LegalizeCommission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1272 of 6 May 2025 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the electronic system for agricultural non-customs formalities (ELAN)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007 (1), and in particular Article 223(3) thereof,
Whereas:
(1) Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 lays down rules governing international trade in agricultural products, including the requirements for ensuring the effective enforcement of trade-related formalities.
(2) To support the effective application of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and streamline cooperation between the relevant authorities, an electronic system should be established to manage agricultural trade-related formalities in a secure and reliable manner. This system should be referred to as the Electronic system for Agricultural Non-customs formalities (‘ELAN’) and should be developed as an independent module of the Trade Control and Expert System (TRACES) referred to in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715 (2). ELAN should store and process the documents required for the fulfilment of Union non-customs formalities related to trade in agricultural products, as laid down in Commission Implementing Regulations (EU) 2016/1239 (3), (EU) 2020/761 (4), (EU) 2020/1988 (5) and (EU) 2023/2834 (6).
(3) In order to facilitate cooperation and ensure seamless information exchange between the relevant issuing authorities or bodies and customs authorities, ELAN should be interconnected with the EU Single Window Environment for Customs, as established by Regulation (EU) 2022/2399 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7).
(4) The definitions and the rules laid down in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269 (8) should apply to this Regulation.
(5) ELAN should be connected to the European Union Customs Single Window Certificates Exchange System (‘EU CSW-CERTEX’), as well as to the electronic systems used by Member States and third countries to produce the documents covered by ELAN. This connection between systems should allow the exchange of information certifying the fulfilment of non-customs formalities for agricultural products traded between the Union and third countries.
(6) Documents should either be produced directly in ELAN or transmitted to it via the national systems of Member States. Data protection principles embedded in Regulations (EU) 2016/679 (9) and (EU) 2018/1725 (10) of the European Parliament and of the Council, apply to the processing of document issued or transmitted to ELAN in accordance with this Regulation.
(7) It should be taken into account that both ELAN and the national systems connected to it may become temporarily unavailable due to maintenance operations or unforeseen technical disruptions. In case of maintenance operations, the Commission should inform users in due time, to minimise any inconvenience. In case of system unavailability and irrespective of its cause, the Commission should lay down clear rules to ensure the business continuity for both ELAN users and economic operators.
(8) Provisions should be laid down to allow issuing authorities and bodies to produce documents in case of partial or complete unavailability of ELAN. Similarly, this Regulation should lay down provisions that could allow customs authorities to perform controls on documents stored in ELAN even during periods of temporary unavailability of the system.
(9) To give Member States time to get acquainted with the ELAN system and the related obligations, the use of ELAN should be gradually phased-in between 15 July 2025 and 18 September 2028. ELAN should be available for testing as of 15 July 2025. Member States may start making available in ELAN as of 19 January 2026 licences with legal value for performing customs clearance. As of 18 January 2027, licences should be issued in accordance with the data models laid down in Annex I.1 to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1239. As of 17 January 2028, all documents issued by Member States and third countries covered by ELAN should be made available in ELAN. On 6 October 2028 customs authorities should start performing customs clearance operations on documents in ELAN, via EU CSW CERTEX.
(10) The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 and delivered an opinion on 26 March 2025.
(11) The contingency provisions laid down in Section 3 of this Regulation should not apply to documents issued for testing purposes only. They should apply to all documents that are issued in or transmitted to ELAN, starting either on a voluntary basis as of 19 January 2026, or as of 18 January 2027 in accordance with Article 6(2) of this Regulation.
(12) The requirements mandating digitalisation of the documents required for the release into free circulation and for the export of agricultural products covered by this Regulation affect trans-European digital public services within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2024/903 of the European Parliament and of the Council (11). Accordingly, an interoperability assessment has been carried out and the resulting report is to be published on the Interoperable Europe Portal.
(13) The Regulation should enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, to ensure the correct application of the rules before ELAN will become available to its users for testing purposes.
(14) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee for the Common Organisation of the Agricultural Markets,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
SECTION 1
INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS
Article 1
Subject matter
The Commission shall establish an Electronic system for Agricultural Non-customs formalities (‘ELAN’) that shall facilitate the electronic exchange and storage of documents used for the fulfilment of non-customs formalities necessary for trade with third countries of products covered by the sectors listed in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013.
ELAN shall enable the secure, reliable and efficient issuing, transmission, storage and retrieval of the following documents:
(a) import and export licences produced in accordance with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1237 (12) and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1239;
(b) documents produced by third countries required for the management of tariff rate quotas, as provided for in the specific tariff quota fiches in Annexes II to XII to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/761, with the exception of the export certificate required for tariff quota with order number 09.4127, and in Annex II to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1988, with the exception of the certificate of conformity required for tariff quota with order number 09.0076;
(c) documents issued by third countries, as provided for in Article 31(5) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1988;
(d) documents issued by third countries, as provided for in Article 9 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2834.
ELAN shall ensure the authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality of the exchanged documents, as well as the verification of the origin of the communication.
The Commission shall interconnect ELAN with the European Union Customs Single Window Certificates Exchange System (‘EU CSW-CERTEX’) established by Regulation (EU) 2022/2399 by 18 September 2028.
This Regulation shall apply to all Member States and to those third countries that issue the documents listed in Article 4 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269.
