Brussels, 28/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - After a meeting between the European Commission, the European Parliament's internal market committee and the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU, informal agreement was reached on Wednesday 26 June on financing the Customs 2020 programme, which replaces the Customs 2013 programme. It will run from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2020 and promote more uniform application of customs legislation across the EU and better cooperation among EU customs departments and other stakeholders. To this end, it will boost human networks, organise the exchange of best practice and know-how and focus on information technology to put customs services online. Although the parties have not yet reached formal agreement on the budget suggested by the Commission in the draft legislation (€548 million), they have at least agreed that at least 75% of the budget would be spent on developing computer capacity and more than 20% on joint action, such as seminars, group projects and teams of experts. Monitoring of the programme will be simplified by setting indicators to follow progress (consulting participants, developing computer systems, the numbers of officials who have received training, and so on). The agreement now needs to be rubber-stamped by Coreper and the internal market committee. (FG/transl.fl)