Procedures

Goods entering or leaving the EU

For goods entering the customs territory of the European Community, pre-arrival declarations must be lodged electronically by the person, and within the timelines (see the guidelines on the import of goods (pdf 108 Kb)(108 Kb)  into the customs territory, import scenarios (pdf 174 Kb)(174 Kb)  and frequently asked questions on ENS (pdf 104 Kb)(104 Kb) ) set out by customs legislation, in one of the following formats:

• Entry summary declaration (pdf 18 Kb)(18 Kb)  data to be sent electronically to the national system of the Member State concerned; or
• Import customs declaration, including safety and security data, to be sent to the import customs declaration systems of the Member State concerned; or
• Transit customs declaration, including safety and security data, to be sent to the national transit system of the Member State concerned.

This means that for goods entering the customs territory of the Community under a transit procedure, the responsible person (carrier) has two options:

• Lodge a transit declaration containing the safety and security data; or
• Lodge a transit declaration not containing the safety and security data for the purpose of the transit procedure and lodge an entry summary declaration separately for the purposes of safety and security.

For goods leaving the customs territory of the European Community, pre-departure declarations must be lodged electronically by the person (see the guidelines for export procedures and exit formalities (pdf 129 Kb)(129 Kb)  for goods leaving the customs territory, scenarios concerning export declarations (pdf 673 Kb)(673 Kb) , frequently asked questions on export summary declarations (pdf 306 Kb)(306 Kb) , open export movements (pdf 102 Kb)(102 Kb) , fallback rules (pdf 98 Kb)(98 Kb)  determined by customs legislation, in one of the following formats:

• Export customs declaration, including safety and security data, to be sent to the export customs declaration systems of the Member State concerned; or
• Exit summary declaration (pdf 16 Kb)(16 Kb)  data (only for those cases where no export customs declaration is needed for the customs procedure) to be sent to the national system of the Member State concerned; or
• Transit (pdf 17 Kb)(17 Kb)  customs declaration, including safety and security data, to be sent to the national transit system of the Member State concerned.

This means that for goods leaving the customs territory of the Community, to which no export declaration or exit summary declaration was presented before goods were placed under the transit procedure, the responsible person (carrier) has two options:

• Lodge a transit declaration containing the safety and security data; or
• Lodge a transit declaration not containing the safety and security for the purpose of the transit procedure and lodge an exit summary declaration separately for the purposes of safety and security.

Fall back procedure or "Business Continuity Plan"

For all cases where problems occur with IT systems, a Business Continuity Plan (pdf 512 Kb)(512 Kb)  has been developed in order to ensure pragmatic solutions that do not delay consignments.

The forms to be used in NCTS, ECS and ICS were published in Regulation (EC) 414/2009. The forms (xls 293 Kb)(293 Kb)