Customs 2002: action programme 1996-2002 in the Community

The Commission's modified proposal accepts 12 out of the 19 amendments adopted by the Parliament at its second reading. In particular, it deals with the amendments which aim at : - the increase in the amount of money in the Customs 2000 budget (142.3 million EUR instead of 136 million EUR); - budgetary transparency but also transparency of all the EU customs policy, as well as the transparency of the comitology decisions; - the implementation of a programme involving a partnership between the Commission and the Member States; - the suppression of the reference to 1998 in the programme text; - the computerisation of transit procedure from 30/06/2003; - the fight against fraud at all levels of implementation of the programme; - the definition of performance criteria by the Commission in order to contribute to the monitoring of the Member Statesin regard to the management and collection of custom duties; - the drafting of reports on the progress made in the framework of the programme, as well as on the strengths and weaknesses of the computerized customs system set in place. On the other hand, the Commission has not accepted the idea of creating a single Committee to replace the current Committee on customs policy or any of the amendments adopted on comitology aspects (participation of representatives from the candidate countries, excessive transparency of meetings,...).