Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

AddedArticle 212 – paragraph 5 a (new): 5 a. When a member of the Management Board or its alternate intends to end its term of office prematurely, the relevant member or its alternate shall inform the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the Management Board thereof and on its replacement.

AddedArticle 212 – paragraph 5 b (new): 5 b. Each member and alternate shall sign a written statement at the time of taking office declaring that he or she is not in the situation of conflict of interests. Each member and alternate shall update his or her statement in the case of a change of circumstances with regard to any conflict of interests, or at least on an annual basis. The Authority shall publish the statements and updates on its website.

AddedArticle 214 – paragraph 6: 6. When a matter of confidentiality or conflict of interests is on the agenda, the Management Board shall discuss and decide on this matter without the presence of the member concerned. This shall not affect the right of the Member States, the European Parliament and of the Commission to be represented by an alternate. Detailed rules for the application of this provision may be laid down in the rules of procedure.

AddedArticle 215 – paragraph 1 – point f: (f) adopt and make publicly available the rules for the prevention and management of conflicts of interests in respect of its members; and shall publish annually on its website the declaration of interests of the management board members;

AddedArticle 215 – paragraph 1 – point h: (h) adopt and make publicly available its rules of procedure;

AddedArticle 215 – paragraph 1 – point p a (new): (p a) establish and adopt the rules of procedure of the Customs Advisory Board;

AddedArticle 215 – paragraph 1 a (new): 1 a. The Management Board may establish working groups and expert panels to assist it in carrying out its tasks, including the preparation of its decisions and monitoring the implementation thereof.

AddedArticle 216 – paragraph 2: deleted

AddedArticle 217 – paragraph 2 – point b: (b) ensure, together with the Management Board, adequate follow-up to the findings and recommendations stemming from the internal or external audit reports and evaluations, as well as from investigations of OLAF and of EPPO as well as implement adequate procedures of reporting suspicions of criminal conduct to the latter;

AddedArticle 217 – paragraph 4: 4. The Executive Board shall be composed of the two representatives of the Commission to the Management Board and three other members appointed by the Management Board from among its members with the right to vote and with the aim to ensure gender balance. The Chairperson of the Management Board shall also be the Chairperson of the Executive Board. The Executive Director shall take part in the meetings of the Executive Board, but shall not have the right to vote. The decisions of the Executive Board shall be taken by simple majority.

AddedArticle 218 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2: The Executive Director shall be appointed by the Management Board, in accordance with the following procedure:

AddedArticle 218 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 – point a (new): (a) on the basis of a shortlist drawn up and published by the Commission ensuring gender balance after a call for candidates and a transparent selection procedure, applicants will be asked to address the committee responsible of the European Parliament and the Council and to reply to questions;

AddedArticle 218 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 – point b (new): (b) the European Parliament and the Council will then give their opinions and state their preferences;

AddedArticle 218 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 – point c (new): (c) the Management Board will appoint the Executive Director taking those opinions into account.

AddedArticle 218 – paragraph 3: 3. The Management Board, acting on a proposal from the Commission that takes into account the assessment referred to in paragraph 2, may extend the term of office of the Executive Director once for no more than 5 years. The Management Board shall inform the European Parliament and the Council about its intention to extend the Executive Director's mandate. Before the Management Board takes its decision to extend the mandate, the Executive Director may be asked to make a declaration before the committee responsible of the European Parliament and answer questions.

AddedArticle 218 – paragraph 5: 5. The Executive Director may be removed from office only upon a decision of the Management Board acting on a proposal from the Commission. The European Parliament and the Council shall be informed of the reasons.

AddedArticle 219 – paragraph 3: 3. The Executive Director shall report to the European Parliament and the Council on the performance of his or her duties and the overall performance of the EU Customs Authority when invited to do so. The Executive Director may be called upon at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council to attend a hearing on any matter linked to the Agency's activities.

