(million EUR)
Financial programming | 948.6 |
NextGenerationEU |
|
Decommitments made available again (*) | N/A |
Contributions from other countries and entities | 0.1 |
Total budget 2021-2027 | 948.7 |
(*) Only Article 15(3) of the financial regulation.
Rationale and design of the programme
The Customs programme supports the essential cooperation between customs authorities across the EU and protects the financial and economic interests of the EU and its Member States. It helps to build a modern and innovative customs union that ensures the safety and security of all EU citizens, all while facilitating growing global trade.
Safeguarding the financial interests of the EU and of Member States and protecting the integrity of the single market in terms of goods (including health, environmental and other threats) requires an effective management of the EU’s customs.
This in turn requires intense operational cooperation between Member State customs administrations and between them and other authorities of trading partners and other non-EU countries. As many activities in the customs area are of a cross-border nature, they cannot be effectively and efficiently carried out by individual national administrations on their own: action at the EU level is warranted.
The Customs programme has the general objective of supporting the EU Customs Union and customs authorities working together and acting as one to protect the financial and economic interests of the EU and its Member States, to ensure security and safety within the EU and to protect the EU from unfair and illegal trade while facilitating legitimate business activity.
The Programme has the specific objectives of supporting the preparation and uniform implementation of customs legislation and policy, customs cooperation and administrative and information technology capacity-building. This includes human competency building and training, along with the development and operation of European electronic systems and innovation in the area of customs policy.
The Customs programme provides financial support for information technology capacity-building actions, in particular the development and operation of European electronic systems for customs. It also fosters cooperation among national customs authorities via meetings and project-based structured collaboration, such as project groups and expert teams.
The Programme also provides financial support for human competency and capacity building actions, including training and exchange of best practices, along with other actions such as studies, communication and innovation activities.
The legal bases of the Regulation establishing the Programme are Article 33 TFEU (customs cooperation) Article 114 TFEU (internal market) and Article 207 TFEU (common commercial policy). The Customs programme, as a Union-level action (rather than national level action), is necessary for the following reasons:
- The customs union is an exclusive competence of the Union with a high degree of harmonised EU legislation. However, the implementation of this legislation remains with the individual Member States. Strong cooperation is thus essential to reach a deeper operational integration of customs authorities and to act as if they were one.
- Many of the activities in the customs area are of a cross-border nature, involving and affecting all Member States, and therefore they cannot be effectively and efficiently delivered by individual Member States. Union action is needed to underpin the European dimension of customs work, to avoid internal market distortions and to support the effective protection of the Union’s external borders.
In this regard, Union action is justified to ensure the proper functioning and further development of the customs union and its common regulatory framework, as it has been shown to be the most efficient and effective response to shortcomings and challenges in implementing the customs union and customs cooperation. Against this backdrop, the Customs programme for cooperation in the field of customs has the general objective to support the customs union and customs authorities to work together and act as one to protect the financial and economic interests of the Union and its Member States, ensure the security and safety of the Union, and facilitate legitimate business activity. To attain these general objectives, the Programme’s actions aim at supporting the following specific objectives or results: a) preparation and uniform implementation of customs legislation and policy; b) promotion of customs cooperation; c) support of administrative capacity building, including human competency and the development and operation of European electronic systems and; d) support to innovation in customs policy.
To achieve this, the Customs programme budget (EUR 950 million) is implemented in direct management by the Commission (DG Taxation and Customs Union) through:
- Procurement: regarding the European electronic systems expenditure; training activities; studies and other actions (e.g. communication activities, innovation activities such as proof-of-concepts and pilot projects). The procurement is initiated, managed and implemented by the Commission. Over 90% of the financial capacity of the Programme is devoted to procurement for information technology capacity-building (e.g. development and operation of the European electronic systems for customs, including their design, specification, conformance testing, deployment, maintenance, evolution, modernisation, security, quality assurance and quality control). In 2022, this amounted to 96% of the Programme’s budget.
