A Second Hub for the EU Customs Reform: Partnership for a Shared Understanding of EU Customs Law

In its customs data, the Union is pursuing one of its most ambitious harmonization projects. Over 100 national systems are being consolidated into the single EU Customs Data Hub, and instruments such as the Digital Product Passport are extending harmonized, traceable data across the whole supply chain. Applying the law that this data serves is at least as large a task: more than 350 customs-enforced regulations must be applied uniformly at every customs office in the Union. So far, this task has mainly rested on guidance papers and explanatory notes – valuable building blocks for the much broader approach now within reach. This article traces how EU customs governance has evolved from hierarchical supervision towards shared responsibility. It argues that the reform now makes it possible to extend the Union’s ambition even further, from data to knowledge – and, for the first time, to give that task an owner, and a community to build it with.