Brussels, 19/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 18 March, MEPs at the European Parliament's internal market committee approved, by 34 votes to 1, the draft regulation amending the 2007 regulation on mutual assistance and cooperation between national governments and the Commission, to ensure appropriate application of customs and agricultural regulations.
Antonio Fernando Correia de Campos (S&D, Portugal), rapporteur on this dossier, emphasised that “fraud observed on customs, resulting from the false declaration of origin of goods gives rise to significant annual losses to the EU budget”. Customs agencies are currently unable to verify that the stated origin of merchandise complies with the itinerary for the containers in which they have been transported. Customs-related fraud resulting from false declaration of origin of goods or from their false description may amount to a yearly loss of as much as €200 million for the EU 27 (before Croatia's EU accession). MEPs therefore welcomed the proposal to strengthen fraud detection and prevention mechanism by creating at EU level a container monitoring system and a database on import and transit of goods by vessels that would be managed by the Commission. Two years after the entry into force of these rules, the Commission will be asked to assess if this database could also cover goods brought into EU by other means of transport (land and air) as well as data on exports.
According to Correia de Campos, the internal market committee's proposal seeks to simplify and speed up the mechanisms for combating customs fraud and to avoid “unnecessary and repetitive bureaucracy” by strengthening the security of the products circulating within the internal market and providing consumers with a high level of protection.
MEPs are also proposing to simplify administrative and legal procedures between states by allowing countries to use information on customs fraud received in another state as proof. As proof of importation or transit of goods is kept by economic operators and not member states, delays in customs fraud investigations have occurred. The EP has therefore introduced a three-week deadline for member states to respond to a request made by the Commission to supply it with documents supporting import and transit declarations. If this deadline is not respected, the Commission will be able to contact the economic operators directly. The EP plenary vote will take place this April. (EL)