Parliament endorses the seat selection procedure for the EU Customs Authority

Parliament’s negotiating team working on the Union Customs Code reform has endorsed the draft procedure that details how the seat of the future EU Customs Authority will be chosen.

According to the provisional common understanding that still needs a final endorsement from the Council tomorrow, the Parliament and the Council will participate in the seat selection procedure at an equal footing.

Both institutions will first hold simultaneous internal votes to pre-select two favourites each, out of the total nine candidates. Then, immediately after the internal votes, both negotiating teams will gather for a joint meeting.

According to the simplest scenario, if one city ends up in the shortlist of both institutions, this candidate will be deemed selected. If there is no such overlap, however, the Parliament and the Council will proceed with a joint vote to determine the winner.

The provisionally agreed procedure foresees up to three secret voting rounds and both the Parliament and the Council will each have 27 ballots at their disposal every time. The required threshold will be lowered in every subsequent round, to make sure the process will not end up blocked. Thus, the first round will require a double majority, i.e at least 14 votes from both institutions. Should this not provide a clear winner, at least three-fourth majority of all votes will be sufficient in the second round (41 votes out of 54), and at least a two-thirds majority will be enough in the third (36 votes out of 54).

Parliament’s rapporteur for the file Dirk Gotink (EPP, NL) commented the procedure: "Today the European Parliament has made a big step towards ensuring an efficient and fair procedure to decide on the location of the EU Customs Authority (EUCA) jointly with Council. Core of the procedure are an equal voice, guaranteed outcome and the aim to provide sufficient legitimacy among both co-legislators for the final location. Since it is the second time in history (after the Anti-Money Laundering Authority) that the Parliament and the Council jointly decide on the location of a decentralised agency, finding a balanced approach is essential."

MEPs already held a Q&A session with all nine candidate cities on January 28 to consider the strengths and weaknesses of all the bids. This gave the MEPs an invaluable input for the selection process.

Next steps

The provisionally agreed procedure will now have to be endorsed by the Council as well, expected tomorrow. The votes on the seat selection and the final trilogue on the Customs Code reform are scheduled for March 25-26.

Background

The EU Customs Authority will be established as part of the major EU Customs Code reform that the European Commission initiated already in 2023. The agency is expected to coordinate future customs cooperation, ensure risk management and operate the new overarching customs IT system - the Customs Data Hub.

Since the ruling of the European Court of Justice of 14 July 2022, concerning the seat of EMA and ELA, the Parliament and the Council decide on the location of EU decentralised agencies jointly. The EU Customs Authority will be the second agency to be set up after this ruling, following the selection of the seat of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) on February 22, 2024.