On the occasion of its foundation in 1999 the bulgarian National Organization of Customs Brokers (NOCA) celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary on the 8th of November 2024 in Sofia. To this end, it organized a international practice conference which dealt with the topic “Customs of the future”. Therefore speakers from different organizations such as the bulgarian Customs Agency or the Lithuanian Customs Practitioners Association (LCPA) gave presentations regarding the topic of the conference. The event was attended not only by members of NOCA, but also by representatives of the Customs Agency, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and others.

After the welcoming address by the chairman of the Board of Directors of NOCA Prof. Dr. Momchil Antov, the first panel of the conference was opened with a presentation by Prof. Dr. Hans-Michael Wolffgang. He introduced the participants to the planned reform of the union customs code (MUCC – modernised union customs code) and explained the changes of the proposed reform package and its effects on the role of customs agents.

Based on the statement by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that “it is time to take the customs union to the next level”, Prof. Wolffgang pointed out the holistic view of the customs union which, in addition to the internal market itself, also includes, for example, the protection of financial, social and environmental interests of the Union and its member states.

Following on from this he presented and elaborated on selected topics of the reform such as the planned EU Customs Data Hub and EU Customs Authority. In this context he also shed light on the future cooperation between customs authorities and business which is to find expression in the new intended status of a “Trust and Check Trader” (TCT). This qualification is intended to replace the old AEO status in the long term.

In the last part of his presentation Prof. Wolffgang pointed out changed definitions in the MUCC such as “Customs Law”, “Importer”, “Exporter”, “Customs Representative” and others. As part of this he raised the problem that although the indirect “Customs Representative” can calculate and therefore handle the fiscal liability of the import, he can not calculate the liability for compliance with non-fiscal legislation. To solve this problem, Prof. Wolffgang referred to a suggestion made by Michael Lux at  a Presentation in the Council Customs Union Working Party in Brussels on September 19th: To eliminate the financial risk, the Customs Representative should have the option of naming a special representative for non-fiscal obligations. He concluded his lecture  with a overview of the intended timetable for the reform that stretches from 2023 to 2038.

The subsequent presentations were given by Iliana Tsolovska, director of the “Follow-up Control” Directorate at the BG Customs Agency, Enrika Naujoke, director of the Lithuanian Customs Practitioners Association (LCPA) and founder of CustomsClear, Kolyo Kolev, director of the “ISAD” Directorate of the BG Customs Agency and Georgi Ganev, executive director of IBM Bulgaria. The conference concluded with a gala dinner.