2023-06-22 19:20:00
DISPATCH — In first reading, the deputies adopted a bill on Wednesday evening aimed at reforming the powers of customs. It had become a priority for the government, since the Constitutional Council had judged too laconic article 60 of the Customs Code, at the end of last year.
Since 1948, customs law has been governed in particular by the following article:
“For the application of the provisions of this code and with a view to the search for fraud, customs officers may carry out inspections of goods and means of transport and of persons.” Article 60 of the Customs Code.
Between security and freedom
On June 24, 2022, the Court of Cassation seized the Constitutional Council on this subject, considering that this too vague writing resulted in “a lack of knowledge of individual freedom, the freedom to come and go, the right to respect for the privacy and rights of defence.
In a opinion of September 22, 2022the “Sages” of the Council went in the direction of the Court of Cassation, considering that the right of customs officers was not sufficiently regulated: “By not specifying sufficiently the framework applicable to the conduct of these operations, taking into account by example of the places where they are carried out or the existence of plausible reasons to suspect the commission of an offence, the legislator has not ensured a balanced reconciliation between, on the one hand, the search for the perpetrators of offenses and, on the other hand, the freedom to come and go and the right to respect for private life.”
Very quickly, this opinion caused a stir. Many feared that customs officers could no longer practice their profession, they who represent the main bulwark against the trafficking of narcotics and tobacco, among others.
As a result, the government was forced to review and improve the text before September 1, 2023, so that customs officers could properly exercise their profession. It’s going well.
More agility for customs officers
Voted by the deputies after the senators, the government bill aims for final adoption around July 5. Gabriel Attal, Minister of Public Accounts, is moved: “I am delighted to see that the national representation was able to come together in the service of those who get up every morning to protect the French, protect the borders”.
The left abstained from voting. She would have preferred that the government choose to deploy more personnel. LR deputies voted in favor, welcoming measures giving “more agility” to customs. As for the RN, it is also a favorable vote, despite a “judicialization of the action of the customs” which they deplore.
As AFP reports, the text enshrines the full right to search goods and people in the border zone, and in the “customs radius” (an area of 40 km inside the territory). Customs officers will retain the same powers in ports, airports and stations with international services, and in the “surroundings of these places”.
Elsewhere, the excavation will have to be “motivated”. Customs will have to inform the public prosecutor beforehand, who may object, or have “plausible reasons” to suspect an offense or an “attempt” to commit an offense.
The text also provides for the creation of an “operational reserve”, a corps made up of retired customs officers and volunteers intended to support customs officers.
Too much agility?
The bill also extends the powers of customs officers in the use of surveillance images and sounds picked up by microphones, as well as in the use of data generated by automatic license plate readers. There, once is not custom, the oppositions underlined possible violations of the private life…
In addition, to fight against tobacco trafficking and to monitor “irregular crossing” at borders, the government provides for the possibility of using drones. Same remarks.
More broadly, the text strengthens the link between customs officers and border police forces. On this point, the left denounces a means of interfering in migration by going beyond the traditional missions of controlling customs goods.
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