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Taxation and Customs Union

Delegations to carry out customs formalities

Delegation is the assignment of an Economic Operator to another person (normally a customs representative) to carry out Customs formalities on his/her behalf as defined in the UCC.
It is important to note that the person delegating remains accountable for the outcome of the delegated work.

Delegation empowers a subordinate to make decisions, i.e. it is a shifting of decision-making authority from one organisational level to a lower one.
Economic Operators wishing to delegate their rights (business profiles) to their employees or to other companies (Customs Representatives) that act on their behalf need to create a delegation.

The Uniform User Management and Digital Signature System (UUM&DS) knows two levels of delegation:

  • 1st level delegation:
    • Economic operator delegates to a Customs Representative (CR) or;
    • Economic operator delegates to its Employees.
  • 2nd level delegation:
    • Customs Representative delegates to an employee some rights provided by a first level delegation.

The representation (delegation) can be direct or indirect:

  • Direct Representation: The EO is responsible for the actions performed by the Customs Representative (delegated entity) on the name of the EO;
  • Indirect Representation: The Customs Representative (delegated entity) is responsible for the actions performed by him on the name of the EO.
  • Delegation to employees is always a “mandate”. The EO or the CR remain responsible for the actions of their employees.

Delegation to a customs representative in the EU Trader Portal for eAEO

Legal basis

Article (5)(2)(6) and Article 18 of the UCC
Article 35 of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1026 of 21 June 2019 on "Technical arrangements for developing, maintaining and employing electronic systems for the exchange of information and for the storage of such information under the UCC”’

Task of customs representatives on accessing the eAEO

The customs representation in the context of eAEO is only related to the exchange of information with the competent customs authority on behalf of a specific EO and pertaining his/her application and/or authorisation. It is recommended that the EO who wants to delegate the actions to be performed via eAEO on his/her behalf and in relation to his/her authorisation provides a mandate to a customs representative acting in the form of “direct representation”.

Border crossing delegation

Border crossing delegation is not supported by UUMDS. That means that is not possible for an Economic Operator in country “A” to delegate to a customs representative in country “B”. In other words, the customs representative must be appointed in the MS where the application is submitted. The application is submitted where the Economic Operator has his fixed place of business.