- Grants with the participating countries: regarding collaborative actions including expert teams, workshops, project groups and similar activities. These are initiated and managed by the Commission and implemented by the grant beneficiaries being the participating countries’ customs administrations. These activities provide fora for collaboration among the beneficiaries’ customs authorities, in order to allow them to share knowledge, experience, and set guidelines and common working practices through programme activities. Besides, the Programme also facilitates collaboration with the Commission and with the key trade partners of the Union in the interest of the functioning of the customs union, including close cooperation with enlargement countries and key trade partners.
The legal base of the Customs programme is the Regulation (EU) 2021/444 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Customs programme for cooperation in the field of customs and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1294/2013. The main beneficiaries of the Programme are the customs authorities of EU Member States and other countries associated to the programme.
The Multiannual Work Programmes (MAWP) constitute the implementing acts of the programme. These are defined on the basis of the Programme’s objectives and DG TAXATION AND CUSTOMS UNION policy priorities, as established in the Multi-Annual Strategic Plan for Customs (MASP-C) for information technology projects and other strategic documents (e.g. Strategic Plans, Communication on “Taking the Customs Union to the Next Level: a Plan for Action, etc.). MAWPs are established via comitology, in consultation with the Customs Programme Committee.
The Customs programme is a continuation of its predecessor programme under the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework, with more intensive cooperation, a larger number of electronic systems and greater openness to innovation.
Programme website:
Impact assessment:
- The impact assessment of the Customs programme was carried out in 2018. For further information please consult: https://europa.eu/!pH79WJ
Relevant regulation:
Evaluations:
- Customs 2020 final evaluation: Final Evaluation of Regulation (EU) No 1294/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 establishing an action programme for customs in the European Union for the period 2014-2020 (Customs 2020) and repealing Decision No 624/2007/EC. Accompanying the document Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the final evaluation of the Customs 2020 Programme (SWD/2022/363 final)
Budget
Budget programming (million EUR):
2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Financial programming | 125.5 | 130.4 | 133.1 | 135.7 | 138.4 | 141.2 | 144.3 | 948.6 |
NextGenerationEU | ||||||||
Decommitments made available again (*) | N/A | |||||||
Contributions from other countries and entities | 0.1 | p.m. | p.m. | p.m. | p.m. | p.m. | 0.1 | |
Total | 125.5 | 130.5 | 133.1 | 135.7 | 138.4 | 141.2 | 144.3 | 948.7 |
(*) Only Article 15(3) of the financial regulation.
Financial programming:
- EUR 1.4 million (- 0%)
compared to the legal basis*
* Top-ups pursuant to Art. 5 MFF regulation are excluded from financial programming in this comparison.
Budget performance – implementation
Multiannual cumulative implementation rate at the end of 2022 (million EUR):
Implementation | 2021-2027 Budget | Implementation rate | |
---|---|---|---|
Commitments | 255.7 | 948.7 | 26.96% |
Payments | 117.5 | 12.38% |
Voted budget implementation (million EUR) (1):
Commitments | Payments | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Voted budget implementation | Initial voted budget | Voted budget implementation | Initial voted budget | |
2021 | 125.5 | 126.9 | 21.9 | 25.3 |
2022 | 130.2 | 130.4 | 95.3 | 88.8 |
(1) Voted appropriations (C1) only.
- The delayed adoption of the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework resulted in the late adoption and launch of the Customs programme. The signature of the new grant agreements and the implementation of general collaboration activities and expert team grants only started in December 2021.
- During the fourth quarter of 2021, three grant agreements were signed in the field of general collaboration activities and expert teams, and another expert team grant was signed in 2022.
- In 2022, DG TAXATION AND CUSTOMS UNION has fully implemented the commitment appropriations with the below breakdown:
- European electronic systems: EUR 125.3 million
- Expert teams: EUR 0.7 million
- Other service contracts: EUR 4.4 million
- The COVID-19 pandemic and the late adoption of the regulation and financing decision have impacted the financial programming of the new programme. While the impact is likely to be very limited for the expenditure on procurement – largely related to the maintenance and development of the information technology systems – it may well be more significant for expenditure on grants on collaborative actions, due to travel restrictions, which limit the scope for face-to-face meetings. These led to under consumption of some grants under the new programme which were extended. For these reasons, some of the planned grants have been postponed and will be launched in 2023.
