Commission Report 2002 (Romania)

Chapter 25: Customs union

Romania has continued efforts to implement the customs ethics policy and at the beginning of 2002, the Code of Conduct and Discipline for Customs Staff was issued. An Inter-ministerial Group for Integrated Border Management has been set up to ensure communication and efficient co-operation between bodies with border control responsibilities. Objectives of the Group include reducing waiting times at the border. The Customs Administration co-operates on a permanent basis with bodies in charge of protecting intellectual and industrial property rights in order to fight cross-border movement of pirated and counterfeit goods. As set out in the Action Plan, a large number of co-operation protocols have been signed with various agencies, in order to reinforce administrative and operational capacity in the field of customs enforcement. Centralised training has been developed and, as stipulated in the Action Plan, a large-scale training programme is being implemented at both central and regional levels and covering both initial and in-service training. As regards computerisation, the Romanian customs administration has a clear IT strategy on how to achieve interoperability which it is in the process of implementing, and in accordance with commitments given in the Action Plan, Romania is making a sustained effort to develop IT systems to permit the exchange of computerised data between the EC and Romania. Overall the Accession Partnership priorities in this area have been met to a large extent. Implementation of the measures under the Action Plan is on track.