The Union Customs Code grants authorised economicoperators more powers than the provisions existingpreviously. Some of the competencies laid down in thenew regulations were already regulated by the CommunityCustoms Code, but the new legislation reserves theirexecution only to AEOs. The Union Customs Code has alsointroduced certain new measures that may only be used byauthorised economic operators.

Customs procedures have been significantly reorganised.The modification covered, among others, the terminology,as well as the fields of application, the conditions andthe formalities governing the implementation of variouscustoms procedures, which does not mean, however, thatthere is no continuation between the procedures under theprevious regulations and the current regulations.

The new EU customs regulations coming into effectinvolve numerous changes with respect to the provisionsof customs law. First of all, the modification in the field ofcustom value aim to harmonise the existing regulationsand facilitate the work of economic operators withoutchanges in matters of principle.

The comprehensive changes of EU customs law that came into effect on 1 May 2016 also affected binding tariff information (BTI), an institution of great importance to the entities covered by these regulations. The legislation changes in this regard included several key aspects such as the scope and duration of BTI as well as the competences of the European Commission with respect to controlling the uniformity of tariff classification.

On 1 May 2016 the new Union Customs Code entered into force throughout the European Union. The changes resulting from this amendment are linked to the need to harmonise Member State legislation. In order to fulfil this obligation, on 26 April 2016 the Council of Ministers adopted a bill amending the Act on Customs Law and some other laws submitted by the Minister of Finance .