AddedArticle 219 – paragraph 5 – point a: (a) ensure the sustainable and efficient day-to-day administration of the EU Customs Authority;

AddedArticle 219 – paragraph 5 – point f: (f) prepare an action plan following up on the conclusions of internal or external audit reports and evaluations, as well as on investigations by OLAF and by the EPPO, and report on progress twice a year to the Commission and regularly to the Executive Board and the Management Board, as well as, where applicable, ensuring reporting of suspicions of criminal conduct to EPPO;

AddedArticle 221 a (new): Article 221a / Customs Advisory Board / 1. The EU Customs Authority shall establish a Customs Advisory Board to assist the Executive Board. / 2. The Customs Advisory Board is tasked to provide advice: / a) on the implementation of technical actions and decisions, including risk management and priority areas of control; / b) on implementation and standardisation issues, including harmonisation activities or the need for the adaptation of the rules; / c) provide advice on the customs dimensions of other legislation applied by customs; / d) provide advice as appropriate in the context of any other activities of the Authority upon request. / 3. The Customs Advisory Board shall be comprised of representatives and associations for any relevant stakeholders to the work of the EU Customs Authority; its composition shall be determined by the Management Board. / 4. The Management Board shall appoint four of the members of the Customs Advisory Board, one of which its chair, to participate with observer status in the Management Board. They shall represent, as broadly as possible, the different views represented in the Customs Advisory Board. The initial term of office shall be 48 months and shall be extendable. / 5. The Customs Advisory Board shall be consulted regularly prior to decisions of the Management Board. This may take place via the use of ad-hoc expert working groups. The Management Board shall not, in any case, be bound by the opinion of the Customs Advisory Board. / 6. The Cu…

AddedArticle 228 – paragraph 6: 6. In accordance with Regulation (EU) 2017/1939, EPPO is responsible for investigating and prosecuting fraud and other illegal activities affecting the financial interests of the Union as provided for in Directive (EU) 2017/1371 of the European Parliament and of the Council77 . The EU Customs Authority or the relevant national competent authorities shall without undue delay report to the EPPO any criminal conduct in respect of which it could exercise its competence in accordance with Article 22 and Article 25(2) and (3) of that Regulation.

AddedArticle 235 – paragraph 1: 1. Not later than [OP please insert the date = 4 years after the date of entry into force of this Regulation], and every 4 years thereafter, the Commission shall ensure that an evaluation in accordance with Commission guidelines of the EU Customs Authority’s performance in relation to its objectives, mandate, tasks and governance and location(s) is carried out.

AddedArticle 235 – paragraph 3: 3. On the occasion of every second evaluation referred to in paragraph 1, the results achieved by the EU Customs Authority shall be assessed, having regard to its objectives, mandate, tasks and governance.

AddedArticle 237 – paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1: Where exceptional circumstances so require, the Executive Director may decide to establish offices in other Member States for the purposes of carrying out the EU Customs Authority's tasks in a more, efficient, effective and coherent manner.

AddedArticle 238 – paragraph 1: 1. The EU Customs Authority is established as of 2026 and shall become fully operational as of 1 January 2028.

AddedArticle 239 a (new): Article 239a / Platform on the reporting of goods / 1. The EU Customs Authority shall set up a platform on the reporting of goods (the “Platform”) to give authorities, businesses, consumers and citizens the opportunity to report goods that enter the internal market and are not in compliance with conformity standards and/or with relevant Union legislation. / 2. The platform shall be set as an online platform, be easily accessible, intelligible and available in all official languages of the Union. / 3. The EU Customs Authority shall assess the information obtained via the platform and if necessary, notify the customs authority(-ies) of one or more Member States, in which a reported good has been placed. The Customs Authority shall only assess those reported goods that have been placed on the market in one or more Member States. / 4. The notified customs authority referred to paragraph 3 shall cooperate with other authorities at national level, including, but not limited to, market surveillance authorities, sanitary and phytosanitary authorities, law enforcement authorities and tax authorities when implementing measures to remove a reported good from the internal market. The notified customs authority shall report on these measures to the EU Customs Authority by 30 calendar days after a measure has been taken. / 5. The EU Customs Authority shall ensure that all relevant data related to reported goods is available in the EU Customs Data Hub. The EU Customs Authority may request c…

AddedArticle 240 – paragraph 2 – point d a (new): (d a) the exchange of skills and best practices through joint trainings on how to detect non-compliant products, including keeping up to date to any other Union legislation that sets compliance requirements such as those related to product safety and sustainability.

