The European Commission decided on Thursday to send a reasoned opinion to the Romanian authorities because the latter failed to finance and develop a new IT system, in accordance with the agreed timetable for monitoring the movement of excisable products (alcohol, tobacco and energy products) at EU, informs a press release of the community executive.

If Romania does not act within the next four months, the Commission may decide to send this case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

According to the Commission, EU rules (mainly Council Directive 2008/118/EC) allow excisable products to circulate in a backlog of excise duties, provided that the electronic documents are properly processed in the Member States.

The IT system also allows Member States to communicate information on operators authorized to put such products in the market and to cooperate with each other to combat fraud, according to Agerpres.

“Romania is already using an outdated version of the IT system and has not taken the necessary measures to use the new version. Romania’s failure to act in a timely manner could have serious consequences for the internal market, as normally excisable products would not be authorized to be transported to or from Romania except for once the excise duty has been duly paid. In addition, it could affect other Member States that need to send and receive administrative information from Romania,” the Commission said.