First vote on major EU customs reform
Process in Brief
The European Parliament committee adopted a draft report endorsing the Commission’s customs reform proposal with 34 votes in favour, 0 against and 5 abstentions, and amended it to simplify procedures, clarify data processing and accessibility, create a whistleblower platform and make the EU DataHub available earlier as a voluntary pilot.
What Is at Stake
The reform aims to ease pressure on customs from booming e-commerce by obliging large platforms to submit information about goods within one day of purchase to help identify undervalued or non-compliant parcels; the release cites that 65% of e-commerce shipments are deliberately undervalued and up to 66% of online purchases may not meet EU safety standards. It also proposes a multi-level trusted trader system to reduce repeated checks on compliant firms and an EU DataHub to replace more than 111 separate customs IT systems.
Timeline
The draft report will be put to a plenary vote most likely in March and would constitute Parliament’s first-reading position, with the file to be followed up by the new Parliament after the European elections on 6-9 June.
A more detailed briefing is published separately.
Sources
Official Documents
- First vote on the biggest EU customs reform since 1968 MEPs endorsed the Commission's EU Customs Code reform proposal with amendments in committee, aiming to simplify procedures, enhance the EU DataHub, and speed up customs checks ahead of a plenary vote.
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