On Friday 27 June, the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) are expected to adopt without debate a partial negotiating mandate on the reform of the customs package, as announced at the Ecofin Council in Luxembourg on Friday 20 June by Andrzej Domański, the Polish Finance Minister (see EUROPE 13664/15).
According to a European source contacted on Thursday 26 June, the Member States have agreed on several points in the package: - the shape of the future European customs authority; - the new EU Customs Data Hub, which will enable companies wishing to bring goods into the EU to register all their product and supply chain information in a single online interface; - the ‘Trust & Check Trader’ (T&C) scheme. The principle of the handling fee is also included, as requested by the European Finance Ministers.
“This is a partial mandate, and certain details will be addressed at a later stage, such as the seat of the customs authority”, explained the source. “The partial mandate allows the co-legislators to already start work on the main elements of the reform.” (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)