The New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) is a trans-European digital customs system designed to streamline management and control of goods moving under Union and Common Transit procedures. The system covers all EU countries and contracting parties to the Common Transit Convention (CTC).
In some countries, NCTS transit declarations can be integrated with safety and security data, thereby simplifying entry and exit formalities and reducing administrative burdens.
Latest News
Deployment of NCTS-P6
On 1 April 2026, Belgium and Andorra successfully deployed NCTS-P6.
On 28 March 2026, Slovakia successfully deployed NCTS-P6 under the opt-in approach, enabling ENS particulars to be included in the transit declaration.
eLearning modules for NCTS-P6
Two new eLearning modules for NCTS-P6 have just been released: one module for customs officers and the other for economic operators.
- Course: New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) Phase 6 for Customs Officers, Topic: en
- Course: New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) Phase 6 for Economic Operators, Topic: en
Continuation of transitional rules for an extended period in view of late deployment of NCTS-P6
As of 1 September 2025, Entry Summary Declarations (ENS) may be provided in combination with transit declarations in road and rail transport using NCTS-P6. Some EU countries have asked for temporary derogations from the 1 September deployment date as they need more time to implement NCTS-P6.
More information and guidance about NCTS-P6 and the temporary derogation period can be found under the sections 'Deployment of NCTS-P6' and 'Temporary derogations' below.
Key functions of NCTS
Union Transit – facilitates the movement of goods between two points within the EU customs territory, suspending:
- Customs and excise duties and other charges, and
- Trade policy measures that would apply at the time of import (e.g. anti-dumping duties).
Common Transit – extends these efficiencies to movements:
- Between the EU and CTC Contracting Parties, or
- Exclusively between CTC Contracting Parties.
By digitising and harmonising transit procedures, NCTS enhances supply chain fluidity while ensuring compliance with customs obligations.
How does NCTS work?
NCTS comprises interconnected national applications which exchange messages on a common network. These messages are exchanged electronically on three levels:
- between the economic operators and customs (‘external domain’);
- between customs offices of one country (‘national domain’);
- among the national customs administrations themselves and with the Commission (‘common domain’).
Transit declarations include information on items carried, their sender and recipient, the mode of transportation, the intended route and the customs offices engaged. The holder of the transit procedure must also provide a valid guarantee.
When a transit declaration is accepted, NCTS generates a unique ID called the Master Reference Number (MRN). The MRN enables the product’s movement to be tracked throughout its transportation procedure. Customs officers in each customs office can track the movement of goods via NCTS to ensure that they travel on the authorised path.
Read more about the process
When a movement is initiated, the holder of the transit procedure receives a digital Transit Accompanying Document (TAD) or MRN of the transit declaration to confirm that it has been accepted and can be released for transit. The vehicle containing the goods can then go to the first Customs Office of Transit (if any).
If the consignment is destined for outside of the Safety and Security Area (SSA), it arrives at the Customs Office of Exit to leave the SSA. If its risk analysis results are positive and permission to leave the SSA is granted, the consignment arrives at the Customs Office of Transit where frontier-crossing processing occurs. Subsequently, the consignment leaves either for the next Customs Office of Transit or ends its journey at its destination.
When a consignment arrives at its destination, the goods are presented to the Customs Office of Destination. The trader sends an arrival notification, which is processed by the customs office. Once processing is complete and the destination control results are received, the Customs Office of Departure writes off the movement and releases the guarantee.
In case the Customs Office of Departure does not receive any feedback or control results on the movement from Customs Office of Destination within the expected period, an enquiry procedure is started. Depending on the results of the enquiry and/or potential discrepancies, a recovery procedure may be started and additional taxes and duties may need to be collected. In all cases, sooner or later, the movement is written off.
For further guidance, see: Transit Manual
Deployment of NCTS-P6
As per the UCC Work Programme, NCTS-P6 is aligned with ICS2 requirements. This makes it possible to combine the transit formalities in road and rail transportation with those related to safety and security at entry into the Safety and Security Area (SSA). This is a further simplification for economic operators, who will now only have to lodge a transit declaration combined with security and safety particulars, instead of submitting transit declarations and an Entry Summary Declarations (ENS) using two separate systems.
NCTS-P6 offers two options. It is up to the customs authorities in the countries using NCTS to decide which option they would like to implement:
- Opt-out – ENS particulars are not included in the transit declaration, but ENS is lodged directly to ICS2;
- Opt-in – ENS particulars are included in the transit declaration and NCTS-P6 is connected to ICS2 to ensure that ICS2 requirements regarding ENS business processes (risk analysis, control recommendations, decisions etc.) are fulfilled. Note that only complete ENS declarations can be lodged together with the transit declaration.
