Debate: Establishing the instrument for financial support for customs control equipment
Date: MONDAY, 7 JUNE 2021
Speaker: Virginijus Sinkevičius
Language: EN

Customs officers at the external borders of the European Union need to be properly equipped in order to ensure the functioning of the Customs Union. The need for adequate and equivalent customs control is ever more pressing, given the increasing role played by customs to ensure the safety and security of the Union. Risks and threats to the security of the Union and its financial and economic interests have progressively increased and new ones have emerged during the recent years.  The surge in e-commerce, increasing digitalisation and the need to improve resilience to cyberattacks have also increased demand for effective customs control in order to prevent the diversion of flows of goods towards the weakest points in the customs control system, often referred to as ‘import point shopping’.  Let me thus highlight the importance of the CCEI: the first funding instrument entirely dedicated to strengthening Member States’ capacities to perform customs control. It comes as a response to the calls from the Member States and the European Parliament for a structured solution to provide national customs administrations with adequate and effective technical equipment for controlling goods entering and leaving the EU. It will ultimately improve and harmonise the quality of the customs controls. An important element of the CCEI is that it shall clearly demonstrate EU added value.  The CCEI will be implemented in two stages. In the first stage as a short-term approach the existing performance gaps like missing equipment or deficiencies in the control capacities related to clearly identified needs at the border crossing points and customs laboratories shall be filled in. This will contribute to achieving adequate customs controls across the Union. In the second stage as a long-term vision we will aim to achieve equivalent levels of customs controls. This will happen through common definitions of customs controls from an equipment perspective where definitely greater standardisation is needed. For that, the Commission will propose common standards related to the optimal use of equipment. What equipment should be available, where, how to use it, what is the optimal equipment from a performance perspective, the optimal coverage of customs risks and threats with the equipment, etc.  In this context, I want to stress that the equipment purchased under any of the two-step phases will need to be interoperable and information will need to be easily exchangeable across all EU Member States customs. In order to reach the ambitious policy objective, the CCEI will collect and analyse data to be able to comprehensively map the equipment readiness of all Member States. This will feed into the overall vision of improved customs controls. Data analysis will be available at a level that previously did not exist within the Customs Union.  Without further delay, the Commission services are ready to implement the instrument that will contribute to the shared long-term aim of harmonised application of customs controls. And our work does not stop there. We need to be holistic. The Commission will provide strong responses beyond the CCEI to the recent European Court of Auditors report which highlights as well the insufficient harmonisation of customs control. We will come up with a proposal to reinforce the legal framework, a new risk management strategy and joint analytics capabilities within OLAF and BUDG.  The European Parliament is also well aware of our work on the single—window environment for customs on which we need to progress quickly.  As you see, there is a lot that can be done at EU level and of course I count on your support to continue pushing Member States to take their share of responsibility in this overall ambition of customs control modernisation. I would love to hear your views and I look forward to a fruitful debate.