- As regards the request in the draft budget 2024, the commitment appropriations are in line with the financial programming of the multiannual financial framework.
Contribution to horizontal priorities
Green budgeting
Contribution to green budgeting priorities (million EUR):
Implementation | Estimates | Total | % of the 2021-2027 budget | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | |||
Climate mainstreaming | 0.1 | 4.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 4.2 | 0.4% |
Biodiversity mainstreaming | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0% |
Clean air |
0.0 |
0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0% |
- In 2022, one action contributed directly to climate neutrality: EUR 4.1 million(1) were committed to support the implementation of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, whose aim is to promote climate carbon neutrality by 2050, avoiding carbon leakage and ensuring that EU companies can compete on a level playing field.
- On 13 December 2022, the European Parliament and the Council reached a political agreement on the implementation of the new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. Under the political agreement, the mechanism will enter into force in its transitional phase on 1 October 2023 and its implementation will be centralised at the Commission level, as opposed to implementation by the individual Member States. This has led to the fact that the Commission’s cost for developing the mechanism’s information technology system will be substantially higher than initially planned. The entry into force in 2023 urges the kick-start of the related information technology activities.
- In addition, the programme continued supporting the contribution of customs to the Green Deal through the reinforced digitalisation of customs procedures based on the Union Customs Code legal package(2), cooperation actions and guidance documents playing a part in the EU’s sustainability objectives. Additionally, the programme accompanied (through a specific group) the development of key upcoming legislation in trade facilitation and customs greening, notably by supporting the area of prohibitions and restrictions related to sustainability and the proposal for an EU Single Window Environment for Customs(3) to exchange trade certifications.
- In parallel, in 2022 the programme supported the development of an e-learning course on the use of the EU Customs Single Window Certificates Exchange System for controls of fluorinated greenhouse gases formalities.
(1) This amount reflects DG Taxation and Customs Union’s commitments linked to the programme's budget line (i.e. co-delegations to other DGs are excluded).
(2) Union Customs Code – Legislation (europa.eu).
(3) Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Union Single Window Environment for Customs and amending Regulation (EU) No 952/2013. The proposal became Regulation (EU) 2022/2399, which entered into force in December 2022 (EUR-Lex – 32022R3299 – EN –EUR-Lex (europa.eu)), https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/eu-single-window-environment-customs_en.
Gender
Contribution to gender equality (million EUR) (*):
Gender Score | 2021 | 2022 | Total |
---|---|---|---|
0 |
116.0 |
125.3 |
241.3 |
0* |
9.5 |
4.9 |
14.4 |
1 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
2 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
(*) Based on the applied gender contribution methodology, the following scores are attributed at the most granular level of intervention possible:
- 2: interventions the principal objective of which is to improve gender equality;
- 1: interventions that have gender equality as an important and deliberate objective but not as the main reason for the intervention;
- 0: non-targeted interventions (interventions that are expected to have no significant bearing on gender equality);
- 0*: score to be assigned to interventions with a likely but not yet clear positive impact on gender equality.
The Customs programme’s interventions are split relating to gender equality score as follows:
- Score 0: relates to information technology expenditure, in particular on the development and operation of European electronic systems, which does not target the promotion of gender equality.
- Score 0*: relates to the remaining types of expenditure, i.e. collaboration activities, trainings, studies and communication, for which a potential to promote gender equality has been identified.
At the policy level, the programme’s aim is to support customs cooperation across the EU and within the customs union. DG Taxation and Customs Union takes note of the potential relevance of gender equality in the customs policy domain, among others, in light of the different impacts, challenges and opportunities that customs and trade policies can have on people, and of the importance of diversity and inclusion regarding the performance and quality of service within customs administrations.
At the same time, the programme has implemented an internal tracking mechanism in its Activity Reporting Tool, which enables the identification of collaborative activities with a link to gender equality.
Based on this tracking, it can be confirmed that no program interventions took place in 2021 or 2022 regarding gender equality. For the time being, no interventions have been planned or identified for 2023.
In the general collaborative actions a total of 2 979 participants identified themselves as female and 3 101 as male(1).
