The Customs 2020 programme was drawn up to encourage modernisation of the customs union, but several crucial IT systems will not be available by the deadline of the year 2020, explains a new report from the European Court of Auditors published on Wednesday 10 October.
With a total budget of €523 million over seven years, the Customs 2020 programme aims mostly at boosting IT capacity in the European Union. The Court of Auditors examined the programme’s capacity for really keeping its promises.
To this end, the auditors examined the programme’s design and monitoring and information communication provisions. They note the implementation of these IT systems has suffered a raft of delays, which have gradually been extended.
In addition, there is also a risk that the newly set deadlines will not be met, warn the auditors, and may be postponed once again, this time until beyond 2025.
The main causes of the delays are, explains the report, changes to the scope of projects, making them more complex; - not enough resources allocated by the EU and its member states; - the slow decision-making process, inherent in the multi-level governance structure.
The European Commission is also highlighted for not reporting on the delays in the appropriate manner.
The auditors say the next programme should take account of the lessons learned. The EU is currently negotiating the next seven-year customs programme, due to kick off in 2021 with a budget of €950 million (see EUROPE 12037) and, with this in mind, the auditors recommend that the European Commission explicitly focus the customs programme on IT implementation and provide it with precise and measurable objectives.
They also call for improvements in the estimation of delays, resources and the scope of each IT project. The report can be found at: https://bit.ly/2pLi1W4. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)