Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1272 of 6 May 2025 laying down rules for the application of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the electronic system for agricultural non-customs formalities (ELAN)
SECTION 1 — INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS
Subject matter
1. The Commission shall establish an Electronic system for Agricultural Non-customs formalities (‘ELAN’) that shall facilitate the electronic exchange and storage of documents used for the fulfilment of non-customs formalities necessary for trade with third countries of products covered by the sectors listed in Article 1(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013.
2. ELAN shall enable the secure, reliable and efficient issuing, transmission, storage and retrieval of the following documents:
(a)
import and export licences produced in accordance with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1237 ( 12 ) and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1239;
(b)
documents produced by third countries required for the management of tariff rate quotas, as provided for in the specific tariff quota fiches in Annexes II to XII to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/761, with the exception of the export certificate required for tariff quota with order number 09.4127, and in Annex II to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1988, with the exception of the certificate of conformity required for tariff quota with order number 09.0076;
(c)
documents issued by third countries, as provided for in Article 31(5) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1988;
(d)
documents issued by third countries, as provided for in Article 9 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2834.
3. ELAN shall ensure the authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality of the exchanged documents, as well as the verification of the origin of the communication.
4. The Commission shall interconnect ELAN with the European Union Customs Single Window Certificates Exchange System (‘EU CSW-CERTEX’) established by Regulation (EU) 2022/2399 by 18 September 2028.
5. This Regulation shall apply to all Member States and to those third countries that issue the documents listed in Article 4 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269.
Definitions
1. For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
(a)
‘relevant Union legislation’ means the Union regulations that govern each and any of the documents covered by ELAN and listed in Article 4 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269;
(b)
‘ELAN documents’ means all documents listed in Article 4 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269;
(c)
‘data model’ means the list of information that the competent authorities or bodies shall provide in ELAN in order to produce or transmit a document, in accordance with the relevant Union legislation applicable to the documents concerned, and with the instructions published in series C of the Official Journal of the European Union ( 13 ) referred to in Article 1(1), point (j) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1239;
(d)
‘national electronic system’ means the IT system used by the authorities and bodies of Member States and third countries competent to manage and produce the documents listed in Article 4 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269;
(e)
‘ELAN (acceptance environment)’ means the electronic system identical to ELAN which serves the sole scope of allowing users to test the functionalities of that system, and to issue or transmit documents with no legal value;
(f)
‘Master reference number’ means the reference number of a customs declaration as defined in Article 1(22) of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 ( 14 ) .
2. For the purposes of this Regulation, the definitions in Article 3 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269 shall apply.
SECTION 2 — TECHNICAL PROVISIONS
Format of documents
1. All ELAN documents shall be identified in ELAN in accordance with the instructions published in series C of the Official Journal of the European Union .
2. Each document produced in ELAN or transmitted to it shall comply with the data model laid down in the relevant Union legislation listed in Article 4 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1269 and completed in accordance with the specific instructions applicable to it.
Issue of documents and validity checks
1. National issuing authorities, and third country issuing authorities shall either produce the relevant electronic documents directly in ELAN or transmit them to ELAN upon having produced them in their respective national electronic systems.
2. Each document made available in ELAN shall bear:
(a)
the qualified or advanced electronic seal based on a qualified certificate of the competent issuing authority; or
(b)
the qualified or advanced electronic signature based on a qualified certificate of an authorised representative of the competent issuing authority, in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 15 ) .
3. ELAN shall automatically verify the validity of documents produced in the system or transmitted to it.
Processing of personal data
ELAN shall process personal data pursuant to Articles 10 and 11 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715.
Transitional period
1. From 15 July 2025 national issuing authorities may start on a voluntary basis to produce documents referred to in Article 1(2), point (a), of this Regulation in ELAN (acceptance environment) or to transmit them to that system for testing purposes. These documents shall have no legal value.
2. From 19 January 2026 national issuing authorities may on a voluntary basis produce documents referred to in Article 1(2), point (a), in ELAN or to transmit them to that system. These documents shall have legal value for performing customs clearance activities.
3. From 18 January 2027 national issuing authorities shall produce the documents referred to in Article 1(2), point (a), of this Regulation in accordance with Annex I.1 to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1239 and with the instructions referred to in Article 3(1) of this Regulation.
4. From 17 January 2028, national issuing authorities and third country issuing authorities shall produce documents referred to in Article 1(2), points (b), (c) and (d), in ELAN or in their national electronic systems. In the latter case, the documents shall be transmitted to ELAN immediately after being produced in the national electronic system.
5. From 6 October 2028, automatic verifications by customs authorities of the documents referred to in Article 2 of this Regulation and, where relevant, the reporting of cleared quantities to ELAN shall take place via EU CSW-CERTEX in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2022/2399.
SECTION 3 — CONTINGENCY PROVISIONS
Information on scheduled maintenance operations
The Commission shall inform ELAN users of any scheduled maintenance operations on the system and their estimated duration two weeks in advance.
Documents produced during maintenance or unplanned unavailability of ELAN
1. Where ELAN or one of its functionalities is unavailable for more than one hour, the national issuing authorities or third country issuing authorities shall produce the documents required to perform customs formalities either on paper or in a national electronic system.
2. In the circumstances described at paragraph 1, documents shall be produced electronically in a national electronic system.
When the customs authorities that need to perform the customs clearance of the goods and report the cleared quantities on the relevant documents do not have access to the national electronic system of the issuing authorities or bodies referred to in the first sub-paragraph, those documents shall be printed on paper and shall be in the declarant's possession and at the disposal of the customs authorities at the time when the customs declaration is lodged.
3. Documents printed on paper in accordance with paragraph 1 and with paragraph 2, second subparagraph, shall be duly signed and stamped by the competent issuing authority.
