The Council Decision 70/243 of 21 April 1970 on the replacement of financial contributions from Member States by the Communities' own resources enabled the Commission to start collecting own resources to finance the EU budget, instead of relying entirely on Member States’ financial contributions. The first own resources to the EU budget were agricultural levies, customs duties and a VAT-based resource.
Customs duties are referred to as Traditional Own Resources (TOR) because they have always existed as a direct source of revenue to the EU budget – unlike the value-added tax and national contributions, which are made available to the EU budget by the Member States.
Customs duties arise from commercial and trade policies. They are levied on imports of products from non-EU countries, at rates determined in the Common Customs Tariff.
How does it work in detail?
Collection
Member States are responsible for the collection of customs duties, according to the rules established by Council Regulation implementing the Own Resources Decision. Member States must have adequate control infrastructure to ensure that their administrations, especially their customs authorities, carry out their tasks in an appropriate manner.
In the period 2021-2027, Member States will retain 25% of the collected customs duties. This not only covers collection costs but also serves as an incentive to ensure a diligent collection of the amounts due.
Payments
TOR are made available to the Commission on a monthly basis, two months after the entitlement was established. Member States inform the Commission of the amount of TOR to be credited to the account through a detailed statement of entitlements. Any delay in making TOR available to the Commission gives rise to the payment of an interest.
Controls
The Commission is in contact with Member States’ administrations in order to ensure that the collection of TOR is carried out in accordance with EU customs legislation and that the financial rules laid down in the Own Resources Decision (Council Decision No 2020/2053) and in the Council Regulation on implementing measures for own resources are respected. Moreover, Member States are financially responsible for any losses of TOR due to possible administrative errors on their side.