MUTUAL ASSISTANCE BETWEEN THE ADMINISTRATIVE
AUTHORITIES OF MEMBER STATES (5048/07)
Letter from the Chairman to Rt Hon Dawn
Primarolo MP, Paymaster General, HM Treasury
Thank you for your Explanatory Memorandum which
Sub-Committee A considered at its meeting on 20 February. The
Committee decided to hold the document under scrutiny and would
be grateful if you could provide further information on the Commission's
response to your concerns as negotiations progress.
The Committee would also be interested to know
what level of data sharing already occurs between Member States'
Customs authorities, and the effectiveness of this and of other
measures in place on the basis of Regulation (EC) No 515/97. Information
on the amount of revenue that is thought to be lost to operations
that are in breach of customs and agricultural legislation would
also be of interest.
21 February 2007
Letter from Rt Hon Dawn Primorolo MP to
the Chairman
Thank you for your letter of 21 February seeking
further information about use of the current Regulation 515. I
am sorry for the delay in responding.
We had expected substantive negotiations on
the proposed amendment to Regulation 515 to be underway by now.
However, following a general introduction of the subject at a
Customs Union Group meeting in February, it has not been tabled
for discussion. We now expect that a detailed Article by Article
examination is unlikely to begin before late May. I shall keep
you informed of progress in negotiations.
The Committee asked some specific questions
about current customs mutual administrative assistance between
Member States. Member States' Customs Authorities share data with
each other under a variety of arrangements, including several
covered by Regulation 515, for areas falling within Community
competence.
Unfortunately, HM Revenue and Customs' records
of mutual assistance requests do not distinguish totals of requests
made and received under Regulation 515 from other types of request;
but they advise that the 515 total will be several hundred requests
per year. A range of mutual administrative assistance requests
is covered by the Regulation, including many requests for verification
of information such as invoiced values and country of origin for
goods.
It is important for Member States' Customs Authorities
to be able to assist each other, and Regulation 515 allows them
to do so in a range of ways, spontaneously or on request. It also
provides a legal base for some joint operations between Member
States, and Commission led mutual assistance initiatives with
third countries' Customs Authorities.
Members States' Customs Services do not routinely
advise each other of the results of mutual assistance requests,
and there is no readily available reliable estimate of actual
or prevented revenue losses for customs and agricultural regimes.
The Eurpean Commission's anti-fraud office (OLAF), keeps statistics
about fraud against the Community Budget as a whole, but does
not publish a suitable customs/agriculture breakdown.
27 March 2007
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