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Taxation and Customs Union

Review of customs legislation on controls of cash entering or leaving the EU

Title
Public consultation on a review of Regulation (EC) N° 1889/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 “on controls of cash entering or leaving the Community”
Policy fields

The proposal would impact several policy areas, notably Customs, Taxation, Trade, Home Affairs, Justice, Internal Market.

Target groups

Public authorities, organisations (including SMEs) and citizens (both inside and outside the European Union).

Period of consultation
From 27.02.2015 to 01.06.2015
Objective of the consultation

The objective of this consultation is to gain stakeholder and public input regarding a review of Regulation 1889/2005 “on controls of cash entering or leaving the Community”.

Regulation 1889/2005 on the controls of cash entering and leaving the Community came into force in 2007. It establishes a framework in line with the present FATF recommendation 32 on cash couriers. It imposes, inter alia, an obligation for physical persons entering or leaving the European Union who carry cash or cash-equivalents of 10 000 Euro or more to file a declaration with customs or other competent authorities. It enables competent authorities to temporarily hold the cash in case of non-declaration or incorrect declaration pending further investigation and possible confiscation/forfeiture after judiciary intervention. It provides for the possibility of sharing information with competent authorities in other Member States, with the Commission or with third countries under certain circumstances. Finally, the Regulation imposes Member States to provide for penalties in case of non-declaration, even if after investigation there are no indications of illicit activity. Regulation 1889/2005 does not apply to natural persons carrying cash or cash equivalents between two Member States.

Pursuant to Article 10 of Regulation 1889/2005, the Commission submitted a report to the Council and the European Parliament on the application of the Regulation in 2010. The report concluded that generally, the Regulation is meeting its objective and adequately transposes FATF recommendation 32 in EU law. However, possible improvements in several areas were mentioned.
Discussions with Member State experts in cash controls on the implementation of the Regulation as well as international developments lead the Commission to believe that there may be a scope for improvement in the regulatory framework and/or the implementation procedures.

In order to judge the desirability of potential actions and policy options and to obtain new insights, the Commission Services would like to receive the views of stakeholders on the possible action to be taken to address the identified gaps.

How to submit your contribution

The consultation document is an online survey.

In the interests of transparency, organisations (including, for example, NGOs, trade associations and commercial enterprises) are invited to provide the public with relevant information about themselves by registering in the Transparency Register and subscribing to its Code of Conduct. Please refer to the relevant section in the consultation questionnaire for additional information.

Received contributions will be published on the Internet. It is important to read the specific privacy statement attached to this consultation for information on how your personal data and contribution will be dealt with.

View the consultation document
The full consultation questionnaire is also available as a pdf file . However, please be aware that the actual consultation uses the EU Survey template and is dynamic; the options and fields displayed will vary in function of the answers provided to earlier questions and be a subset of what is shown in the pdf.
Reference documents and other, related consultations

Regulation (EC) N° 1889/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on controls of cash entering or leaving the Community.

Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council On the application of Regulation (EC) N° 1889/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on controls of cash entering or leaving the Community pursuant to article 10 of this Regulation.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations, more specifically Recommendation 32 and its interpretative note.

Contact details
responsible service

European Commission
Directorate General for Taxation and Customs Union

Unit TAXUD-B1

e-mail TAXUD-B1-CASHCONSULTatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (TAXUD-B1-CASHCONSULT[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)TAXUD-B1-IPRCUSTOMSatec [dot] europa [dot] eu
postal address

Rue de Luxembourg 40, Office 2/48, B-1049, Belgium

View the contributions

View the contributions

The public consultation closed on June 1st, 2015 and is no longer accessible. A summary report on the outcome of the consultation can be accessed here (English language only).

The Directorate-general Taxation and Customs Union would like to thank all participants.

The individual responses can be accessed either below in .pdf-form or via the EUSurvey results publication page.

As a single participant has refused publication of his/her contribution, the statistics generated by the EUSurvey application deviate slightly from those shown in the summary report. The summary report takes into account all validly submitted contributions.

The published individual contributions have been edited in order to respect the wishes of the contributors. This editing consisted of the following:

In all cases: removal of personal contact details (e-mail, telephone number) -Where the contributor indicated that they did not wish to be identified: removal of their name and - in the case of public authorities- removal of the name of the country from which the contribution was submitted.

Results of consultation and next steps
Summary report
Protection of personal data Specific privacy statement

"How to submit your contribution" in respect of organisations

In the interests of transparency, organisations (including, for example, NGOs, trade associations and commercial enterprises) are invited to provide the public with relevant information about themselves by registering in the Transparency Register and subscribing to its Code of Conduct

If you are a Registered organisation, please indicate the name and address of your organisation and your Register ID number on the first page of your contribution. Your contribution will then be considered as representing the views of your organisation.

TAXUD-B1-CASHCONSULTatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (Submit your contribution)

If your organisation is not registered, you have the opportunity to Register now.

Then return to this page to submit your contribution as a Registered organisation.

Responses from organisations not registered will be published separately. Non-registered organisations, please TAXUD-B1-CASHCONSULTatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (submit your contributions here)

The Commission asks organisations who wish to submit comments in the context of public consultations to provide the Commission and the public at large with information about whom and what they represent. If an organisation decides not to provide this information, it is the Commission's stated policy to list the contribution as part of the individual contributions. (Consultation Standards, see COM (2002) 704, and Communication on ETI Follow-up, see COM (2007) 127 of 21/03/2007)