Málaga has positioned itself as one of the nine candidate cities to host the future Customs Authority of the European Union (EUCA), the new community body responsible for coordinating customs action and providing support to national customs authorities across the Union. Alongside the capital of Málaga, the cities of Liège (Belgium), Zagreb (Croatia), Lille (France), Rome (Italy), The Hague (Netherlands), Warsaw (Poland), Porto (Portugal), and Bucharest (Romania) aspire to become the headquarters of the EUCA.
The Council formally approved this Tuesday the procedure agreed with the European Parliament to determine which city will host the new agency. The final decision on the headquarters is expected on March 25, when an informal inter-institutional political meeting will be held between both co-legislators.
According to the established mechanism, both the Council and the Parliament will independently select two preferred candidate cities from the nine applicants, based on a prior assessment prepared by the European Commission. Once both selections are made, the two institutions will meet to communicate their respective shortlists. If the same city appears on both lists, it will automatically be designated as the headquarters of the EUCA without the need for additional voting.
In the event that there is no agreement between the candidatures selected by the Council and the Parliament, the co-legislators will proceed to hold successive rounds of voting until they reach an agreement on a single city. All this process — the election of preferred candidatures, the presentation of options, and, if applicable, any necessary voting — will take place on March 25.
The creation of the EUCA is part of the reform of the general customs framework of the European Union. This reform responds to the need to address the growing pressure caused by the increase in international trade flows, the fragmentation of national customs systems, the rapid growth of e-commerce, and the transformations arising from the current geopolitical context. Negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament on this entire reform are ongoing.
Málaga's candidacy places the Andalusian city in the competition to attract a newly created European institution with cross-cutting competencies in customs coordination, at a time when the European Union seeks to provide greater coherence and effectiveness to its commercial control mechanisms at the external borders of the community bloc.