European Commission / Taxation and Customs Union 11/20/2015Présentation Powerpoint1 Pilot project on EU-Russia exchanges of advance customs information By Marko Lätti, European Commission, Directorate-General of Taxation and Customs Union 25 June 2009

European Commission / Taxation and Customs Union 11/20/2015Présentation Powerpoint2 Context: traffic at the EU-Russian border Problem: congestion at the EU-Russian border Long queues of lorries, particularly in Finland, Estonia, Latvia Negative effects on trade flows, environment Discussions in EU-Russia Summits since 2006, high-level agreement on need for action Result: approval of a joint border congestion strategy in April 2007

European Commission / Taxation and Customs Union 11/20/2015Présentation Powerpoint3 EU-Russia strategy on border congestion Strategy based on three parallel priorities for action: - reform of Russian customs/border procedures - exchanges of advance information, pilot project - infrastructure All three elements should be implemented simultaneously Strategy agreed by the EU-Russia Customs Sub-Committee

European Commission / Taxation and Customs Union 11/20/2015Présentation Powerpoint4 Implementation of the strategy Working Group: Commission (DG TAXUD), Federal Customs Service, EU Member States on a voluntary basis: 13 at this moment (AT, BE, CZ, DE, EE, FI, HU, IT, LT, LV, PL, SK, SV) Working Group in charge of follow-up and monitoring of strategy implementation Quarterly meetings, alternately Brussels / Moscow

European Commission / Taxation and Customs Union 11/20/2015Présentation Powerpoint5 Priority 1: Russian reforms Law 266 of , implementation underway Reduction in number of border agencies Two agencies: Customs, Border Guards Other initiatives: border clearance concept, containers Long-term process

European Commission / Taxation and Customs Union 11/20/2015Présentation Powerpoint6 Priority 2: Information exchanges Pilot project implemented as of 1 January 2009 Technical implementation successful, approximately messages/day, messages as of Nine Member States sending messages today, the rest from July 2009 Contents of message: transit information (NCTS/TIR) Message sent when TIR movement created in participating Member State

European Commission / Taxation and Customs Union 11/20/2015Présentation Powerpoint7 Priority 2: Information exchanges Message sent via SPEED platform by Member State SPEED applies necessary filters and forwards to Russian Customs headquarters Risk analysis, message transmitted to border-crossing point Quicker procedure if information sent in advance Implementation still in early phase, reduced trade

European Commission / Taxation and Customs Union 11/20/2015Présentation Powerpoint8 Priority 3: Infrastructure Useful discussions on respective plans, priorities In the recent past EU-financed projects on Russia’s border with Finland, Lithuania, Poland Room for improvement in infrastructure Not main obstacle to smooth EU-Russia trade flows

European Commission / Taxation and Customs Union 11/20/2015Présentation Powerpoint9 Current situation / the way ahead Continue to work on parellel implementation of the three priorities Main challenge: slow pace of Russian reforms Current crisis also represents an opportunity Meetings of the Working Group, Customs Sub- Committee Evaluation of results, decision on follow-up