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                                                        Union du Personnel des Finances en Europe
                                                        Union of Finance Personnel in Europe
                                                        L’Unione del personale delle finanze in Europa

Resolution

(Decision of the UFE customs committee of 6 September 2000)

Decided at the UFE Committee meeting held in Brussels on 7 September 2000

Customs administration authorities in Europe

Every day, tens of thousands of customs officials in the customs administration authorities of the European Union and other European countries perform their customs work. Furthermore, they guarantee in all countries of the European Union:

- revenue for national budgets by collecting turnover and consumer tax;

- revenue for the European Union budget by collecting import duty and adjustment levies (the only revenue for which the EU is not dependent on subsidies from the Member States);

- the targeted subsidizing of European agriculture through agricultural support in the form of export refund of market products from the European Union or the collection of adjustment levies on imports from third countries;

- the monitoring of goods traffic by examining import and export permits and licences;

- the fight against international drug crime by patrolling borders and conducting investigations inland;

- the patrolling of the Community’s border regions – an area that can be developed and improved by establishing a permanent structure to patrol maritime borders and reorganizing proposed and actual means for patrolling border regions where drug-trafficking is particularly prevalent, as well as the Gibraltar-Morocco, the Azores-Canary Islands and Syria-Lebanon borders;

- the fight to combat the disregard of both European and national bans and restrictions at international level, including monitoring to ensure observance of hygiene regulations, measures to combat increasing trademark piracy as well as monitoring to ensure observance of the Washington species protection agreement to safeguard threatened species throughout the world; and finally,

- the fight against all forms of customs crime, tax evasion and subsidy fraud.

As a result, customs administration authorities in Europe, which are in the broadest sense upholders and implementers of European law, perform tasks that are vital to safeguarding a fair taxation system, combating crime, and contributing to solving social and healthcare issues, the equality of European and international competitive conditions, and consumer protection. Day by day, customs administration authorities in Europe have the task and the opportunity to play a part in helping both those involved in the economy and citizens to perceive Europe as a protection and a development opportunity rather than a burden.

It is the task of customs administration authorities in Europe to apply European customs and market regulations and to collect budget revenue for the EU and its Member States using transparent and greatly unified methods. By the same token, national, European and international competencies are areas of tension.

It is a fact that in Europe customs administration authorities - each one individually - have to come to terms with the pressure of functioning optimally. Moreover, they must function even though the Member States of the European Union are laying off an increasing number of staff, even in their own finance and tax administrations, and the regulations are becoming increasingly more complex and virtually unmanageable owing to the global, European and national specifications that have to be observed. Customs administration authorities in Europe are undergoing radical and permanent changes that are not uniform across the board. They work on their own using the means available to them, yet still manage to be successful.

The Union of Finance Personnel in Europe brings together customs officials from nearly all Member States of the European Union, and also from states that are not (yet) members, but whose accession is imminent and must, as a result, enforce similar laws. Therefore, the Union of Finance Personnel’s principal aim is to achieve greater harmonization of the work of the national customs administration authorities in Europe and ensure the consistent application of the same legal standards throughout Europe in order to prevent unfair competition in the economic life of the various countries and real competition among the national customs administration authorities.

The objective of the Union of Finance Personnel in Europe is to achieve harmonized and efficient customs administration authorities in Europe and, in the medium term, establish a European customs administration. Only in this way can unified basic conditions for fair and regulated European competition throughout the world be created. And only in this way can tax justice and internal security be guaranteed over the long term – both for Europe and its citizens.

The customs officials gathered within the Union of Finance Personnel in Europe are pinning all their hopes on Europe. They do not wish to hinder or undo European developments – they wish to promote such developments. The people within a unified Europe know in their hearts and minds that unified and efficient customs administration authorities are required. The European Parliament’s committee of inquiry on irregularities in the Community transit procedure has already lent its support to the call for European customs administration authorities to function like a ‘service’. After all, against the background of unified law or harmonized fields of legislation, what could be more important than establishing a customs service?

