Introduction

Abstract

A study of European Union (EU) customs law is, in large measure, a study of achievement. The EU’s customs union has been described as ‘one of the most successful examples of European integration and European policy. It has served as a stable foundation for economic integration and growth in Europe for over four decades.’ The success of the Community in establishing a customs union ahead of schedule, on 1 July 1968 and deepening the union subsequently, may now be overshadowed by the more far-reaching achievements and controversies surrounding the European Monetary Union (EMU) and the area of freedom, security, and justice. The fact, though, that the European project has advanced a long way in more recent times, notwithstanding the enormous difficulties following the financial crisis which emerged in 2007, should not be allowed to disguise the truths that the European Economic Community was, as the Treaty of Rome, Article 9 said, ‘based upon a customs union’ and that without a successful economic community there would have been no European Community or European Union.