Starting July 1, 2009, all the economic operators involved in import, export and transit in the European Union are obliged to obtain an Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number. The economic operators are defined as all the legal entities performing businesses regulated by the EU Customs legislation. This means that even though the company is not registered in an EU country, it has to obtain such a number if it wishes to perform import, export or transit operations in the EU territory.
Entrepreneurs who are interested in this registration can receive specialized assistance from our team of lawyers in Romania.
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The EORI number in Romania
The EORI is an unique reference number that has mandatory usage in all the electronic communications involving Customs and other government agencies responsible with international movement goods. This number usage applies in all EU member states.
The legal framework of the EORI in the European Community is contained in the Regulation (EC) no. 312/2009, it is part of the stipulations made by the European Council established in the Community Customs Code and was published in EU’s Official Journal number L98 on April 17, 2009. In Romania, there was issued an A.N.A.F. Vice-president Order number 1554/2009 for approving the technical standards for registering in Custom purposes the economic operators and other entities, published in the Romanian Official Gazette, Part I, no. 429 from June 24, 2009.
The registration requirement is different for branches, compared to a local company in Romania. In this case, it is advisable to discuss the matter with the experts at our law firm in Romania.
In Romania, EORI numbers are obtained from the General Directorate of Customs which registers and assigns these unique numbers. The companies have to address the Regional Direction for excise and customs operations that cover the territorial jurisdiction in which the applicants are established or at custom offices (here only in exceptional cases). The regional offices are located in the following cities: Bucharest, Timisoara, Iasi, Brasov, Galati, Craiova, Oradea and Constanta.
Please feel free to reach out to our team of Romanian lawyers. We can help you register and comply with the ongoing regulations. If you are interested in starting a business in another country, such as the Netherlands, we can put you in touch with our local partners.
Documents needed for the EORI application
In order to obtain the EORI number, the applicant must submit an application request and the documents mentioned in the Order no. 691/2009. Our lawyers in Romania lists these below:
- the certificate of registration issued by the Romanian Trade Register.
- the document showing the registered fiscal residence, as appropriate, in the event that it does not correspond to that specified in the certificate.
- the registration certificate for VAT purposes issued by the Ministry of Finance, if applicable.
- ID copies in case of individuals.
The term for issuing an EORI number by the Regional Directorate for Excise and Customs operations is about 2-3 days. The notification for the applicant is sent via e-mail (at the address indicated by the applicant) or at the headquarters of the Regional Directorate. Any changes in the data contained in the application or the document submitted must be notified at the competent regional directorate by the EORI number holder. Our Romanian lawyers can help with these submissions.
Once you have obtained an EORI number, you will notice that the structure of the EORI number is composed of an country code consisting of two alphabetic characters (ISO alpha 2) followed by a single national identifier State – up to 15 alphanumeric characters. In Romania, the unique structure of the EORI number for resident companies (companies from Romania) was set to be the unique identifier (CUI) – the same number assigned by the Romanian Trade Register upon registering a new Romanian company.
Our team also assists foreign nationals who are interested in property or land purchase in Romania. The regime for buying and owning real estate in case of foreigners is a permissive one, allowing foreign nationals to enjoy the same rights for buying property in Romania, or owning the rights over the land on which the property is based. Our team can give you more details according to the purchase that interests you
For any additional information and assistance regarding the EORI number, feel free to contact our team of lawyers in Romania. Also read about Romanian export and import duty and taxes.