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Alternate presentations:

ACTIVITIES :: eTen :: Projects :: Projects of the Month :: ETN

April 2007 Project of the Month: ETN

Issues being addressed

ETN provides online electronic customs services through an interconnected network for the development of trans-European services for customs and trade information exchange mainly for the associated submission forms and declarations related to different national customs regulations.

The ETN services will extend services of Customs-Related Service Providers (CRSPs) from a national to a trans-European level, allowing traders in some EU countries to communicate with customs administrations of other countries.

The network will provide a data entry simplification and handling message interchange. The integration with corporate systems guaranteeing the security policies of companies and the automation of the system also means that human errors (typing mistakes or problems filling in or translating documents) can be avoided.

Objectives of the project

To validate the wider acceptance of the services and fine-tune the needed modification in local circumstances.

• To demonstrate the project services within groups of customers that can offer full assessment of feasibility for a trans-European deployment.
• To improve the current business model and plan; – redefine, if necessary, the different business policies (pricing, marketing, deployment, etc.).
• To openly disseminate results in three levels: Technical conclusions that could serve other networks and Community service providers in achieving a degree of eService for European enterprises; Requirement specifications for national custom administrations that could help with the transition to more simplified procedures and their alignment with EU Customs’ policies (showing lessons learnt to neighbour countries); Advances in open standards adoption regarding public-private messages interchange and procedures.
• To produce conclusions that could serve EU policies gathered within a single window and single procedures for European customs.

Services

ETN is building an advanced platform to enable companies to access information services related with transits and import/export operations as well as customs document submission on a trans-national, cross-boundaries, pan-European basis. It focuses on providing a secure, rich and controlled Internet based environment linking all the agents in the foreign trade chain.

The Common Access Point (CAP) is the central service that is being rolled out in different countries, making possible to realise electronic customs procedures in all European countries from a local ETN provider. It has already open service structures in Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, and Spain. The expansion process continues for France, Italy, Eastern Europe, new accession countries and Scandinavian territories.

Customers need to submit electronic customs procedures to different national custom administrations. ETN provides CAP for addressing companies' needs from a single window to custom administrations in Europe.

The Common Access Point uses the local ETN partner service as a common entry point for other national customs administrations. This approach presents many advantages; from adapted interface to the user location (language, data, support, help line, etc.) to the immediate delivery service.

The platform is sustained by technological standards and developments for message interchange between interoperable networks, Customs authorities' information systems and the information systems of the partners over a distributed backbone of national network interconnection. One of its major successes is the Unified Interchange Data Structure (UIDS) that provides a common framework for data representations.

The ETN services will evolve to encompass:

• Additional customs procedure handlings.
• Multilingual translation of local codes.
• Converting documents between formats applied in different countries.
• Data validation and supplement based on additional documents.

The expected results will be:

• A refined eServices portfolio that will ease Customs procedures for traders in different countries, through a unified electronic platform.
• A refined infrastructure for complying with all envisioned European countries administration requirements for Customs electronic procedures.
• A deployment and business plan for extending the network and the scope of current running services, based on stable support of EU and national administrations and the wide interest of the market; customers and interest groups.

Expected benefits by the end of the project

The ETN project pursues a definition of eServices that will facilitate SMEs' participation in the e-economy and their interaction with environment by providing an electronic, integrated access to Customs Clearance and other procedures in Europe.

ETN will extend a public service like the electronic Customs procedures available in each country in order to make them available cross-Europe for economic operators, as well.

ETN also seeks the collaboration of public bodies such as the Customs administrations in providing better services for SMEs in particular countries, which can fit national goals for SMEs development in new accession countries.

Partners

NKN. Business development and strategy consulting. Coordinator and Initiative promoter
Spain
Kewill-CSF. Customs-related Service Provider. Technological leader. Central Europe development responsible
Germany
DEXX. Customs-related and Communications Service Provider. Deployer Real environment testing. Liaison to public bodies
Belgium
DSLV. Sectorial organization for European freight forwarders. User Agent in testing, validation and dissemination
Europe
ICARUS. Customs-related Service Provider Deployer. UK and Ireland development responsible
Ireland
MINIHOUSE. Customs-related Service Provider. Deployer real-environment testing
Netherlands
MOREDATA. Customs-related Service Provider Information Systems integrator. Deployer real-environment testing.
Portugal
SKG. Customs-related Service Provider Information Systems integrator. Deployer real-environment testing Eastern Europe development responsible.
Poland
TARIC. Customs-related Service Provider. Deployer real-environment testing.
Spain

Reference Data

Project's website: http://www.eurtradenet.com
Contract Type: Market Validation Project
Start Date: 01/03/2006
End Date: : 31/07/2007
Duration: 16 Months