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Most ambitious and comprehensive EU Customs Union’s reform took place last time in summer 2023; it included such spheres as increasing trade volumes, especially in e-commerce, reducing fast-growing number of EU standards at the borders, and mitigating geopolitical realities and crises. However, the needs are still numerous: simplification of customs processes for business and trustworthy traders, the digital transformations, etc.; hence, present reforms intend to reduce some customs, introduce digital declarations, provide tools to control imports that are posing risks to the states, citizens and businesses.
Background
The EU Customs Union has been for decades a milestone for the European integration, providing the foundations for the Single Market, and ensuring the free circulation of goods within the EU. In today’s landscape, customs authorities control billions of consignments annually, with e-commerce fueling an unprecedented surge in low-value imports. The EU Customs Union needed a major reform to address modern challenges, such as new trade models and growing trade volumes, technological developments, the green transition, the new geopolitical context and security risks.
In May 2023, the Commission put forward proposals for a comprehensive reform, aiming to tackle these challenges by developing a more cohesive, digital and risk-based customs system. This system is also designed to effectively protect the EU-wide financial and regulatory interests.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_735
The EU Customs Union is a major success story of continental integration: it since 1968 facilitated trade, protected citizens, fostered innovation and helped to maintain the EU as the global economic leader and a security hub. All EU-27 member states are part of the EU Customs Union: it means that the member states apply the same customs tariffs to goods entering their territory from the rest of the world and apply no tariffs internally among themselves. Once goods have passed customs, they can circulate freely within the EU, without additional tariffs or border checks. The Customs Union thereby facilitates trade, supports businesses, and protects citizens and the environment.
Within the Customs Union, the EU member states use the same EU-wide rules for handling import, export and transit of goods and apply a common set of customs rules; these rules – known as the Union Customs Code, UCC – which have entered into force in 2016.
The reforms imply that customs will have all the real-time information they need on which goods are coming in and when, while developing a bird’s-eye view of ongoing trade and supply chains. Customs and partner authorities can intervene on any given consignment according to their risk analysis and at any time – before loading, at entry, during transport within the EU or at final destination. They will be able to more precisely target, and control possible risks related to safety and security, fraud, or circumvention of legislation on prohibited and restricted goods, regardless of where goods enter the EU. They will also be able to give do-not-transport instructions so that non-compliant goods do not enter the EU in the first place.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_26_736
Challenges
The processes, systems and governance of the EU-wide customs are becoming increasingly complex for authorities and traders to navigate efficiently. Hence, the EU importers need to deal with 27 national customs administrations, and more than 111 separate IT interfaces and systems, all of which are expensive for authorities to run and are not necessarily interconnected. There is currently no central EU customs database or EU supply chain supervision.
This leaves the EU vulnerable to all sorts of risks: from the loss of public revenues to drug trafficking, criminal activities and financial fraud, or dangerous products being placed on the market. Our competitiveness is also at risk of being undermined by unfair competition from non-EU traders.
Customs have recently been faced with several challenges:
= an exponential rise in e-commerce, with an estimated 5.9 billion low-value items entering the EU in 2025, over 90% originating from China;
= an increase in the number of EU standards that customs authorities must enforce on goods. Particular challenges are so-called ‘prohibitions and restrictions’, the rules that support EU priorities and values such as the fight against illicit goods, product compliance, safety rules, environmental protection, firearm and export control;
= the need to continuously react to geopolitical changes, enforce EU sanctions and support measures in times of global crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to the rising numbers of low-value e-commerce goods entering the EU, the member states agreed that urgent action was needed, even before the full reform package was adopted. In December 2025, the EU states agreed to eliminate the customs duty relief threshold, which currently allows goods valued at less than €150 to enter the EU exempt from customs duty, and apply a temporary customs duty of €3 on items contained in these small parcels entering the EU, largely via e-commerce, from 1 July 2026.
At the latest by November 2026, a handling fee will also apply.
The new EU Customs Authority will be established and will gradually start operating; moreover, the Commission will start building the EU Customs Data Hub for e-commerce and the digital means’ deployment, so it can be operational by 2028.
More in: https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/customs/eu-customs-reform_en
Corporate and digital issues
The new reform also establishes a modernised “partnership” with businesses: thus, a ‘trust and check’ approach allows established supply chains to import and export seamlessly as trusted partners. The systemic supervision allows customs to be more strategic about checks and controls.
In the future, e-commerce operators will bear more responsibility. As ‘importers for distance sales’, online platforms and sellers will digitally inform customs through the EU Customs Data Hub about their sales to Union consumers immediately after they happen.
This will allow customs to react before the goods arrive at the border, supported by the EU Customs Authority risk analysis at Union level. These platforms and sellers will become liable for financial obligations (customs duties and other fees) and for ensuring compliance of their products with EU legislation (for example identifying a responsible economic operator in the EU). This is a major improvement from the current customs system, which assigns this responsibility to individual consumers.
Overall, the proposed reform of EU Customs will significantly reduce the time and costs for traders to perform their customs operations and get customs clearance. At the heart of the reform is a shift from a declaration-based to a data-led system. For transparent and compliant supply chains, paperwork and formalities are reduced to a minimum, and duties can be paid periodically rather than on import.
The Data Hub will open for e-commerce consignments in 2028. The Data Hub will then open for all other businesses in 2031, leading to immediate benefits, simplifications, and savings for companies. In 2034, the Data Hub will expand to all traders and become the single mandatory EU Customs entry point.
The, a specific group of ‘Trust & Check’ traders will be created: i.e. these traders will offer maximum transparency of their supply chains and will be able to clear all of their imports with the customs authorities of the Member State in which they are based, no matter where the goods enter the EU. Under certain conditions, they will even be able to import goods without the need for any active customs intervention and free of administrative burden. A review two years after the EU Customs Data hub is operational will assess whether this possibility can be extended to all traders.
