New things to note regarding ICS2 safety and security declarations for entry

An entry summary declaration (ENS) must be submitted for goods arriving in Finland from outside the EU. For sea and air transports, the ENS is submitted to the ICS2 system for safety and security data. Regarding sea transport, some message declarants may still have a transition period that ends on 1 April 2025. In early 2025, the EU will increasee the quality control of declarations, and ICS2 will also be deployed for rail and road transports.

The declaration details must be sufficiently accurate

The EU will tighten the requirements for the quality of goods descriptions and trader details. Declarations may be rejected if the goods description or the trader’s name or address is too inaccurate. In future, e.g. “Consumer goods”, “as per attached invoice”, “accessories” tai “household goods” can no longer be used as the goods description.

The Commission has published a list of unacceptable phrases: ”List of stop words_for Trade”. The list has been published in the publicly available Circabc Group EU Advance Cargo Information System (ICS2). The tightened requirements will enter into force in March–April 2025.

From 1 April 2025, safety and security declarations for road and rail transports will be submitted to the EU’s e-service

Road and rail carriers must submit the new ENSs via message exchange or to the EU’s ICS2 system (STI-STP). The new declarations must be deployed on 1 April 2025, unless the carrier has requested and been granted a transition period for starting message exchange. From 1 April 2025, other declarants can no longer submit ENSs to Finnish Customs’ Arrival and exit declaration service (AREX). 

At the end of March, Customs will hold an event to demonstrate how declarations for rail and road transports are submitted in the EU’s e-service.

You can provide the same transport document number only once

The identification number of a transport document must be unique, so the same number can’t be repeated in another declaration. For example, there are often attempts to use the character “1” as the transport document number for transports of bulk goods by sea. This is not possible. Instead, other unique details, such as a date or the declarant’s EORI number must always be added to the transport document number.

Have a look at the Commission’s ICS2 presentation material

On the Commission’s website, you can find news and guidance. For example, on the page Import Control System 2 (ICS2), under “eLearning courses”, there are presentations of the ENSs for different modes of transport. 

More information: ucc@tulli.fi