                 time limit which the chairman may lay down according
3.     If whilst performing these duties the civil liability of  to the urgency of the matter, if necessary by taking a
an exchange official is put at issue by a third party, the       vote.
exchange official shall benefit from the same legal status
as national officials.                                           The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in
                                                                 addition, each Member State shall have the right to ask
4.     Exchange officials shall be bound by the same rules       to have its position recorded in the minutes.
of professional secrecy as national officials.
                                                                 The Commission shall take the utmost account of the
                                                                 opinion delivered by the committee. It shall inform the
                          Article 5                              committee of the manner in which its opinion has been
                                                                 taken into account.
The Member States shall establish linguistic training       for
their officials who are likely to participate in            the
Matthaeus Programme. This training should be of              an                            Article 8
intensive and ongoing nature. It should concern              all
Community languages.                                              1.    The Matthaeus     Programme     shall  extend    over
                                                                 several years.
                          Article 6                              2.     The Commission shall present an annual report on
1.     The expenses arising from the measures taken in           the implementation of the Matthaeus Programme to the
Article 3 shall be shared between the Commission and             European Parliament and to the Council.
the Member States.
                                                                                           Article 9
2.     The Commission shall pay the travel and
subsistence expenses for the exchange of customs                  Before 30 June 1993, the Commission shall present a
officials between national administrations as provided for        report on the experience acquired during the implemen-
in Article 3 (a).                                                 tation of the Matthaeus Programme to the European
                                                                  Parliament and to the Council, accompanied, should the
The Commission shall also pay the travel and subsistence          need arise, by a proposal for its adaptation. The Council
expenses of officials participating in the seminars               shall make a decision on this proposal by 31 October
referred to in Article 3 (b), when the officials are              1993 at the latest.
 ---pagebreak--- 19. 1.91                               Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s             N o C 13/15
                                                                 ANNEX      I
                                 Exchange of customs officials between national administrations
         1. The exchange of officials affects all customs officials namely trainers in Member State customs schools,
             heads of customs offices, officials responsible for the implementation of Community law and officials
             responsible for the fight against fraud.
         2. The exchange of officials is based on the principle of twinning. The twinning consists of the exchange
             between customs services of a number of officials with similar profiles.
             Exceptions to the twinning regulations may be authorized especially for customs officials responsible for
             the fight against fraud.
         3. The exchange officials should have a good knowledge of the language of the country in which the host
             office is situated.
         4. Each Member States will be required to exchange its officials with all other Member States in the
            Community.
         5. The duration of the exchanges will be fixed, taking into account the requiremens of the host offices and
            the donor offices as well as the nature of the duties and the grades of the exchange officials.
         6. Member States must inform the Commission at regular intervals about the nature of their linguistic
             training and the expenses spent thereon.
                                                                ANNEX      II
                                                             Training seminars
         1. Training seminars for trainers in Member State customs schools
             These seminars will be organized by the Commission services in collaboration with the relevant national
             administrations.
             They will cover current topics to be determined before-hand.
            They will proceed with an exchange of views on teaching methods, educational approaches, material
             used, and end in a rapprochement and improvement of methods and criteria for education within the
             Community.
            These seminars may be conducted by university professors, and representatives from business circles,
             national administrations and Community institutions.
         2. Training seminars for officials responsible for the implementation of Community law and the fight against
            fraud
             Officials required to participate in the seminars will be chosen on the basis of their experience in the
             field covered.
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 13/16                               Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n C o m m u n i t i e s           19. 1.91
               The themes will cover the problems met by the officials in implementing Community law.
               A special place will be devoted to the fight against fraud.
               If the nature of the proposed themes allows, business and university circles may be called to attend and
               even to intervene.
                                                                  ANNEX      III
                  The application of common professional training programmes in Member State customs schools
            1. The Commission will establish a common training programme for customs officials according to the
               procedure laid down in Article 7.
               This programme will comprise the study of:
               (a) European Communities and their foundations;
               (b) Community customs law;
               (c) common policies;
               (d) principles of Community taxation policy;
               (e) certain international organizations (GATT, CCD, etc. . . .).
            2. The common training programme will be applied in the Member State customs schools. To this effect
               the Member States must introduce the necessary structures.
            3. The instruction of this common programme will extend over a period of time. Each administration will
               implement this programme according to its own procedures.
            4. The allocation of time between the different subjects envisaged will be carried out in each customs
               school allowing for the individual needs of these establishments.
            5. The educational material of each customs school may be placed at the disposal of other schools.
               The Commission may provide educational material for the customs schools, should the need arise.
            6. The trainers will be required to instruct in the customs schools of several Member States. Commission
               officials will also participate in the instruction of certain disciplines.
            7. Specific intensive and specialized training programmes will be prepared by the Commission according to
               the procedure in Article 7. These programmes will be intended for those officials who already have
               professional experience.