6 CUSTOMS
(28210)
5048/07
COM(06) 866
| Draft Regulation amending Council Regulation (EC) No 515/97 on mutual assistance between the administrative authorities of the Member States and cooperation between the latter and the Commission to ensure the correct application of the law on customs and agricultural matters
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| Legal base | Articles 135 and 280 EC; co-decision; QMV
|
| Department | Revenue and Customs
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| Basis of consideration |
Minister's letter of 26 July 2007 |
| Previous Committee Report |
HC 41-viii (2006-07), para 3 (30 January 2007) |
| To be discussed in Council
| Not yet known |
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Not cleared, further information awaited
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Background
6.1 Council Regulation (EC) No 515/97 is the legal basis for mutual
assistance between the administrative authorities of the Member
States with responsibility for ensuring the correct application
of the law on customs and agricultural matters. The Regulation
includes provision for a database, the Customs Information System,
which is used by the relevant authorities to post alerts of risks
of irregular operations by transmitting information for the purposes
of sighting, reporting, discreet surveillance or specific controls.
This draft Regulation is to amend Regulation (EC) No 515/97 to
reflect subsequent changes in other relevant instruments which
impact on the Regulation and, more substantively, to introduce
enhancements to the Regulation to improve the ability of Member
States and the Commission to more effectively prevent, investigate
and prosecute operations that are in breach of customs and agricultural
legislation.
6.2 When we considered this proposal in January 2007 we commented
that we could see that this proposal might add to the effectiveness
of the present Regulation governing mutual assistance between
the administrative authorities of the Member States. But we noted
the Government's reservations on a number of matters and asked,
before considering the document further, to hear about developments
on these issues during negotiations, particularly in relation
to both data protection and the proposed European data directory.
Meanwhile we did not clear the document.[34]
The Minister's letter
6.3 The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Jane Kennedy) writes
now that detailed discussion of this proposal in the Council's
Customs Union Group finally commenced in June 2007 but is making
slow progress. However she adds that the Portuguese Presidency
has indicated that concluding discussions will be one of its priorities
and the Commission has reported that it expects the First Reading
of the proposal in the European Parliament to take place in September
2007.
6.4 As for the substance the Minister tells us that:
- several Member States, including the UK, have expressed concerns
about the definition of customs legislation in the proposal, which
as drafted extends to VAT and would be unacceptable to the Government;
- there are associated questions as to whether the correct legal
base has been cited;
- Member States have also raised questions and concerns about
the plans or the creation of a central data directory of public
and private sector databases relating to movement of goods. The
Commission has agreed to prepare a presentation to inform further
debate on this; and
- on data protection issues generally, discussions are still
in the very early stages, but all are agreed that it is important
to achieve clarity as to which data protection legislation applies
and when.
Conclusion
6.5 We are grateful to the Minister for this update. However
until there is greater clarity about the outcome on the points
we noted previously and on the new point on the definition of
customs legislation, on all of which the Minister will undoubtedly
be reporting to us in due course, the document remains uncleared.
34
See headnote. Back
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