Wise Persons Group recommendations: what is the future of EU customs?

Monika Bielskienė
Monika Bielskienė
Attorney at Law, Senior Manager at PwC Lithuania, and Candidate PhD at Vytautas Magnus University, PwC Lietuva, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Published 28 Apr 2022
Wise Persons Group recommendations: what is the future of EU customs?
Picture from the Report by the Wise Persons Group on the Reform of the EU Customs Union – Brussels March 2022
Explainer
Customs law
In order to stimulate 'thinking outside the box' in the EU debate on the future of the Customs Union, the European Commission has established a Wise Persons Group on Challenges Facing the Customs Union (WPG) to reflect on four key topics: e-commerce, risk management, the effective management of non-financial tasks and the future of customs governance structure. The group consists of 12 representatives of business, science and state institutions. The result of their work is presented in the report published on 31 March 2022, reviewing both the current customs situation and the origins of the systemic problems, as well as providing 10 recommendations for a major breakthrough.

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