Countries participating in the Common Transit Convention are legally obliged to adhere to changes made by the EU for NCTS6.
NCTS6 consists of minimal changes in data structure and messages. These changes will mostly be part of NCTS6 Phase 2, as mentioned below.

Opt-in and opt-out countries

NCTS6 is divided into two approaches: opt-in and opt-out.

• By opting in, a country chooses to connect to ICS2 via the Transit ENS Data (TED) Processing Bridge, a converter that helps communicate ENS data to ICS2 (Article 130(1), UCC). This link with ICS2 means that economic operators (EOs) can now submit only one declaration, instead of two separate ones to NCTS and ICS2.
• By opting out, a country chooses not to connect to ICS2 and ENS data cannot be used by NCTS. Therefore, as of 01.09.2025, all transits going into the EU must be covered by a separate Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) that is declared in the ICS2 system. Nevertheless, these countries must update their systems to NCTS6 specifications. A country may later decide to move from opt-out to opt-in.

This document published by the EU shows the latest information regarding which counties will be opting in or opting out.

NCTS6 phases

Changes required for NCTS6 will be carried out in two phases, as follows:

Phase 1: compatibility to NCTS6

• NCTS6 Phase 1 is an update to existing NCTS functionality.

To meet the September deadline that is set by the EU, national customs authorities are required to make changes to make them compatible with NCTS6. These changes will come into effect as of 01.09.2025. The following provides an overview of changes for Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK.

Belgium

Belgium customs have introduced minimal changes to be compatible with NCTS 6. These changes include the following:

• Security type code: Only security types 0 and 2 will be allowed as of 01.09.2025. Security types 1 and 3 will be disabled by Customs Management via status checks.
• Transit arrival: new fields: As part of the compatibility changes, BE Customs have updated the Unloading permission (IE043) and Unloading remark (IE044) messages to include the following fields:
  • Commercial reference (UCR reference): will be returned as part of the unloading permission. In case of a ‘non-conform unloading remark’ the UCR can be sent out on either Head, House Consignment or Item level.
  • Countries of routing: the countries of routing will also be returned as part of the unloading permission and in case of a non-conform unloading remark, the countries of routing can also be sent to Customs.

Downtimes

No details have been provided on any downtimes to date. If Customs publish further information on downtimes, AEB will notify you directly via the Customs Management application.

Germany, The Netherlands and the UK

General

As part of the compatibility changes to NCTS6 Phase 1, Germany, The Netherlands, and the UK will only change the types of security codes that can be sent. This is because both countries are opt-out countries. Starting on the 01.09.2025 only the following security type codes can be sent in a transit departure declaration:

• 0: Not used for safety and security purposes
• 2: EXS

The security types 1: (ENS) and 3: (ENS & EXS) will be disabled. In Customs Management and Import Filing: ATLAS status checks will be implemented to restrict the transmission of these values.

• Please note that in Germany, the changeover will take place on 27 August 2025. For information on the changeover, please refer to ATLAS Info 0827/25.

• Customer actions

• Update transit departure templates: Customers are advised to update their transit departure templates and make sure no templates contain the security type codes 1 and 3.
• Include ENS (MRN)s in transit departure declaration: Customers of opt-out countries who are moving goods into the EU via transit are advised to enter the ENS MRN(s) in the transit departure declaration. The ENS MRN(s) should be entered in the reference field of the header-level previous document type N355.

Phase 2: legal compliance to NCTS 6

All national customs authorities are required to be compatible with NCTS6 in the near future. This is referred to as NCTS6 Phase 2.

No details have been provided yet by any customs authority on the changes that will be part of NCTS6. More details on NCTS6 Phase 2 will be provided once details of the changes are communicated by the customs authorities.