What is CERTEX?
CERTEX is the European Union Customs Single Window Certificates Exchange System (EU-CSW-CERTEX) that is currently being implemented by all Customs authorities in the European Union.
A Single Window is defined by UN/CEFACT (the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business) Recommendation 33 as: "A facility that allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardised information and documents with a single-entry point to fulfil all import, export, and transit-related regulatory requirements".
In other words, a single system which receives all data for a trade transaction to allow a government to fulfil all their regulatory requirements.
Why is CERTEX needed?
Most - if not all - EU Member States currently require all non-fiscal processing at their border to be done by multiple government departments, often requiring multiple entry of the same data and manual processing of physical paper documents.
CERTEX was conceived as a single system for borders across the whole of the EU to automate in real-time the verification of non-customs formalities like health, environmental, and agricultural certificates.
The authorization and certificate information provided to prove these non-customs processes will now be cross-checked more thoroughly for correctness, validity and availability. This means, for instance, that for ozone-depleting substances (ODS) goods you would need to be registered in the ODS Licensing system, or you should have sufficient quotas available.
- Note that validation against CERTEX isn't necessarily restricted to EU Members. In the UK, some movements into and out of Northern Ireland are also affected.
How does CERTEX impact AEB customers?
Although currently national, all EU customs declarations for goods whose control is managed by CERTEX will have to enter data which is validated against the central system before release is permitted. This data is usually entered as Produced Documents, where the code to use usually is defined in the Tariff, and a Reference for the relevant document must be completed, usually in a strict format to stop spurious rejections. Sometimes additional data such as quantity or weight are also used.
- It is important that information such as document codes, authorization numbers and other applicable data (i.e. mass, weights etc.) are checked and entered correctly. Incorrect or incomplete information could lead to a declaration not being released, and the goods being blocked in a point of entry or exit.
Implementation of CERTEX so far
CERTEX is introduced across the EU in two phases:
- First phase between 2025 and 2026: enhancing the government-to-government systems verifications between the member states and CERTEX.
- Second phase continuing until 2031: validations of declarations are gradually introduced per type of formality.
Implementation timings for the second phase vary across member states:
The Netherlands
The Netherlands started with Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) in March 2025 and aims to complete all formalities by the end of 2026.
Germany
In Germany, the Common Health Data Sets (CHED) of the TRACES IT system have been compared with the EU-CSW-CERTEX system since 2023. Germany started with F-0Gas, ODS, and CHED in late 2025.
Republic of Ireland
CHED and COI documents were introduced in 2023, with CBAM added in January 2026.
Northern Ireland
License data on a declaration is being verified by CERTEX since 15 September 2025. For further details see: Moving licensed goods into or out of Northern Ireland.
Belgium
Belgium started with F-0Gas, ODS, and CHED in late 2025. For further information see: AES Belgium: Validation of ODS and FGAS certificates with CERTEX begins on 30 September 2025.
The future
Whilst implementation for each Member State continues, the introduction of the nUCC (new Union Customs Code), and more specifically the concept of eventually moving all Customs declarations from Member States National systems to a central EU Data Hub sees a further move towards the Single Window. It is planned that initially the Data Hub will interface with CERTEX to perform the equivalent validation to current national Customs systems, with perhaps the interface for the two becoming even closer in the future.