Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/825 of 28 April 2025 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 laying down detailed rules for implementing certain provisions of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down the Union Customs Code

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 laying down the Union Customs Code ¹, and in particular Article 25 thereof,

Whereas:

• (1) Article 31 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 ² lays down the procedure for consultation and exchange of information between customs authorities in relation to taking a decision for the purposes of potentially granting the status of Authorised Economic Operator (AEO).

• (2) In accordance with Article 31(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447, in some cases of the AEO authorisation procedure and its management, customs authorities are required to consult their counterparts in other Member States for details of the applicant’s customs related activities. Experience has shown that there are cases where the consulted customs authority does not reply to the mandatory consultation initiated by the customs authority competent for the application process, which raises concerns as to whether the consulted customs authority performed the control and whether it may be aware that an economic operator does not comply with the AEO conditions and criteria.

• (3) In order to address the avoidable risk that such economic operators may still be granted AEO status due to a failure of the consultation process, the rules on the AEO consultation procedure should be amended to require the consulted customs authority to respond in the cases where the consultations are mandatory.

• (4) Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 should therefore be amended accordingly.

• (5) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Customs Code Committee,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

In Article 31, paragraph 3 is replaced by the following:

‘3.   In the cases referred to in paragraph 2, the consulted customs authority shall respond by the time-limit established by the competent customs authority, in accordance with Article 14(1), first subparagraph, second sentence.

By way of derogation from the first subparagraph, the customs authorities shall complete the consultation process within 80 days from the date on which the customs authority competent to take the decision communicates the necessary conditions and criteria which have to be examined by the consulted customs authority.’

.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 28 April 2025.

For the Commission

The President

Ursula VON DER LEYEN

ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2025/825/oj

ISSN 1977-0677 (electronic edition)