Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/51 of 11 December 2025 amending Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 612/2013 as regards the structure of messages relating to data of economic operators and tax warehouses, related statistics and reporting in the field of excise duties exchanged pursuant to Council Regulation (EU) No 389/2012

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

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

Having regard to Council Regulation (EU) No 389/2012 of 2 May 2012 on administrative cooperation in the field of excise duties and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2073/2004 (1), and in particular Article 22 thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Council Directive (EU) 2020/262 (2) lays down the procedure to be followed for the movements of excise goods between Member States and the monitoring and surveillance of those movements by means of the computerised system referred to in Article 1 of Decision (EU) 2020/263 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) (‘the computerised system’).

(2) Under Regulation (EU) No 389/2012, Member States are required to maintain electronic registers of authorisations held by economic operators, and tax warehouses, that are engaged in the movement of excise goods. The information contained in those national registers is automatically exchanged via a central register operated by the European Commission which is also part of the computerised system. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 612/2013 (4) lays down the technical details and the rules and procedures of the central register and of the national registers.

(3) Directive (EU) 2020/262 extended the computerised system to include the movement of excise goods that are exported outside the Union and the movement of excise goods which have been released for consumption in the territory of one Member State and that are moved to the territory of another Member State in order to be delivered there for commercial purposes (‘duty paid movements’), and the central register of authorisations was duly modified to include economic operators performing duty paid movements. As a result, certain data elements of the computerised system have become obsolete or required a modification. It is therefore necessary to revise the computerised system to correct any inconsistencies that have been detected.

(4) Implementing Regulation (EU) No 612/2013 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(5) In order to allow the Member States adequate time to prepare for the amendments to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 612/2013 and to align the application date of this Regulation with the date on which the version of the computerised system provided for in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/50 (5) becomes operational, this Regulation should apply from 12 February 2026.

(6) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee on Excise Duty,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Annex I to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 612/2013 is replaced by the text set out in the Annex to this Regulation.

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.

It shall apply from 12 February 2026.

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

Done at Brussels, 11 December 2025.

For the Commission The President Ursula VON DER LEYEN

(1) OJ L 121, 8.5.2012, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2012/389/oj.

(2) Council Directive (EU) 2020/262 of 19 December 2019 laying down the general arrangements for excise duty (OJ L 58, 27.2.2020, p. 4, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2020/262/oj).

(3) Decision (EU) 2020/263 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 January 2020 on computerising the movement and surveillance of excise goods (OJ L 58, 27.2.2020, p. 43, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dec/2020/263/oj).

(4) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 612/2013 of 25 June 2013 on the operation of the register of economic operators and tax warehouses, related statistics and reporting pursuant to Council Regulation (EU) No 389/2012 on administrative cooperation in the field of excise duties (OJ L 173, 26.6.2013, p. 9, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2013/612/oj).

(5) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/50 of 12 November 2025 amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1636 as regards the data of the documents exchanged in the context of movement of excise goods (OJ L, 2026/50, 15.1.2026, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2026/50/oj).