The northern French city of Lille will host the future European Union customs authority, officials said on Wednesday, as the bloc seeks to stem the flow of cheap Chinese parcel imports.
The new body is part of the EU’s overhaul of its customs rules and Brussels has said the authority will centralise European efforts to tackle fierce pressure from a myriad of issues including the proliferation of e-commerce.
Lille mayor Arnaud Deslandes welcomed the news, calling it a “victory” reflecting the city’s location “at the crossroads of Europe.”
Nine cities had been in the running: Bucharest, Liege, Lille, Malaga, Porto, Rome, The Hague, Warsaw, and Zagreb.
Representatives of the European Parliament and member states picked the chosen city after several rounds of voting.
The authority is expected to start work in 2028.
A large focus of the EU’s customs reforms has been the proliferation of small parcels ordered via Chinese platforms, which European governments and businesses say has led to unfair competition as well as health and safety risks for consumers.
EU ministers in December agreed to impose a €3 duty on low-value imports into the bloc from July 2026, a month after the bloc opted to scrap a duty exemption for parcels worth less than €150 imported directly to consumers.
France has already imposed its own duty on low-value non-EU imports – €2 per parcel – ahead of the EU’s legislation.
The EU said 4.6 billion small retail packages entered the bloc in 2024 – more than 145 per second – with 91 percent originating in China.
Brussels expects that figure to keep rising.
