Regulation 2008/450 - EC Customs Code (Modernised Customs Code) - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 145/1

The Community is based upon a customs union. It is advisable, in the interests both of economic operators and of the customs authorities in the Community, to assemble current customs legislation in a Community Customs Code (hereinafter referred to as the Code). Based on the concept of an internal market, the Code should contain the general rules and procedures which ensure the implementation of the tariff and other common policy measures introduced at Community level in connection with trade in goods between the Community and countries or territories outside the customs territory of the Community, taking into account the requirements of those common policies. Customs legislation should be better aligned on the provisions relating to the collection of import charges without change to the scope of the tax provisions in force.

In accordance with the Communication from the Commission concerning the protection of the Community's financial interests and the Action Plan for 2004-2005, it is appropriate to adapt the legal framework for the protection of the financial interests of the Community.

Council Regulation (EEC) No 2913/92 of 12 October 1992 establishing the Community Customs Code (3) was based upon integration of the customs procedures applied separately in the respective Member States during the 1980s. That Regulation has been repeatedly and substantially amended since its introduction, in order to address specific problems such as the protection of good faith or the taking into account of security requirements. Further amendments to the Code are necessary as a consequence of the important legal changes which have occurred in recent years, at both Community and international level, such as the expiry of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community and the entry into force of the 2003 and 2005 Acts of Accession, as well as the Amendment to the International Convention on the simplification and harmonisation of customs procedures (hereinafter referred to as the revised Kyoto Convention), the accession of the Community to which was approved by Council Decision 2003/231/EC (4). The time has now come to streamline customs procedures and to take into account the fact that electronic declarations and processing are the rule and paper-based declarations and processing the exception. For all of these reasons, further amendment of the present Code is not sufficient and a complete overhaul is necessary.

It is appropriate to introduce in the Code a legal framework for the application of certain provisions of the customs legislation to trade in goods between parts of the customs territory to which the provisions of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax (5) apply and parts of that territory where those provisions do not apply, or to trade between parts where those provisions do not apply. Considering the fact that the goods concerned are Community goods and the fiscal nature of the measures at stake in this intra-Community trade, it is justifiable to introduce, through implementing measures, appropriate simplifications to the customs formalities to be applied to those goods.

The...