The Heads of the Regional Intelligence Liaison Offices (RILOs) for Eastern and Central Europe (ECE) and Western Europe (WE) took part in the kick-off meeting of the Pan-European Network of Customs Practitioners (PEN-CP) from 24 to 26 October 2018.  The Horizon 2020-financed project is an initiative of the Cross-Border Research Association and has taken on board 13 Customs administrations as well as the Universities of Delft (Netherlands) and Lausanne (Switzerland) to deliver, over the coming 60 months, a broad range of products and insights for the benefit of Customs administrations.  The project covers Customs security technology and Customs security management topics and is supported by ARTTIC, a management service offering a complete range of tools to manage projects such as this one.

Some 45 participants, who also worked in a number of smaller break-out groups, discussed and defined the first stages of the project.  The management team, which includes the Hungarian, Belgian, Irish and British Customs Administrations, will provide the initial results in a month or so.

A number of annual studies, expert reports, technology grants and many more outcomes are expected over the five-year period of the project.  The RILOs ECE and WE will actively support the project in their capacity as members of the advisory board.