Entry Summary Declaration

The Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) must be submitted for all goods that are on board off the vessel and that are brought into the EU. It therefore does not matter whether the goods are discharged or in which port the goods will be discharged. Customs simply want to know what is on board on the vessel. The ENS must be submitted by the person bringing the goods into the EU, being the captain of the vessel. However the captain may outsource the submission of the ENS. The deadline for submitting the ENS for shortsea is set at 2 hours before arrival at the first port in the EU.

Shortsea traffic

If you use liner services for RORO or containers, the necessary information is already available via the Bill of Lading (B/L). The conditions for the transport of goods by sea are laid down in this transport agreement.

Ferry traffic

However, there are other rules for ferry traffic and no B/L is available. This means that the following information must be made available to the ferry company:

• The shipper (= the shipper of the goods)
• The recipient (= the recipient of the goods at destination)
• The port of loading
• The port of discharge
• The outgoing customs document number (Movement Reference Number – MRN) and type of document
• The marks and the numbers of the goods and / or the containers
• The number and type of packages and a description of the goods
• The gross weight of the goods
• The sizes and / or volume of the goods

Take into account that from 1/1/2021 authorities like customs and FASFC, as well as ferry companies have different demands for booking a sailing from the UK. .e.g. for Union Goods coming from Ireland over UK containing animal products an additional registration will be asked.