AddedArticle 240 – paragraph 3 a (new): 3 a. Customs authorities shall immediately alert competent Union and national authorities of any suspected infringement of Union legislation and send a notification to the EU Customs Data Hub.

AddedArticle 240 – paragraph 8: 8. The EU Customs Authority shall closely cooperate with OLAF and EPPO where fraud or suspicion of fraud occurs in any of its cooperation activities.

AddedArticle 241 – paragraph 1: 1. The EU Customs Authority shall plan, organise and coordinate joint controls that are carried out by customs authorities, where relevant in cooperation with other authorities, bodies and agencies, including Europol in accordance with Article 240(9).

AddedArticle 241 – paragraph 2: 2. For this purpose, the EU Customs Authority shall follow the customs policy priorities and ensure the necessary links and coordination with the anti-fraud activities of OLAF, Europol and national customs investigations, as well as the criminal investigations of EPPO or other competent national authorities.

AddedArticle 242 – paragraph 1 – point h: (h) alerting other authorities about risks relevant for their work, as well as reporting suspicions of fraud and crime;

AddedArticle 243 – paragraph 1: The EU Customs Authority shall, without prejudice to the powers of the Commission and subject to its prior approval, conclude working arrangements with the authorities of third countries and international organisations. These arrangements shall empower the EU Customs Authority to exchange information with the authorities of third countries and international organisations, including best practices, and to conduct joint activities. These arrangements shall not create legal obligations incumbent on the Union.

AddedArticle 244 – paragraph 7 – subparagraph 1: Implementing powers shall be conferred on the Commission to adopt, within 60 days from receipt of the notification, an implementing act to decide whether to authorise the Member State to enter into the bilateral agreement. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the advisory procedure referred to in Article 262(2).

AddedArticle 247 – paragraph 2 – point c a (new): (c a) the complexity of the underlying transaction, the number of similar transactions.

AddedArticle 252 – paragraph 1 – point g a (new): (g a) failure to comply with importer and deemed importer obligations under Articles 20 and 21.

AddedArticle 253 – paragraph 1: 1. Without prejudice to the sanctions laid down in Article 254, Member States may provide for additional sanctions for customs infringements referred to in Article 252 and for all measures necessary to ensure that such sanctions are implemented. Such sanctions shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. The Commission, the Member States and the EU Customs Authority shall regularly exchange best practices and applicable methodologies on audit and sanctions calculation, in order to improve the convergence and coherence of sanctions across the Union. The Commission shall regularly assess whether the effectiveness of the sanctions to reach the objectives of customs authorities provided for in Article 2, and whether action is necessary.

AddedArticle 254 – paragraph 1 – introductory part: Where sanctions to customs infringements referred to in Article 252 are applied, each Member State shall provide for sanctions that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive and taking into account extenuating and mitigating circumstances referred to in Article 247 and aggravating circumstances referred to in Article 248:

AddedArticle 254 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1 (new): Member States shall decide on the use of the proceeds resulting from the enforcement of non-criminal sanctions except for when established as an own resource in accordance with the third subparagraph of Article 311 TFEU.

AddedArticle 255 – paragraph 1: 1. The Commission shall assess and evaluate the performance of the customs union at least on an annual basis. This includes the measurement of customs activities performed by the customs authorities of the Member States and where possible candidate countries at national and border crossing points levels, as well as a regular monitoring of the level of expenditure incurred by national customs authorities in carrying out their activities. Such measurement may build on existing tools developed by the Commission and Member States for this purpose.

AddedArticle 255 – paragraph 2: 2. The EU Customs Authority shall assist the Commission in its evaluation of the performance of the customs union. For this purpose, the EU Customs Authority shall identify how customs activities and operations support the achievement of the strategic objectives and priorities of the customs union and contribute to the mission of customs authorities laid down in Article 2. In particular, the EU Customs Authority shall identify key trends, strengths, weaknesses, gaps, potential risks, support the Commission in gathering relevant data regarding the levels of expenditure incurred by national customs authorities to ensure their functioning and provide recommendations for improvement to the Commission.

