Union Customs Code

KEY POINTS

The UCC and the related implementing and delegated acts (adopted by the European Commission under the regulation) aim to:

• offer greater legal certainty and uniformity to businesses;
• increase clarity for customs officials throughout the EU;
• complete the shift to a paperless and fully electronic customs environment;
• simplify customs rules and procedures and facilitate more-efficient customs transactions in line with modern-day needs;
• reinforce swifter customs procedures for compliant and trustworthy businesses (authorised economic operators);
• safeguard the financial and economic interests of the EU and of the EU Member States and the safety and security of EU citizens;
• provide, under certain circumstances, for exemptions from customs declarations for goods that have temporarily left the EU customs territory by sea or air; and
• allow customs authorities and businesses to continue using existing IT systems or paper-based arrangements for a limited number of customs formalities until 2025 at the latest, when new or upgraded IT systems will be in place.

Implementing acts

The UCC implementing act, Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447, aims to ensure the existence of uniform conditions for the implementation of the UCC and a harmonised application of procedures by all Member States.

This implementing act has been amended on numerous occasions (see consolidated versions in the ‘Related documents’ section below).

For example, it was amended most recently by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/635 of 2 February 2024 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 as regards the means of proof of the customs status of Union goods and certain provisions relating to Union transit procedures.

Several other implementing acts serve to add certain goods to the classification in the Combined Nomenclature, an 8-digit coding system comprising the Harmonized System codes with further EU subdivisions.

Others grant, for example:

• derogations to countries to use means other than electronic ones for exchanging and storing information for the presentation notification relating to goods brought into the EU customs territory (such as Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/234), for the notification of arrival of a sea-going vessel or of an aircraft (Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/235), for the temporary storage declaration relating to non-EU goods presented to customs (Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/236) or relating to the customs declaration for goods brought into the EU customs territory (Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/237);
• derogations from the rules on preferential origin laid down in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 (see below);
• derogations from the ‘originating products’ rules (Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/775).

A key implementing act, Regulation (EU) 2023/1070, sets out the technical arrangements for developing, maintaining and employing electronic customs systems for the exchange and storage of information under Regulation (EU) No 952/2013. As of 1 June 2023, it replaced and repealed Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/414. It applies to:

• the customs decisions system;
• the uniform user management and digital signature system;
• the European binding tariff information system;
• the economic operators registration and identification system;
• the authorised economic operator system;
• the import control system 2;
• the automated export system;
• the new computerised transit system;
• the information sheets for special procedures system;
• the centralised clearance for import system;
• the registered exporter system;
• the proof of union status system.

It also applies to the following electronic systems:

• the European Union Customs Trader Portal;
• the customs risk management system;
• the surveillance system.

Delegated acts

Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 supplements Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 as regards detailed rules concerning certain aspects of the UCC. It ensures that the main rules established in Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 are better implemented and meet the needs of economic operators and customs administrations. This delegated act was amended by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/341 (the ‘Transitional Delegated Act’), which lays down some transitional rules until the necessary IT systems are fully operational.

Like the implementing acts adopted in relation to Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, some of the key delegated acts have been amended several times.

Delegated acts also deal with aspects such as:

• a revised definition of ‘exporter’ and an extension of the time limit for taking a decision on repayment or remission of customs duties (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2018/1063);
• a new dataset for the declaration of certain low-value consignments as from 1 January 2021 (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1143);
• rules relating to the waivers and time limits to lodge an entry summary declaration, transitional rules until the releases of the import control system 2 are deployed, a new definition for intrinsic value, transitional rules for postal operators and Member States to enable the smooth implementation of the VAT e-commerce rules and the creation of a new EU form 302 for the movement of goods in the context of military operations (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/877);
• lodging entry summary and pre-departure declarations for goods transported by sea into the EU customs territory from the United Kingdom after 1 January 2021 (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2020/2191);
• common data requirements for the exchange and storage of information between customs authorities and between customs authorities and economic operators (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/234).