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The UUM&DS Project – How eIDAS Improves the EU’s Customs Interface

Cryptomathic : 29. June 2021

Digital Signatures eIDAS CEF Building Blocks
The UUM&DS Project – How eIDAS Improves the EU’s Customs Interface

With each passing year, the volume of international trade in goods and services keeps rising. With all of this trade, however, comes an associated cost. This not only involves some unavoidable components like shipping but also costs incurred due to inefficiency in other systems, like customs clearances and trust between the trading parties.

Each year, billions of dollars are paid as fees to banks for facilitating international trade deals via products like Letters of Credit or other structured solutions. Delays in custom clearances can cause a significant loss in the form of demurrages, missed deadlines, production delays, and more.

The scope of the Uniform User Management and Digital Signatures Project (UUM&DS) is to provide Identity and Access management services that traders can use for customs. It is a trans-European system which allows traders and Economic Operators (EOs) to access the unified European Information System for customs. The system would enable a single and simplified user interface and allow EOs to seamlessly access the customs portal.

Why Do We Need a UUM&DS System?

New Call-to-actionEach Member State of the European Union has a complex and varied customs system in place. This makes it difficult for businesses within and outside the EU to access the European markets easily.

For the digital Single Market to become a reality, the need for such a harmonizing customs system was felt. UMM&DS has therefore been one of the longer-running projects in the eID domain under the Connecting Europe Facility.

The real challenge to implement a unified system stems from the fact that each Member State has different requirements to enable a successful customs transaction. UMM&DS must take all of these into consideration and provide a solution that would be acceptable to all Member States and comply with all the legal requirements.

Additionally, it should be user-friendly, secure, and provide the necessary functionality that users demand.

Where does eIDAS come in?

The tools provided by eIDAS are fundamental to making the UUM&DS possible. 

UMM&DS predates eIDAS, but with the adoption of the eIDAS regulation, it has evolved to make full use of the new possibilities. eIDAS provides:

  • Secure and authorized access
  • Access for delegated users
  • Established trust schemes
  • A secure way to exchange identity information.

All these features are necessary to ensure that businesses can confidently use the UMM&DS interface for their customs interactions.

Conclusion

A single market cannot exist efficiently without a single customs interface. Many European Countries have complex customs systems which complicate matters and create artificial barriers for businesses.

UMM&DS goes a long way in alleviating some of these problems and provides a unified interface for businesses. eIDAS is an integral part of this solution as it provides the basic identification, authentication, access management, and trust services to businesses accessing the customs interface.

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References and Further Reading

  • Selected articles on Electronic Signing and Digital Signatures (2014-today), by Ashiq JA, Gaurav Sharma, Guillaume Forget, Jan Kjaersgaard , Peter Landrock, Torben Pedersen, Dawn M. Turner, and more

Image: Pulse of Europe, courtesy of Jon Worth, Flickr (CC BY 2.0)