Answer given by Mr Šemeta on behalf of the Commission

28.10.2013

The Commission acted promptly: Commissioner Šemeta engaged in an exchange of letters with the Head of Russia’s Federal Customs Service (FCS), Andrey Belyaninov, and called for a postponement of the measures with a view to their eventual withdrawal. A teleconference with Russian Customs and a fact-finding mission to Moscow followed. In addition, the Commission was active in handling the issue at the multilateral level, which included a letter to the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, an extraordinary session of the TIR Executive Board, as well as consultations with the International Road Transport Union and its non-EU members sharing land borders with Russia. These activities were coordinated with Member States, notably in the Customs Code Committee. Subsequent to this, the FCS decided to limit the implementation of the measures as of 14 September to the Siberian and Far East customs districts, extended on 9 October to the Volga and Ural districts, de facto postponing their application at the border with the EU, and thus with regard to most transport operations performed by EU hauliers, to 1 December 2013.

The FCS has revoked the contract of the national guaranteeing association as of 1 December. From that date TIR guarantees will no longer be applicable in Russia but, formally, the country might not be in breach of the TIR Convention. The Commission will nevertheless continue to raise this issue in the appropriate multilateral (i.e. the TIR bodies within the UNECE framework) and bilateral fora with a view to ensuring that TIR guarantees remain available in Russia after that date. Depending on the development of the situation the Commission will take appropriate initiatives including at the political level.

OJ C 197, 26/06/2014