The ten-year anniversary of the Union Customs Code: success stories and lessons for the future

Editorial note: The Union Customs Code celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, and its "successor" is expected to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in the autumn, though full implementation will take years. This is a particularly good moment to reflect on what the past decade has genuinely delivered and what it has not. The frustrations experienced by practitioners today - delayed IT systems and the challenges of their operation, as well as simplifications enshrined in law but never made practically accessible - have roots that extend not only to the early years of the Union Customs Code, but further back, to the Modernised Customs Code, which was its predecessor and which never entered into force. Self-assessment is the most striking example: throughout the entire ten years, it was never applied in practice. The challenges of the past are a good point of reference for those seeking insight into what the reform of the coming decade is likely to deliver - and what it risks repeating