The Union of Finance Personnel in Europe shall support the work of the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament in all their initiatives to bring the customs administration authorities in Europe closer together. We have a lot of ground to cover before we achieve a unified customs service - European politics has the task of leading the way. Achieving our goal would be in the interests of all Member States and the European Union - since no corporate body can exist without revenue, tax justice and internal security.

From the point of view of the Union of Finance Personnel in Europe, several individual measures are required to achieve a unified European customs service, or at least European customs administration authorities that work in a unified way. Such measures are outlined as follows:

1. The work of the national customs administration authorities of the EU Member States and their cooperation with the remaining states of Europe must be coordinated, so that the laws are applied both inwardly and outwardly in accordance with unified criteria. To this end, we must have:

· a European customs administration authority that coordinates the work of the national customs administration authorities, participates in the establishment of European standards laid down by the Council and the Commission and above all seeks to ensure unified application of the laws, unified legal standards and unified quality of customs action in the Member States. Such steps also include seeking to ensure that the required personnel is available to carry out these tasks,

· a European customs investigation office, which in unison with the European customs administration authority and national customs investigation authorities, coordinates the fight to combat revenue evasion, subsidy fraud and the cross-border trading of illegal goods. Over the medium term, the office must also be responsible for conducting investigations in the Member States of the European Union with the authorization of the national customs administration authorities.

2. Unified quality of customs action depends on the harmonization of professional training and further training at the highest level for customs officials in Europe. Therefore, the Union of Finance Personnel in Europe supports:

- the coordination of training and the professional careers of European customs officials among customs administration authorities in Europe with the aim of:

- creating a European customs academy, which would be introduced in both a coordinating and actual training capacity. To achieve this aim, it is now vital to take the initial step in all Member States;

- common training activities for instructors working in the national customs administration authorities, and

- organizing more exchanges between customs officials from the various Member States to enable them to gain knowledge of other customs administration authorities and strengthen personal contacts between officials. However, such a step requires:

- an increase in specialized foreign-language training in the Member States of the European Union.

3. In addition to the harmonization of professional training, it is also vital to harmonize administrative action. Besides unified legal provisions and unified training, agreement on the compatibility of legal and actual procedures is urgently required. The Union of Finance Personnel in Europe awaits the networking of European customs services offices in order to set returns at the correct level, avoid tax evasion and take effective measures against smuggling. The first step must involve carrying out the transit procedure in such a way that it can be completely verified electronically.

4. Europe’s customs officials perform their tasks with varying degrees of authorization. To effectively guarantee revenue and combat crime, we need customs administration authorities endowed with far-reaching authorization in the customs field. Customs officials in Europe should be able to act in a unified way with the status of auxiliary officials of the Director of Public Prosecution and correspondingly far-reaching authorization. Experience shows that criminals do not only operate in one field of legislation that they have violated. Customs officials come into contact with all forms of crime. Those who wish to combat crime must also furnish the customs administration authorities with the requisite skills.

5. By collecting revenue and combating crime, customs officials in Europe perform purely sovereign tasks. Those who wish to retain these government tasks must leave them in the field of public customs administration. The Union of Finance Personnel in Europe guards against privatization tendencies regarding customs tasks in individual Member States, since such tendencies jeopardize internal security and fair tax collection.

6. Customs administration authorities in Europe are in the front line in the fight to combat drug crime and the money laundering that is frequently involved. The fight against cross-border narcotics crime is first and foremost a customs task, since drugs and raw materials are in all instances produced outside the EU. Therefore, customs administration authorities must be reinforced in order to perform these tasks. They have the means and expertise to fight organized drug crime.

7. In the course of their duties combating economic crime, customs officials in Europe are frequently exposed to situations in which their life and health are put at risk.

Working conditions and means should therefore be provided that reduce this risk to the life and health of customs officials and safeguard their security.

The objective is clear - to establish a unified customs service in Europe. The path is clearly marked - unified and efficient customs administration authorities in Europe. The Union of Finance Personnel in Europe promotes radical change in customs, so that customs officials will be able to continue operating successfully in future.