All documents produced in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 shall bear the text ‘Produced during ELAN unavailability’.
4. In case of documents produced by third countries which are a precondition for issuing licences in accordance with Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/761, the national authorities issuing the corresponding licence shall indicate the number of the third country document in the licence, and validate the third country document by putting on its back page the stamp of the authority, the signature of an authorised official and its date, as well as the number of the licence linked to that document.
The national issuing authority shall retain the original of the documents produced by third countries referred to in the first subparagraph, unless the operator is required to present the document to the customs authorities.
5. In case of documents produced by third countries that must be presented only at customs level, the customs authorities shall validate the document by putting on its back page the stamp of the authority, the signature of an authorised official and the date on which the document has been used.
6. Economic operators shall present the documents printed on paper in accordance with paragraphs 1 to 5 to the customs authorities for the performance of customs controls.
Customs controls on documents produced during the unavailability of ELAN
1. Customs authorities shall control the documents referred to in Article 8 of this Regulation in accordance with the relevant provisions of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 16 ) and the relevant Union legislation referred to in Article 1(2) of this Regulation.
2. Where required by the relevant Union legislation, customs authorities shall indicate in the dedicated section of the document the commodity codes and the quantity of products released for free circulation or exported and, where a customs declaration or ELAN document contains several items, the sequential number of the item in the ELAN document and the number of the item in the customs declaration, together with the Master Reference Number, the customs office, the date and time, the signature of the authorised officer performing the control and the stamp of the authority.
3. The controls referred to in paragraphs 1, including the customs clearance and the reporting of the cleared quantities, shall be performed on the documents available on the national electronic system of issuance when that system allows the customs authorities to access it and to perform the activities mentioned in this paragraph.
4. In the cases referred to in Article 8(2), the customs authorities shall perform the controls required by paragraphs 1, 2, and 3 of this Article on the paper document.
Registration in ELAN of documents produced during the unavailability of ELAN
1. The Commission and the owners of the national systems shall perform an ad hoc bulk exchange of the documents produced during the unavailability of ELAN to register them in ELAN as soon as its availability is restored.
2. All documents produced in accordance with Article 8(1) and (2), as soon as the availability of ELAN is restored, shall be immediately returned to the relevant issuing authorities or bodies, which in turn shall:
(a)
register the documents in ELAN;
(b)
make the returned documents on paper unusable; and
(c)
indicate the document in ELAN as used or, if required by the relevant Union legislation, register the attributions referred to in Article 9(2) indicated in the dedicated section by the customs authorities.
Customs controls during the unavailability of ELAN on documents available in ELAN
1. Where ELAN or one of its functionalities is unavailable for more than one hour and during this unavailability customs authorities need to control documents that were registered in ELAN, the authority that produced the relevant documents shall be asked to provide a duly authenticated extract or copy of those documents.
2. When putting a copy or an extract of the document in possession of the economic operator and at disposal of the customs authorities, national issuing authorities shall take into account the attributions made to that document until the day on which the copy is produced.
3. Copies and extracts produced in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Article shall bear the text ‘Copy for use during ELAN unavailability’ and shall be duly signed and stamped, if presented on paper form, or signed in accordance with Article 3, if made available to customs authorities via a national electronic system.
4. Article 9 applies mutatis mutandis to the customs controls performed on the documents referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article.
5. As soon as the availability of ELAN is restored, the relevant issuing authorities or bodies in Member States shall immediately:
(a)
indicate in ELAN that the documents of which a copy was made cannot be used electronically in that system, if the copy has not been returned;
(b)
introduce in ELAN the details of the extract of the licence or of the copy of the extract, or transmit them from the national electronic system, and indicate that it cannot be used in ELAN until the paper copy is returned, or the version in the national electronic system has been made unusable; and
(c)
register in ELAN the attributions on the licences, the extracts or their copies and, for the other documents, indicate in ELAN that those documents have been used as soon as they have been returned.
Temporary unavailability of EU CSW-CERTEX
Where EU CSW-CERTEX is unavailable for more than one hour, customs shall access the documents available in ELAN via the dedicated user interface to perform the necessary controls, the customs clearance and the reporting of the cleared quantities on those documents.
Operations performed during the unavailability of ELAN on documents available in ELAN
1. Where ELAN or one of its functionalities is unavailable for more than one hour, and the national issuing authorities or, third country issuing authorities must correct a document, make an extract of it, transfer it, or extend its validity, they shall reproduce the document on paper, and perform the operation on that document.
2. Documents produced in accordance with paragraph 1 shall bear the text ‘Copy for use during ELAN unavailability’ and shall be duly signed and stamped by the competent issuing authority.
3. Where the issuing authorities of Member States know that a document will be presented to customs authorities that can access the documents in their national electronic systems, those issuing authorities may perform the operations listed in paragraph 1 in their own national electronic systems. The issuing authorities or bodies shall register in ELAN the operations performed during its unavailability once ELAN becomes available again. The documents in ELAN shall be made unusable until the copies printed on paper during the contingency period are returned to the issuing authorities.
4. Once the documents on which the relevant issuing authorities or bodies have performed operations in accordance with paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 are returned to them, those authorities or bodies shall:
(a)
make the returned documents unusable; and
(b)
indicate the document in ELAN as used or register the quantity attributions indicated in the dedicated section by the customs authorities, if applicable.
SECTION 4 — FINAL PROVISIONS
Entry into force and application
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .
It shall apply as of 15 July 2025.
However, Section 3 shall apply as of 18 January 2027, or as of 19 January 2026 to those Member States in which national issuing authorities decide to use the possibility provided for in Article 6(2).
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
