EU helps Albanian customs

TIRANA, Nov. 9 – The European Union’s Customs and Fiscal Assistance Mission to Albania (EU CAFAO-Albania) organized its Steering Committee meeting last week in the offices of the Delegation of the European Commission in Tirana where European Commission officials and their Albanian counterparts took part.
The meeting focused on the progress achieved by EU CAFAO-Albanian during the past six months, with an overview of its main fields of assistance: Customs Laboratory, Data Analysis and Data Mining, Customs Procedures, Tax Computerization, Tax Enforcement, Internal Audit Customs and Tax, Human Resource Management, Legal Assistance, Organized Crime Initiative, Excise, VAT, EU Fiscal Blueprints and the EU Code of Conduct on Business Taxation. The European Commission established the Customs Assistance Mission to Albania (CAM-A) in June 1997, as part of its commitment to supporting Albania during its Stabilization and Association process.
In March 2006, the Mission was expanded to include the tax administration and is, therefore, called the EU’s Customs and Fiscal Assistance Mission to Albania (EU CAFAO-Albania).
The Mission is managed by Eurocustoms, a consortium of EU member states customs services, through which customs and tax assistance is provided to all of the countries of the Western Balkans.
Although the Mission comes to an end in December this year, the European Union will continued its assistance in both of these fields with a Customs Assistance office opening at the beginning of next year, for Tax period 2008/9.