Eurocustoms Information

Eurocustoms is a not-for-profit consortium of the EU Customs Administrations. We were founded in 1991 by the EU Member States as a response to the growing need for technical assistance in Eastern Europe. The Member States - and those of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) - provide customs staff on secondment to support our work as project managers or technical experts. We are based in Paris, in offices provided by French Customs. For legal and accounting reasons we are incorporated as a not-for-profit body under French law (the Association pour la Gestion d'Eurodouane), supervised by a Board chaired by the Director-General of French Customs. EU member states set Eurocustoms' policy at the annual meeting of Directors-General. We plan and manage projects from our Paris headquarters. Through a network of correspondents we recruit actively employed customs officers from EU and EFTA states to carry out technical project activity. Each is an expert in their field, with up-to-date practical or operational management skills. Our experts are often members of EU customs technical committees in Brussels. How do we work? We work through projects, mainly contracted to us direct by the EU Commission, or by partner countries using EU funds under decentralised procedures. The main EU funding programmes we work with are for countries planning to join the EU, for eastern Europe and Central Asia, and for countries of North Africa and the Mediterranean. The EFTA Secretariat in Geneva has also participated in project funding. Our methods include consultancy actions, training courses, workshops and seminars in partner countries, and study visits for project partners to our member countries. We offer privileged access to public sector expertise and best practice of EU and EFTA countries. Serving customs staff give peer-to-peer advice and recommendations on customs reform and modernisation: customs law and procedures organisation and management systems revenue collection and enforcement, and economic protection trade ...