(1) The main beneficiaries of the programme are the customs authorities in the participating countries who decide at their own discretion to whom they delegate the specific programme events according to the activity’s agenda and objectives. The figures relate to the 0* activities in 2022, even if none of them were identified has having gender equality impact. The data reflects the information available in the Activity Reporting Tool as of 23.2.2023.
Digital
Contribution to digital transition (million EUR):
2021 implementation | 2022 implementation | Total | % of the total 2021-2027 implementation | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Digital contribution | 116.5 | 125.3 | 241.9 | 95% |
- The programme allocates the majority of the budget to information technology, defined as the top priority in the programme’s regulation (recital 16). Among the information technology capacity-building actions supported by the programme, the top priority is given to the European electronic systems that are necessary for the implementation of the customs union and for customs authorities to carry out their mission.
- Regarding the amounts committed in 2021 for digital goals, due to the overlapping of the two iterations of the programme, the budget was split between the two programmes. The amount above covers information technology procurement only, excluding collaborative activities on e-Customs given their minimal budget use.
- In 2021, EUR 116.5 million were committed to information technology procurement from the Customs programme (2021-2027) for the period July to December 2021. In this regard, in 2021 an additional amount of EUR 0.05 million were committed from the previous iteration of the programme (Customs 2020), between January and June 2021. In 2022, the committed expenses for the development and maintenance of European electronic systems were EUR 125.3 million (January to December). This represents an increase of roughly 7% in overall committed budget to information technology procurement under the programme between 2021 and 2022, which is broadly an acceptable fluctuation in information technology expenditure expected across the multiannual financial framework, particularly in the context of high inflation (see paragraph below).
- In 2022, the high inflation required close monitoring of the scheduled budget for 2022 and remains the centre of attention in 2023, especially in terms of costs linked with ensuring the development and functioning of the European electronic systems for customs. In this context, the Commission assessed the actual information technology spending against initial information technology budget allocations. Thanks to savings in the Import Control System 2 project, and by balancing the internal allocation of budget between the Customs and the Fiscalis programmes for those systems that are co-financed by the two programmes, the increasing costs of information technology activities could be partially compensated, allowing for new priority projects such the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism to progress.
Budget performance – outcomes
Baseline | Progress | Target | Results | Assessment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Union law and policy application and implementation index – number of actions under the programme in this area | 0 | 32% (*) | 60 annually from 2022 to 2027 | 19 compared to target of 60 | Moderate progress |
Learning index – number of customs officials trained by using common training material | 0 | 11% (**) | 186 140 in 2027 | 20 764 compared to target of 186 140 | Moderate progress |
Use of key European electronic systems – number of messages exchanged on the key European electronic systems/system components | 0 | 34% (**) | 18.8 billion in 2027 | 6.5 billion compared to target of 18.8 billion | On track |
Use of key European electronic systems aimed at increasing interconnectivity and moving to a paper-free customs union – number of records consulted in key databases | 0 | 24% (**) | 767 million by 2027 | 182 million compared to target of 767 million | On track |
Union Customs Code completion rate | 75% | 48% (***) | 100% in 2025 | 87% compared to a target of 100% | Moderate progress |
Best practices and guideline index – percentage of participants that made use of a working practice/guideline developed with the support of the programme | 0% | 17% (****) | 75% annually from 2022 to 2027 | Milestone achieved for 2022 | On track |
(*) % of target achieved by the end of 2022: latest result compared to target.
(**) % of target achieved by the end of 2022: sum of results compared to target.
(***) % of target achieved by the end of 2022: latest result compared to target.
(****) % of target achieved by the end of 2022: proportion of years for which the results are higher or equal to the target.
Link to file with complete set of EU core performance indicators
- 2022 was the first full year of implementation of the Customs programme following the adoption of the programme regulation in March 2021. Throughout the year, the programme continued supporting the customs union and customs authorities to work together as one, also supporting the tackling of the consequences of the war in Ukraine, the remaining effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
- In particular, the programme’s collaborative activities provided forums to exchange among the Member States and between the Member States and the Commission on various aspects of trade and customs policy measures and their operational implementation related to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. In addition, the participation of Ukraine in the programme was secured to reinforce the support to their customs authority in the midst of the crisis.
