On 14 February the draft of the new Customs Code of the Republic of Moldova, developed with EUBAM’s support, was submitted for the public consultation. This is a necessary step before its adoption by the Moldovan parliament. The new Code complies with the provisions of the Union Customs Code and is an important step in fulfilling of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement and DFCTA commitments. It is expected to be enforced starting from the beginning of 2019 with some of the provisions becoming functional from January 2020.

Slawomir Pichor, Head of European Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine said: “EUBAM felt honoured when at the end of 2016, the Ministry of Finance, as part of its ongoing efforts to align legislation with the EU-Moldova DCFTA, invited us to support Customs Service in drafting the new Customs Code. It has been a challenging work in which the Mission invested both human and time resources, and it was a successful one. The document was examined and endorsed by TAIEX and the Ministry of Finance respectively. Today we are happy to see the public consultations started and Moldova will have soon a new Customs Code in line with the provisions of EU customs legislation”.

The Code was developed with the substantial support of an EUBAM expert Galja Pavlova, Bulgaria, who highlighted: “People assume the EU’s Customs Code can just be copeid and pasted, but alignment does not necessarily mean assimilation. There were some fundamental differences in definitions and procedures we had to overcome. But I’m proud to say that the new draft Customs Code is fully compatible with EU customs standards.”

Since signing the EU Association agreements EUBAM has supported both Moldova and Ukraine in the practical application of the trade and customs provisions that are the parts of DFCTA Commitments of both countries. This included advising on legal alignment, recommending procedural changes and advising on the issuance of export certificates.