Hidden Signposts: The Normative Framework of the EU E-Customs Initiative

The Union Customs Code and its Delegated and Implementing Acts have established the framework for a digital customs administration. With these measures, one of the first areas of EU administration  has been digitalised. However, in the myriad technical documents accompanying this process, it is easy to lose sight of the normative framework which is supposed to guide the digitalisation process and is necessary to hold those responsible to account.

This paper examines the legal documents surrounding the establishment of the EU e-customs regime for the values and norms which are set to shape the digitalisation effort. It draws out the normative framework that is implicit in the legal acts. The resulting picture presents customs digitalisation as situated between the EU search for uniformity and efficiency, normative orientation towards market participants’ needs and Member State powers over the implementation process. However, these values appear under-conceptualised, which restricts their normative force. Secondly, important administrative values such as equality, transparency and participation are referred to only sporadically if at all within the documents. In addition, the regime appears oblivious to the guiding (instead of only limiting) potential of data management. If this is where e-government at the European level is heading, there is clear room for improvement.