Regional Blueprints Exercise on Customs and Taxation Location – Western Balkans, Turkey and Iceland – Technical Assistance 2010-2011

The general scope of project (1.2 meuro) is to support the management of Customs and Taxation Administrations in the Western Balkans, Turkey and Iceland in their efforts to design and implement a comprehensive approach to the modernisation and development of their services along accepted international lines to include efforts to strengthen both the organisational structure and operational effectiveness according to the Customs and Fiscal Blueprints and acquis

The specific objective of Blueprint exercise is to perform a synchronised assessment of the Customs and Tax Administrations based on the Customs and Fiscal Blueprints in each of the Beneficiary Administrations, as well as at Regional Level in order to:

• offer the European Commission a solid basis for designing further technical assistance to the beneficiaries in Customs and Taxation towards key areas identified in the Blueprints exercise;
• support the management of the Beneficiaries Customs and Taxation Administrations in their efforts to design and implement a comprehensive approach to the modernisation and development of their services, legislation and procedures in line with the EU acquis, standards and guidelines.

More specifically, the selected Team is required:

• To perform a synchronized assessment in each Country based on the Customs and Tax Blueprints, including a gap analysis and a needs’ assessment, as well as the completion of check lists and recommendations;
• To train officers of the Beneficiaries to repeat independently the Blueprint exercise;
• To make top management aware of the usefulness and conclusions of the Blueprint exercise and stimulate them to take actions consistent with the results of the assessment by means of ad hoc training and awareness raising sessions;

In addition, some activities at regional level are also organized (gap and need analysis, trainings, workshops, conference, etc) in order to enhance the achievement of the project overall objective.

As a result, a draft Action plan for EU Assistance and /or multi-lateral action at Regional level has been drafted.

Eutalia took and active role in designing and implementing the project and in providing to the EU DG TAXUD a roadmap and policy indication for technical assistance in the customs and fiscal sector both at national and regional level.