Article 2
Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
(a) ‘relevant Union legislation’ means the Union regulations that govern each and any of the documents covered by ELAN and listed in Article 4 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269;
(b) ‘ELAN documents’ means all documents listed in Article 4 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269;
(c) ‘data model’ means the list of information that the competent authorities or bodies shall provide in ELAN in order to produce or transmit a document, in accordance with the relevant Union legislation applicable to the documents concerned, and with the instructions published in series C of the Official Journal of the European Union (13) referred to in Article 1(1), point (j) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1239;
(d) ‘national electronic system’ means the IT system used by the authorities and bodies of Member States and third countries competent to manage and produce the documents listed in Article 4 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269;
(e) ‘ELAN (acceptance environment)’ means the electronic system identical to ELAN which serves the sole scope of allowing users to test the functionalities of that system, and to issue or transmit documents with no legal value;
(f) ‘Master reference number’ means the reference number of a customs declaration as defined in Article 1(22) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 (14).
For the purposes of this Regulation, the definitions in Article 3 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269 shall apply.
SECTION 2
TECHNICAL PROVISIONS
Article 3
Format of documents
All ELAN documents shall be identified in ELAN in accordance with the instructions published in series C of the Official Journal of the European Union.
Each document produced in ELAN or transmitted to it shall comply with the data model laid down in the relevant Union legislation listed in Article 4 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269 and completed in accordance with the specific instructions applicable to it.
Article 4
Issue of documents and validity checks
National issuing authorities, and third country issuing authorities shall either produce the relevant electronic documents directly in ELAN or transmit them to ELAN upon having produced them in their respective national electronic systems.
Each document made available in ELAN shall bear:
(a) the qualified or advanced electronic seal based on a qualified certificate of the competent issuing authority; or
(b) the qualified or advanced electronic signature based on a qualified certificate of an authorised representative of the competent issuing authority, in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council (15).
ELAN shall automatically verify the validity of documents produced in the system or transmitted to it.
Article 5
Processing of personal data
ELAN shall process personal data pursuant to Articles 10 and 11 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715.
Article 6
Transitional period
From 15 July 2025 national issuing authorities may start on a voluntary basis to produce documents referred to in Article 1(2), point (a), of this Regulation in ELAN (acceptance environment) or to transmit them to that system for testing purposes. These documents shall have no legal value.
From 19 January 2026 national issuing authorities may on a voluntary basis produce documents referred to in Article 1(2), point (a), in ELAN or to transmit them to that system. These documents shall have legal value for performing customs clearance activities.
From 18 January 2027 national issuing authorities shall produce the documents referred to in Article 1(2), point (a), of this Regulation in accordance with Annex I.1 to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1239 and with the instructions referred to in Article 3(1) of this Regulation.
From 17 January 2028, national issuing authorities and third country issuing authorities shall produce documents referred to in Article 1(2), points (b), (c) and (d), in ELAN or in their national electronic systems. In the latter case, the documents shall be transmitted to ELAN immediately after being produced in the national electronic system.
From 6 October 2028, automatic verifications by customs authorities of the documents referred to in Article 2 of this Regulation and, where relevant, the reporting of cleared quantities to ELAN shall take place via EU CSW-CERTEX in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2022/2399.
SECTION 3
CONTINGENCY PROVISIONS
Article 7
Information on scheduled maintenance operations
The Commission shall inform ELAN users of any scheduled maintenance operations on the system and their estimated duration two weeks in advance.
Article 8
Documents produced during maintenance or unplanned unavailability of ELAN
Where ELAN or one of its functionalities is unavailable for more than one hour, the national issuing authorities or third country issuing authorities shall produce the documents required to perform customs formalities either on paper or in a national electronic system.
In the circumstances described at paragraph 1, documents shall be produced electronically in a national electronic system.
When the customs authorities that need to perform the customs clearance of the goods and report the cleared quantities on the relevant documents do not have access to the national electronic system of the issuing authorities or bodies referred to in the first sub-paragraph, those documents shall be printed on paper and shall be in the declarant's possession and at the disposal of the customs authorities at the time when the customs declaration is lodged.
Documents printed on paper in accordance with paragraph 1 and with paragraph 2, second subparagraph, shall be duly signed and stamped by the competent issuing authority.
All documents produced in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 shall bear the text ‘Produced during ELAN unavailability’.
In case of documents produced by third countries which are a precondition for issuing licences in accordance with Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/761, the national authorities issuing the corresponding licence shall indicate the number of the third country document in the licence, and validate the third country document by putting on its back page the stamp of the authority, the signature of an authorised official and its date, as well as the number of the licence linked to that document.
The national issuing authority shall retain the original of the documents produced by third countries referred to in the first subparagraph, unless the operator is required to present the document to the customs authorities.
In case of documents produced by third countries that must be presented only at customs level, the customs authorities shall validate the document by putting on its back page the stamp of the authority, the signature of an authorised official and the date on which the document has been used.
Economic operators shall present the documents printed on paper in accordance with paragraphs 1 to 5 to the customs authorities for the performance of customs controls.
Article 9
Customs controls on documents produced during the unavailability of ELAN
Customs authorities shall control the documents referred to in Article 8 of this Regulation in accordance with the relevant provisions of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (16) and the relevant Union legislation referred to in Article 1(2) of this Regulation.
Where required by the relevant Union legislation, customs authorities shall indicate in the dedicated section of the document the commodity codes and the quantity of products released for free circulation or exported and, where a customs declaration or ELAN document contains several items, the sequential number of the item in the ELAN document and the number of the item in the customs declaration, together with the Master Reference Number, the customs office, the date and time, the signature of the authorised officer performing the control and the stamp of the authority.
The controls referred to in paragraphs 1, including the customs clearance and the reporting of the cleared quantities, shall be performed on the documents available on the national electronic system of issuance when that system allows the customs authorities to access it and to perform the activities mentioned in this paragraph.
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