See which countries have decided for opt-in or opt-out: NCTS-P6 – State of Play. Note that a country may later decide to move from opt-out to opt-in.
Temporary derogations
As of 1 September 2025, Entry Summary Declarations (ENS) may be provided in combination with transit declarations in road and rail transport using NCTS-P6. Some EU countries have asked for a temporary derogation from this date to have more time to implement the NCTS-P6 opt-in option.
Derogation decisions to provide ENS data either in NCTS-P6 or in ICS2 in relation to road and rail traffic may be granted by the European Commission with retroactive effect from 1 September 2025:
- until 31 December 2025 for goods entering the EU customs territory through countries found in the annex of the guidance document below; until that date, the entry summary declarations (ENS) may be lodged in ICS1 or ICS2.
- until 1 June 2026 for goods entering the EU customs territory through countries found in the annex of the guidance document below; these countries will develop the additional and voluntary interconnection between ICS2 and NCTS. Until that date, entry summary declarations (ENS) may be lodged in ICS1, in ICS2 or, where applicable, in combination with the transit declaration in NCTS-P5.
Note that all information about how the safety and security and transit declaration should be submitted, depending on the derogation requests of the countries, can be found in the guidance document and its annex below.
History of NCTS
In 1997, the Commission adopted an action plan to reform the transit system in Europe. This reform aimed to recreate a balanced, realistic and trustworthy transit system for economic operators and customs authorities.
One major pillar of this action plan was the development of a New Computerised Transit System (NCTS) to better monitor, streamline and speed up transit processes. NCTS was launched in 2004 and became mandatory for Union and Common Transit in 2005.
NCTS has been released over several phases. Phase 4 was released in 2009, and Phase 5 is currently being implemented, with a full deployment date of 2 December 2024.
NCTS coverage
There are several forms of customs transit movements which require processing via NCTS: Union Transit, Common Transit and International Road Transport (ITR). For more information, see: Customs transit.
National Risk Analysis Systems
NCTS connects with national risk analysis systems and ensures that risks analysis is initiated once transit data is received and validated by NCTS. National risk analysis systems carry out the required analysis and send the results together with a control recommendation back to the NCTS.
Within the countries of the SSA, NCTS forwards the risk analysis results, control recommendations and control results to the relevant Customs Offices involved.
Economic Operator Systems (EOS)
When EOS-registered traders are declared in an NCTS message, the unique Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) number must be included. When validating a received NCTS message, NCTS consults EOS through the CRS to check the provided EORI number. If the declared EORI number is invalid or if it is not declared where required, NCTS rejects the transit dataset.
Authorised Economic Operators (AEO) and their AEO certificates are registered and managed in the EOS. When validating a received dataset, NCTS consults the EOS to check whether the appropriate traders are registered as AEOs and whether they have a valid AEO-certificate of the relevant type. The query is performed based on the declared EORI or Third-Country Unique Identification Number (TCUIN).
Customs Decisions System (CDS)
The Customs Decisons System (CDS) enables electronic processing and central storage of the applications and authorisations, as well as the publication of the list of holders on the Internet. This system facilitates the necessary consultations between EU countries’ customs authorities during the decision-taking period and the management of the authorisations process.
When validating a received data set for which authorisations are valid in more than one EU country, NCTS consults the CDS to check the existence and validity of the customs decisions.
Automated Export System (AES)
When export is followed by transit, EU countries’ NCTS need to connect with the Automated Export System (AES). Part of the so-called national domain, this is to synchronise and optimise transit and export procedures and avoid open movements.
For both external and internal transit, NCTS and AES exchange the following information:
- Goods are released for Transit;
- Goods are not released for Transit;
- The Transit declaration is amended;
- The Transit declaration is invalidated.
In case of control: when control results are communicated to the Customs Office of Departure, NCTS will inform AES that there are positive or negative control results. In case of negative control results, NCTS will inform AES about the identified discrepancies of the movement. In exceptional cases of recovery, NCTS will inform AES at the start of the recovery.
TARIC (EU Customs Tariff) System
NCTS-P5 interacts with the centrally deployed TARIC3 (EU Customs Tarriff) system to validate the commodity codes declared in the transit declaration. The aim of TARIC is to compile community tariff, commercial legislation and agricultural legislation, codified in a unique and consistent way.
Import Control System 2 (ICS2)
NCTS is tightly coupled with Import Control System 2 (ICS2) Release 3. The NCTS-ICS2 interface (via the Transit ENS Data Processing Bridge (TED)) will support the interactions required to manage the submission and further lifecycle of ENS particulars contained in a (combined) transit declaration.
Legal texts
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/2879 of 15 December 2023 establishing the Work Programme relating to the development and deployment for the electronic systems provided for in the Union Customs Code.