Customs Transit: changes & challenges
About The Author
The European Union was established with the strategic goal of uniting European states to improve conditions in each member country and, consequently, across Europe as a whole.
Beyond monetary union, common foreign and agricultural policies, and the facilitation of citizen movement, the EU also seeks to unify the customs systems of its member states, as well as those of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries.
The Port of Thessaloniki, due to its strategic geographical location, serves as a major transit hub, handling approximately 500,000-600,000 TEUs annually for transport to neighboring Balkan countries and Northern Greece.
As part of this integration, an initial effort was made to standardize the transportation of goods within the EU (T2L/T2LF). A common document was introduced through the POuS system, replacing the previous practice where each country issued its own customs declaration.
The integration process continues with the upgrade of the customs operational environment to NCTS-5 (New Computerized Transit System-5), gradually replacing the previous platform. Other customs procedures, such as import and export, will follow, with the full transition expected to be completed by the end of 2027.
However, the implementation of the EU’s customs system unification policy has led to technical challenges, mainly due to compatibility issues with existing software used until now.
Examples of Technical Challenges:
- The new system fails to retrieve the EORI of the sender/receiver if the postal code is not registered in the system.
- Re-coding is required to display the transit customs office code, which was previously unnecessary.
- Although there is an option to attach supporting documents, this function has not yet been fully activated, and attachments still have to be made via the old system.
- The process of obtaining an MRN (Movement Reference Number), which was previously automated and took just one minute after submitting the LRN (Local Reference Number), now requires customs approval, depending on the availability of the customs supervisor.
- For shipments requiring CED/CHEDD certificates, a pre-announcement with MRN must be made at least three days before departure to the relevant agricultural services. However, synchronization issues have arisen in obtaining MRN-CED.
Despite these difficulties, NCTS-5 is expected to bring long-term benefits, as it will be more user-friendly, modern, and secure, while directly linking essential information to stakeholders.
Currently, the system is in its early stages, with the Ministry’s technical departments working on necessary improvements. In the future, it may be possible for recipients of goods to access system-generated information and documents using personal access codes.
