CLECAT: The European parliament IMCO Committee has recently published a report on the analysis and effects of the different Member States customs sanctioning systems. The study provides an analysis of the effects of the present divergence of the customs sanctioning systems of the Member States of the EU, as well as of the proposal of the European Commission for a Directive to harmonise the customs infringements and sanctions.
Some key recommendations and conclusions issued take up on CLECAT presentations to both the IMCO Committee public hearing in early 2015 and the recent EU Commission workshop held in November 2015. The study contains a number of conclusions and recommendations (by the independent authors), chiefly but not only:
-Amend the scope of the draft Directive to include only non-criminal sanctions;
- The Directive should also cover the wide range of enforcement issues including control;
- It should be clear that in the absence of guilt, sanctions should not apply and
- The level of sanction imposed should be based in certain cases where the level of duty evaded can be calculated.
CLECAT will continue to monitor the developments as the draft Directive is currently under discussion in the Council and Parliament.