Through the proposed simplifications, it is estimated that businesses will cut compliance costs by €2.7 billion a year. Legitimate business will also be able to rest easy in the knowledge that customs will have more time and resources to deal with fraudulent competitors who can undercut them on price. Nothing will change regarding the level of detail that importers have to provide to customs. The information will simply be delivered and analysed in a smarter, more efficient way.
A reinforced customs union will also support the level playing field and the correct implementation of EU trade measures at the border, which will benefit EU business’ competitiveness and economic security.
E-commerce in the customs reform
The Commission and the member states share a sense of urgency stemming from the boom in e-commerce goods being imported into the EU over the past few years. To respond to these challenges with the necessary urgency mindset, the EU will start to apply two e-commerce measures already in 2026.
First, it removes the so-called ‘de minimis‘ rules, under which parcels arriving in the EU with a value below €150 were exempted from customs duties; this rule became a gateway for huge volumes of low-value imports, with importers often splitting imports or undervaluing their products to avoid duties. Therefore, from July 1st 2026, the EU will introduce a temporary €3 customs duty for items bought online, to level the playing field between e-commerce sales (direct imports of individual parcels up to €150 that are not paying duties) and traditional retail (imports in bulk that had always been subject to duties).
Second, the present reform also introduces a handling fee on goods imported into the EU to compensate for the increasing costs for customs authorities. The Commission will determine its amount in a delegated act. The amount of the fee is based on the minimum costs customs authorities face when processing goods. The costs arise from the IT and labour resources mobilised to release those goods for free circulation, including checking the data provided, carrying out risk analysis, and performing regular documentary and physical controls when needed. From 2028, where the importer operates a customs warehouse, the fee will be lower due to easier customs checks.
The proposed measures will protect EU consumers from abuses and non-compliant products, making shopping safer for them. In response to the continuing surge in e-commerce imports, it is imperative that EU customs controls can ensure that only compliant and safe products enter the EU market and reach our citizens.
Both the customs duty and the handling fee will constitute a traditional own resource, which means that a percentage of the revenue will be included in the Union’s long-term budget.
EU Customs Authority (EUCA)
The EU Customs Authority, EUCA is at the core of the EU Customs reform; it is a newly established EU agency, pooling expertise and resources from the member states and the Commission. The EUCA will centralise data and analytics, enabling smarter handling of customs procedures and controls. It will develop, operate and maintain the EU Customs Data Hub, the single data environment, and it will coordinate risk management at EU-level. It allows customs to cooperate and truly act as one: share knowledge, analyse trade flows, identify threats, build strategies, and design real-time coordinated controls.
National customs authorities will also continue to perform their own national risk analysis tailored to their specific needs. However, the member states’ collaboration under the EU Customs Authority and the vastly improved intelligence gained thanks to the EU Customs Data Hub will be a game changer for these tasks. This will be key in tackling so-called ‘border shopping’, where unscrupulous traders target gaps in EU-wide visibility at individual points on the EU’s external border to get their goods into the Single Market. Moreover, the EUCA will support the member states’ customs authorities by providing financial support, as well as train and pool expertise on customs legislation and practices.
The EUCA is not just a new agency: it embodies a truly European approach to customs; hence, the customs reform and the EUCA are essential for Europe’s economic and internal security, competitiveness, autonomy and unity.
On 25 March 2026, the European Parliament and the Council designated Lille, in France, to host the seat of the EUCA, out of nine member states that applied to host the agency; the new EUCA will oversee an EU Customs Data Hub which will act as the engine of the new system. Over time, the Data Hub will replace the existing EU-wide customs digital infrastructures, saving the states about €2 billion a year in operating costs. The new Authority will also help deliver on an improved EU approach to risk management and customs checks.
More on EUCA in: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_707
EU Customs Data Hub
The EU Customs Data Hub will be the new engine of the Customs Union: it will collect, process, connect and store all relevant data, thereby redefining and modernising the way in which information is provided, used for customs supervision, and shared with partner authorities. It allows for a true EU-level risk analysis.
Today custom’s systems mirror the traditional formalities of customs processes: businesses must declare information for being granted authorisations and carry out customs operations, on entry, arrival, transit and release, to the different national systems. In return, customs still operate with a process and transaction focus, based on declared data that is specifically prepared for customs. The data is currently fragmented across the different systems, preventing a comprehensive risk analysis and a more strategic, system-based approach.
The EU Customs Data Hub is a single entry-point that allows trade actors to meet their requirement to provide data for their customs operations, no matter where the goods cross the EU border. Information that is stable for a given supply chain, from invoices, product information, logistics contractors or service providers, can follow the ‘submit once-only’ principle. This removes administrative burden and drastically reduces compliance cost for all businesses, particularly for small enterprises.
The EU Customs Data Hub enables systematic customs risk analysis across all EU supply chains and trade operators, as well as early detection and treatment of risks. Customs administrations can run multiple targeted applications for risk analysis.
Conclusion
The reform will strengthen EU customs authorities, helping them to protect the EU’s external border for goods from challenges arising from rapid increases in e-commerce flows and shifting geopolitical realities. Modernising the EU customs framework will benefit the economy, security and consumers by creating a simpler, better and more efficient digitalised system for the European international trade.
The reform will establish a data-driven vision for the future of the EU Customs system; thus, the EUCA will be a key enabler for the Customs Union to act as one. It will act as the essential operational pillar for the future EU Customs Data Hub, coordinate risk management and prioritize duty compliance for e-commerce, amongst others. The EUCA will foster cooperation between national customs authorities and enhance their capacity to tackle trade flows posing risks to EU competitiveness and security.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_707