EU budget - Customs and Fiscalis programmes - Hoofdinhoud

Boosting cooperation between tax and customs authorities for a safer and more prosperous EU

For the next long-term EU budget 2021-2027, the Commission proposed today measures to make tax and customs cooperation between Member States better and more efficient.

Continued funding of these programmes will help the EU to progress in offering businesses unfettered and easy access to the EU's Single Market so that trade can flourish, protect citizens from dangerous goods entering the Union at our external borders and ensure that Member States are equipped to fight tax avoidance and tax evasion.

The Commission is proposing a continued financial commitment of €950 million for the EU's customs programme and €270 million for the EU's Fiscalis programme, representing just 0.07% and 0.02% of the next EU budget respectively.

The new Customs Programme will help put in place a modern Customs Union which puts the interests of EU business and citizens at its heart, by:

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  Increasing information and data exchange between national customs administrations to better detect the flow of dangerous and counterfeit goods: a total of 2.7 million pieces of ammunition and 188,000 pieces of explosives were seized at EU borders in 2017;
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  Supporting customs authorities in protecting the financial and economic interests of the Union, as well as in the correct collection of customs duties, import VAT and excise duties: The new programme will improve the capacity of customs administrations to deal with growing trade and changing economic and working models such as e-commerce and blockchain and will enhance cooperation and training across sectors;
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  Devising better risk management strategies to protect the EU's financial interests; and help the EU better respond to security threats and transnational crime;
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  Continuing to facilitate growing levels of trade: EU customs authorities handled 331 million declarations last year.

The new Fiscalis Programme will support cooperation between Member States' tax administrations and better contribute to the fight against tax fraud, tax evasion and tax avoidance, by:

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  Putting in place better and more connected IT systems, which each Member State would otherwise have to develop individually. This includes developing and maintaining interoperable and cost-effective IT solutions to support tax authorities in implementing EU legislation;
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  Sharing good practices and training to boost efficiency: this includes helping prevent unnecessary administrative burdens for citizens and businesses (including SMEs) in cross-border transactions and significantly adding to the 423,000 tax professionals trained since 2014;
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  Putting in place joint actions in risk management and audits - 1,000 of which have been organised between Member States since 2014;
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  Fostering Union competitiveness, boosting innovation and facilitating the implementation of new economic models.

Related links

Press release

MEMO on the Customs and Fiscalis programmes

Further information on theEU budget for the future

Factsheets and legal texts on the Fiscalis and Customs programmes can be found here