EU Commission urges ROMANIA to take the necessary measures for the development of a new IT system for monitoring the circulation of excise goods

The Commission decided today to send a reasoned opinion to Romania for failing to fund and develop an IT system – according to the agreed timeline – for monitoring the EU-wide circulation of excise goods (alcohol, tobacco and energy products).

EU rules (mainly Council Directive 2008/118/EC) allow excise goods to circulate under the deferral of the payment of excise duties provided that the electronic documents are duly processed in the Member States of dispatch and of arrival.

The IT system also allows Member States to communicate information on the operators authorised to engage in such movements and to cooperate between each other in order to fight fraud.

Romania is already running an outdated version of the IT system and has not taken the necessary measures to use the new version.

The failure for Romania to act in time could have serious internal market consequences, as excise goods would normally only be allowed to circulate with duty paid to or from Romania.

It could also harm all the other Member States who need to send and receive administrative information from Romania. If Romania does not act within the next four months, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the EU.

Daniel Ferrie