Commission challenges seven Member States over delayed Centralised Clearance for Import deployment

Summary

The European Commission has opened infringement proceedings against Belgium, Greece, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal for failing to deploy all required functionalities of the Centralised Clearance for Import system within the timetable established under the Union Customs Code Work Programme.
CCI allows authorised operators to lodge import declarations with the supervising customs office in their Member State of establishment, while goods are presented at a customs office in another Member State. The system depends on timely electronic information exchange between the supervising and presentation customs authorities.
The seven Member States have two months to respond to the letters of formal notice. Businesses using, or planning to use, centralised clearance should review national availability, fallback arrangements, customs authorisations and implementation dependencies before relying on CCI for cross-border import models.

Article

The European Commission has initiated infringement proceedings against Belgium, Greece, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal over delays in deploying the Centralised Clearance for Import system, known as CCI.

The proceedings are recorded as INFR(2026)2167 for Belgium, INFR(2026)2162 for Greece, INFR(2026)2165 for France, INFR(2026)2164 for Hungary, INFR(2026)2161 for the Netherlands, INFR(2026)2168 for Poland and INFR(2026)2163 for Portugal.

CCI is a key Union Customs Code simplification. It permits an authorised business to lodge an import declaration with the customs office responsible for the place where the business is established, even where the goods are physically presented in another participating Member State. The supervising and presentation customs offices must exchange declaration, control, release and revenue information electronically.

The Union Customs Code establishes electronic processing as a central principle of EU customs administration. It also provides the legal framework for centralised clearance and for cooperation between customs authorities in different Member States. The detailed deployment timetable is set by Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/2879. That Work Programme provided for a phased CCI implementation and set 2 June 2025 as the deadline for the project’s full deployment. [eur-lex.europa.eu] [eur-lex.europa.eu]

In the Commission’s assessment, the seven Member States have not deployed all required CCI functionalities. The delay limits the practical availability of a simplification intended to reduce multiple national interactions, support EU-wide import operations and facilitate electronic cooperation between customs authorities.

The development is especially relevant for businesses with imports entering through several Member States, including groups operating regional distribution centres, shared customs teams or centralised import functions. A CCI authorisation alone may not deliver its intended benefit if the necessary systems are unavailable in one of the participating countries.

The letters of formal notice give each Member State two months to respond. If the Commission considers the responses inadequate, it may issue reasoned opinions. The proceedings do not suspend customs obligations or create an automatic right to use CCI.

Businesses should verify actual CCI availability for each customs route, confirm which Phase I and Phase II functions are operational, document fallback procedures, and assess whether delays affect customs representation, import VAT reporting, guarantees or clearance lead times. The Belgian proceeding is particularly relevant for groups using Belgium as a regional import or distribution location.

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