Lille to host EU customs authority charged with fixing e-commerce parcel problems

By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS, March 25 (Reuters) - The European Union selected French city Lille on Wednesday as the location of the new EU Customs Authority (EUCA), which will coordinate duty collection and safety checks on goods coming into the 27-nation bloc.

The authority is part of an overhaul of EU customs to coordinate controls on the billions of small packages that arrive in the bloc each year and ensure that the goods comply with EU safety standards.

Nine EU cities had bid to host the authority, which will have about 250 staff, with Lille beating Rome in the final round.

The EU has struggled to manage the high volume of low-value e-commerce parcels entering the bloc, with the total reaching 5.8 billion in 2025. It plans to impose a 3 euro fee from July as a temporary measure before scrapping a duty exemption.

The EU does not apply customs duty on parcels valued at less than 150 euros ($173.85), which has fuelled rapid growth of online shopping platforms such as Shein, Temu PDD.O and AliExpress 9988.HK, which send consumers packages direct from China.

The bloc also wants tighter controls on product safety. In a study published this month, the European Commission found that 60-65% of imported cosmetics, including make-up, food supplements and personal protective equipment such as bicycle helmets did not comply with EU safety rules.

The reform is designed to create more harmonised handling of incoming goods and replace customs IT infrastructure in EU members with a new EU data hub, saving them up to 2 billion euros a year in operating costs.

The data hub is slated to open for e-commerce consignments in 2028, followed by other importers on a voluntary basis in 2032 before becoming mandatory in 2038.

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