The European Commission has announced that the European Union’s Import Control System 2 (ICS2) partly came into force on Monday 15 March. It will eventually replace the current control system and will be implemented in three stages up to March 2024.
Postal operators and air express carriers will now have to fill in a digital form (ENS) in advance to declare goods that are entering the internal market. The second and third stages of the launch will extend the operation to all economic operators and all modes of transport.
According to the Commission, the form filled in by traders will allow customs to collect more upstream data to improve detection of potential security threats.
“Today's launch will bring a step-change in the capacity of customs to help protect our citizens and the EU’s internal market from wide ranging threats posed by the traffic of dangerous and illicit goods”, said Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)