How EU laws are made: a guide for customs and trade professionals

How are EU laws actually made, and why are they so often unclear or complicated? Michael Lux, former Head of Unit "Customs Legislation" and "Customs Procedures" at the European Commission, walks customs and trade compliance professionals through the full legislative process behind Union customs law and the practical reasons quality suffers along the way.

Topics covered:

• The standard EU legislative procedure applicable to customs legislation (Union Customs Code, tariff classification regulations, CBAM, EUDR)
• The Inter-Institutional Agreement on Better Law-Making and its gaps (no mandatory stakeholder consultation for delegated acts)
• The Commission's Better Regulation Guidelines, minimum consultation standards, and the "Have Your Say" portal
• Real-world examples of why legislation gets more complicated, not simpler (member-state exceptions, customs warehouse types, free zones)
• Misalignment between customs law and legislation drafted by other Commission departments (CBAM, REACH)
• Lack of coordination between Commission directorates (the customs vs maritime single window example)
• The ordinary legislative procedure for basic acts, using the Union Customs Code reform as a live example
• Delegated acts and how empowerments can be used to alter substantive rules
• The comitology procedure for implementing acts under Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 and the Customs Code Committee
• Weaknesses in stakeholder influence once a proposal reaches Parliament and Council, including IT-dependent proposals such as the EU Customs Data Hub

For a broader overview of the topic, please watch the full recording. The slides are available in the Resources section.

Please note that this summary was generated using AI, based on the recording and available slides.