The development of the electronic systems foreseen in the EU Customs Code is “mostly on track”, according to the European Commission in a new progress report published on Tuesday 15 December.
The work programme on the Customs Code sets deadlines between 2020 and 2025 for the 14 trans-European systems which are the joint responsibility of the Commission and the Member States and the three systems which are the sole responsibility of the Member States.
To date, eight of the planned 17 systems have already been upgraded or rolled out. In particular, the report highlights the successful deployment in 2020 of the Information Sheets for Special Procedures (INF SP) system, which seeks to improve monitoring and control by customs offices.
For the remaining six trans-European projects, the Commission and Member States are on track to meet the legal deadlines set out in the work programme, according to the report. In particular, the Commission reports progress in 2020 in the preparation and testing of the first version of the Import Control System 2 (ICS2).
The report indicates that the main risks for the timely implementation of the planned systems mainly lie with the Member States and are related to the complexity of the projects, procurement and contracting issues, resource constraints, the conversion process and certain external factors such as Covid-19 and Brexit.
For the three remaining national projects, the report also shows progress, but indicates a risk of delay beyond the legal deadline of 31 December 2022 for the systems of notification of arrival, notification of presentation and temporary storage.
See the report: https://bit.ly/34lbNRv (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)