Article 5 Central coordinating units

Member States shall appoint in their customs authorities a central unit (coordinating unit). It shall be responsible for receiving all applications for mutual assistance under this Convention and for coordinating mutual assistance, without prejudice to paragraph 2. The unit shall also be responsible for cooperation with other authorities involved in an assistance measure under this Convention. The coordinating units of the Member States shall maintain the necessary direct contact with each other, particularly in the cases covered by Title IV.

The activity of the central coordinating units shall not exclude, particularly in an emergency, direct cooperation between other services of the customs authorities of the Member States. For reasons of efficiency and consistency, the central coordinating units shall be informed of any action involving such direct cooperation.

If the customs authority is not, or not completely, competent to process a request, the central coordinating unit shall forward the request to the competent national authority and inform the applicant authority that it has done so.

If it is not possible to accede to the request for legal or substantive reasons, the coordinating unit shall return the request to the applicant authority with an explanation as to why the request could not be processed.