New Ukraine-Romania eCustoms pilot to streamline cross-border data exchange

EU4Digital Facility Phase II initiated a new eCustoms pilot between State Customs of Ukraine and the Romanian Customs Authority, on 7 March 2023. This is part of the EU4Digital eTrade thematic area’s eCustoms activity, which focuses on piloting mechanisms for data exchange between bordering customs administrations. 

The aim of the Ukraine-Romania pilot is to facilitate customs-to-customs data exchange and introduce more advanced customs risk management processes. The pilot utilises innovative systems, i.e. Systematic Electronic Exchange of Data (SEED). The selected solution is oriented towards automated, advanced ways of exchanging information between countries. This could facilitate the rapid increase of trade flows by targeting high-risk consignments and identifying low-risk ones, thus simplifying customs controls and speeding up border-crossing times. Moreover, the SEED solution, once piloted and tested, is easily replicable and could be modified as per the specific needs of every country.  

The Ukraine-Romania eCustoms pilot will take place during March – June 2023. The eCustoms pilot outcome should serve as the bilateral test for building potential larger scale customs data exchanges in future, between the two countries and beyond. As a result, recommendations will be prepared regarding the legal, organisational and technical adjustments that would be required for full scale solution implementation. 

Background

In spring 2022, an eCustoms pilot project was successfully completed under the EU4Digital Facility, jointly with the customs authorities of the Republic of Moldova and Romania. It allowed the automatic exchange of information through the SEED system. This pilot was designed based on over ten years of experience in using the SEED application for customs data exchange in the Western Balkans. 

EU4Digital aims to extend the benefits of the European Union’s Digital Single Market to the Eastern Partner states, channelling EU support to develop the potential of the digital economy and society, in order to bring economic growth, generate more jobs, improve people’s lives and help businesses. The EU4Digital Facility Phase II (2022-2025) builds on the first phase of the EU4Digital Facility (2019-2022) and is the core programme of the EU4Digital Initiative. 

See more news about EU4Digital eTrade activities.