- Overall, the performance indicators’ progress is on track compared to the set milestones and targets, with some exceptions which can be explained by methodological changes in the collection of data (e.g. the number of officials trained), by the new programme’s modernised implementation concepts or by external factors.
- In terms of number of officials trained, the data owner has improved their data collection methods since 2021. As such, the data provided is no longer in line with the milestone. The new data collection relies on a central database (‘Customs & Tax EU Learning’ portal) as opposed to previous inputs by individual Member States. The milestones/target will be adjusted in the next reporting cycle and once the new data collection method is further crystallised.
- The number of actions in the area of EU law and policy is lower than the milestone that have been set based on the experience of the previous programme. The new programme’s approach however has changed and, compared to micro actions in the previous programme, the new approach favours more inclusive, macro actions. Hence, fewer actions are established, while the actual volume of activity behind these actions is at a stable high level. Furthermore, this milestone could only be based on the extrapolation of the data from the first month of implementation of the collaborative actions (December 2021) that is proving to be unrepresentative of a full year. A review of the milestones and targets of this indicator in 2024 should ensure its adaptation to the new programme realities, as anticipated in the 2021 programme statements.
- Following the easing of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, an increased number of physical meetings took place in 2022, while online collaboration remained strong. The increasing proportion of physical meetings allowed closer human interaction and networking. This had a positive impact on the networking opportunities created by the programme: close to 80% of the participants in the various activities reported strong satisfaction with this aspect. With the programme in full swing, the collaboration activities bore a high number of outputs/recommendations that were reported as useful and well used in the administrations.
- In 2022, the support to the development of the European digital customs environment remained a focal point of the programme (71 systems supported), as well as a top priority in the customs union. Despite the impact of high inflation in information technology procurements contracts supported by the programme, in 2022 the availability of the operational European electronic systems supported by the programme remained close to 100% and reaching the scheduled 99.6% ensuring the uninterrupted functioning of customs throughout the EU.
- The availability of the common communication networks (CCN and CCN2) was just below the milestone, which was mostly due to planned unavailability to install patches and upgrades, but some of the unavailability was unplanned and caused by network issues. However, the availability, even if below the milestone, can be considered as acceptable by information technology standards. It is supported by the use of the systems that continued to grow in terms of both number of messages exchanged and records consulted.
- The progress on the development of the information technology systems relevant for the Union Customs Code has slowed down since 2021, which translated to a Union Customs Code completion level of five percentage points under the 2022 scheduled values. This is due to Member States’ delays to connect their national systems to the European common components, which blocks further progress on the EU side. Given that Member States have asked for derogations and that these have been granted, it is expected that this indicator’s value will remain under the milestones set in the next years. Despite these delays, the current planning to reach the final (legal) target of 100% delivery of the 17 Union Customs Code systems by the end of 2025 is still within reach, unless Member States incur further delays in the coming years.
- In parallel, it is worth highlighting that in 2022 the Internal Audit Service positively assessed DG Taxation and Customs Union’s performance management system, including that of the Customs and Fiscalis programmes. More specifically, the Internal Audit Service’s final report concluded that the performance management system put in place by DG Taxation and Customs Union is adequately designed, efficient and effective, enabling to plan, monitor and report on its achievements. No critical or very important issues were found, and the improvements suggested were already addressed in the current reporting exercise to ensure data consistency and alignment among the various reporting exercises.
Sustainable development goals
Contribution to the sustainable development goals
SDGs the programme contributes to | Example |
---|---|
SDG8 Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all |
The Programme’s contribution to the development of efficient, modern customs is an essential element to ensure a proper balance between effective controls and safety within the Single market, and the facilitation of legitimate trade through paperless, efficient customs processes, a cornerstone for the economic prosperity of the EU. The Programme secures this contribution through the support to digitalisation, efficiency of the EU Customs Union and operations, as well as at developing human competency and training for customs officials. |
SDG9 Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation |
96% of the Customs programme budget in 2022 was devoted to the development and operation of the common components of the European electronic systems, a key element in the digitalisation of public services in the area of customs to ensure the customs union can respond to 21st century challenges and protect the Single Market in a context of growing and complex international trade. |