Customs; application for use of an electronic transport document as a transit declaration for air or maritime transport

As an airline or shipping company you can apply for a simplification in the transit procedure. With this simplification it is possible to use an electronic transport document as a transit declaration in the Union transit procedure.

EU-Trader-Portal der Europäischen Kommission
Sie können über das EU-Trader-Portal (EU-TP) ausgewählte Bewilligungen elektronisch beantragen, die in mehreren EU-Mitgliedstaaten gelten.

For contact details of the responsible authoritiy and local valid information select under "Select location" a location.

The Union transit procedure facilitates the movement of goods and customs formalities when transporting goods between 2 member states of the customs territory of the European Union (EU). Goods under the Union transit procedure are only cleared through customs at their final destination, without import duties or customs formalities being due when crossing borders during transport.

As an airline or shipping company, you can request the use of an electronic transport document as a transit declaration to place goods under the Union transit procedure. In order to benefit from this procedural simplification, you must submit an electronic application.

In air transport, you can also transport the goods between the countries of the European Union (EU) and the countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) after the corresponding authorisation has been granted.

The authorisation will be granted only if you meet the following conditions:

You operate a significant number of flights/trips between airports/ports in the Union.
The customs office at the airport/port of departure and the customs office at the airport/port of destination have the relevant information available in electronic form. This information shall be identical.

Required Documents
Please enclose the following documents with the application:
- Parts I to III and V of the Customs Conditions Questionnaire
  - Authorised Economic Operators (AEO) do not need the questionnaire.
The documents are to be sent directly to the competent main customs office with reference to the application number generated by the EU Trader Portal.

If you wish to apply for an ETD authorisation, you must submit the application electronically via the EU Trader Portal. This is an IT application accessible via the European Commission's website for the electronic submission of applications for customs authorisations.

To access the EU Trader Portal you need to

a user account. If you do not have a user account yet,
- complete the application to set up an EU user account (form 05700),
- send the form by e-mail to the Master Data Management Team of the Directorate General of Customs - Dresden office. (stammdatenmanagement@zoll.bund.de)
an EORI number (Economic Operators Registration and Identification number).
- If you do not yet have an EORI number, you must apply for one in your user account in the Citizens and Business Customer Portal of the Customs Administration. You can access the "EORI No. Administration" via the user account and apply for a new EORI number.
Log in to the EU Trader Portal with your access data.
Fill in the application for the authorisation type ETD and send it.
If necessary, send Parts I to III and V of the Customs Authorisation Questionnaire directly to the relevant main customs office with reference to the application number generated by the EU Trader Portal.
If the main customs office has successfully checked whether all requirements for an authorization are met, an authorization is issued electronically in the EU-Trader Portal.
If the requirements are not met, you will receive a notice of rejection of the application by post.