AddedArticle 256 – paragraph 4: 4. The Commission shall verify the report and transmit it afterwards to the European Parliament and the Council for information.

AddedArticle 258 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 1: By ... [OP please insert the date = 3 years after the entry into force] and every 5 years thereafter, the Commission shall carry out an evaluation of this Regulation in light of the objectives that it pursues and shall present a report thereon to the European Parliament, to the Council and to the European Economic and Social Committee.

AddedArticle 258 – paragraph 1 – subparagraph 2 – point b a (new): (b a) an overview of the disaggregated costs incurred by the Union and by the Member States for the implementation of this Regulation, including in comparison with the costs incurred at the date of entry into force of this Regulation.

AddedArticle 261 – paragraphs 2 and 3: 2. The power to adopt delegated acts referred to in Articles 6, 7, 10, 14, 19, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 40a, 40b, 51, 56, 58, 59, 63, 65, 66, 71, 72, 73, 77, 80, 81, 83, 85, 86, 88, 90, 91, 95, 97, 99, 101, 102, 105, 107, 108, 109, 111, 115, 116, 119, 123, 132, 148, 150, 156, 167, 168, 169, 170, 173, 175, 176, 179, 181, 186, 193, 199, 242, 244, 265 shall be conferred on the Commission. / 3. The delegation of power referred to in Articles 6, 7, 10, 14, 19, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 40a, 40b, 51, 56, 58, 59, 63, 65, 66, 71, 72, 73, 77, 80, 81, 83, 85, 86, 88, 90, 91, 95, 97, 99, 101, 102, 105, 107, 108, 109, 111, 115, 116, 119, 123, 132, 148, 150, 156, 167, 168, 169, 170, 173, 175, 176, 179, 181, 186, 193, 199, 242, 244, 265 may be revoked at any time by the European Parliament or by the Council. A decision to revoke shall put an end to the delegation of the power specified in that decision. It shall take effect the day following the publication of the decision in the Official Journal of the European Union or at a later date specified therein. It shall not affect the validity of any delegated acts already in force.

AddedArticle 261 – paragraph 6: 6. A delegated act adopted pursuant to Articles 6, 7, 10, 14, 19, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 40a, 40b, 51, 56, 58, 59, 63, 65, 66, 71, 72, 73, 77, 80, 81, 83, 85, 86, 88, 90, 91, 95, 97, 99, 101, 102, 105, 107, 108, 109, 111, 115, 116, 119, 123, 132, 148, 150, 156, 167, 168, 169, 170, 173, 175, 176, 179, 181, 186, 193, 199, 242, 244, 265 shall enter into force only if no objection has been expressed either by the European Parliament or the Council within a period of two months of notification of that act to the European Parliament and the Council or if, before the expiry of that period, the European Parliament and the Council have both informed the Commission that they will not object. That period shall be extended by two months at the initiative of the European Parliament or of the Council.

AddedArticle 263 – paragraph 1: 1. Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 and Regulation (EU) 2022/2399 are repealed.

AddedArticle 265 – paragraph 1: 1. Articles 205 to 237 shall apply from 1 January 2026.

AddedArticle 265 – paragraph 2 – introductory part: 2. The following provisions shall apply from 1 March 2026:

AddedArticle 265 – paragraph 3: 3. The functionalities of the EU Customs Data Hub laid down in Article 29 shall be fully operational by 31 December 2032.

AddedArticle 265 – paragraph 4: 4. Economic operators may start fulfilling their reporting obligations under this Regulation by using the EU Customs Data Hub from 1 January 2029.

AddedArticle 265 – paragraph 6: 6. Before 31 December 2027, the Commission shall present a report to the European Parliament and to the Council providing an assessment of centralised clearance referred to in Article 72. If appropriate, the Commission may present a legislative proposal with a view to ensuring a fair distribution of the rights and obligations of the Member States in connection with the assessment of and liability for the customs debt at import. That report shall be publicly available.

AddedArticle 265 – paragraph 7 – introductory part: 7. By 31 December 2031, the Commission shall present a report to the European Parliament and to the Council and publish it to assess, in particular: