Which EU Country Should You Register Your EORI In?

• The rule in one paragraph
• Established in the EU: you do not get to choose
• Established outside the EU: the country of your first customs operation
• One number, every member state: what the choice locks in
• When you genuinely have a choice, decide on these five things
• Reasons people pick a country that are not reasons
• Two situations worth naming
• If you have already registered in the wrong country
• Common questions
• Official sources

Which EU country you register your EORI in is settled by law rather than by preference, and for most businesses there is exactly one correct answer. If your company is established in the EU, you register in the member state where it is established. If it is established outside the EU, you register in the member state where you first lodge a customs declaration or apply for a customs decision. That is the entire rule.

The question comes up constantly because the internet is full of advice about “the best country for an EORI”, most of it written by people selling company formation. Below is what the Union Customs Code requires, and when you genuinely do have a choice.

The rule in one paragraph

Registration sits in Article 9 of the Union Customs Code: “Economic operators established in the customs territory of the Union shall register with the customs authorities responsible for the place where they are established.” Operators who are not established in the Union register instead, under Article 5 of the Delegated Regulation, with the customs authority responsible for the place where they lodge a declaration or apply for a decision.

Two consequences follow, and they cover almost every reader:

• If you are established in the EU, you have no choice at all.
• If you are established outside the EU, your choice follows a logistics decision you have probably already made.

Not sure which member state applies to you? We work it out with you and file there. See how it works →

Established in the EU: you do not get to choose

The European Commission’s EORI guidance is blunt about it: “Economic operators established in the EU should always be registered in the Member State where they are established. Even if the first operation takes place in another Member State, economic operators must ask the Member State in which they are established to assign them an EORI number.”

Swedish Customs states the same rule in a single line: an economic operator established in an EU country “shall always apply for an EORI number in the country of establishment.”

So a German GmbH registers with German customs even if its first container lands in Rotterdam. A Portuguese Lda registers in Portugal even if it only sells into France. Establishment decides; trade lanes do not.

What “established” means here

The Union Customs Code defines a person established in the customs territory of the Union as one with a registered office, central headquarters or a permanent business establishment inside it – for a company, normally the country of incorporation.

What does not count: a warehouse you rent, a fulfilment centre that holds your stock, a VAT registration, or a local bank account. Those are the four things sellers most often mistake for establishment, and each produces the wrong country.

Groups, branches and subsidiaries

An EORI number belongs to a legal person. A subsidiary incorporated in a member state is its own legal person and registers itself, in its own country. A branch that is not a separate legal person does not get its own number – the parent registers, and the branch trades under the parent’s EORI. A group with five EU subsidiaries therefore holds five EORI numbers, which is correct and not a duplication problem.

Where a business has establishments in more than one member state, the Commission accepts registration in any of them. Pick one, register once, use it everywhere.

Established outside the EU: the country of your first customs operation

For a US, UK, Swiss or any other non-EU company, the answer is the member state where you first do something that requires an EORI number. German customs describes it as registration “by the first Member State, in which they wish to lodge a customs declaration or request a decision”. The European Commission puts it as “the EU country in which they intend to carry out their first customs operation”.

What counts as a first customs operation

The Delegated Regulation lists the triggers. You need an EORI number before you:

• lodge a customs declaration in the customs territory of the Union;
• lodge an entry or exit summary declaration;
• lodge a temporary storage declaration;
• act as a carrier for transport by sea, inland waterway or air; or
• apply for a customs decision or authorisation.

Whichever happens first, in whichever member state, is the country you register in.

The country is usually chosen by your freight, not by you

This is the part that trips people up. Your EORI country is not “where the ship docks” – it is where the goods are declared, and those are frequently different places. A container can arrive at Antwerp and move under a transit procedure to be cleared in Poland, in which case Poland is where the import declaration is lodged.

So before you choose, ask your freight forwarder or customs broker one question: in which member state will you lodge my import declaration? Their answer is your EORI country. If you have not appointed anyone yet, that appointment is the real decision.

The expensive version of this mistake is registering somewhere that sounds convenient and then discovering your broker clears everything elsewhere. Nothing breaks – the number stays valid EU-wide. But the day you need a customs decision, you are dealing with an authority in a country where none of your goods move, in a language nobody on your team reads.

An EORI number does not make you the importer

A second rule catches non-EU businesses off guard. The Union Customs Code states that “the declarant shall be established in the customs territory of the Union”, with narrow derogations for transit, temporary admission and occasional declarations. A company with no EU establishment cannot normally be the declarant. It appoints an indirect customs representative, who lodges the declaration in its own name and carries joint liability for the customs debt.

Your EORI number does not replace that representative, and holding one does not create a right to import on your own account. You need both, and the representative is usually the harder to arrange.

One number, every member state: what the choice locks in

Registering in one country does not confine you to it. The Commission’s guidance is explicit: “By registering, for customs purposes, in one Member State operators are able to obtain an EORI number that is valid throughout the European Union.” Swedish Customs adds the corollary: an operator “shall only hold one EORI number, which shall be used in all EU Member States.”

So what does the choice actually determine?

The prefix is cosmetic, but permanent – our EORI number format page shows how it is built in each member state.

You may hold only one EORI number. If a forwarder has already created one for you – which happens more often than importers realise – applying again produces a duplicate that has to be unwound. The Commission’s guidance sets the tie-break: “the first EORI number which has been assigned should be kept, the second should be invalidated.”

When you genuinely have a choice, decide on these five things

A non-EU business that has not appointed a broker, or that runs several lanes into different member states, has real latitude. Weigh these, in order.

1. Where your goods will clear, most of the time. Not the first shipment – the steady state. Choose the country you will keep dealing with.
2. Where your customs representative sits. A representative in the Netherlands filing your declarations in the Netherlands is coherent. A representative in Belgium and a registration in Ireland is permanent friction for no benefit.
3. What it takes to get into the national system. Several authorities require you to be inside a national identity or online-services system before they will look at a customs application. That step, not the customs step, usually sets your calendar – see how long an EORI number takes.
4. Language. Queries come back in the local language, on the authority’s timetable. If nobody on your side reads it, budget for that or use an agent who does.
5. Documents. Certified translations and apostilles are required by some member states and not others, and they come from third parties on third-party timetables. The country-by-country list is in documents you need for EORI registration.

Notice what is absent: corporate tax rates, company formation offers, and anything marketed as a “favourable customs jurisdiction”. None of them affect an EORI registration.

Reasons people pick a country that are not reasons

• “Country X is cheapest.” No member state charges for an EORI number. There is no cheapest.
• “I will register in Ireland because they speak English.” Fine as a tiebreak, wrong as a driver, and only available if you are not established in the EU. Irish Revenue also requires enrolment in its online service first, which is its own queue.
• “My VAT is in Germany, so my EORI has to be German.” VAT and EORI are separate registrations under separate law. They often sit in different countries, and that is not an error. Import VAT follows the country of importation, and deferment arrangements such as the Dutch Article 23 licence are a tax decision, not an EORI decision.
• “I will incorporate in the EU so I can pick a better country.” Establishing an EU entity changes who the declarant is, your VAT position and your corporate tax position. It may be right for other reasons. Doing it to influence a free customs registration is a very large tail wagging a very small dog.
• “I will use my freight forwarder’s EORI number.” You cannot. The number identifies one specific legal person, and using someone else’s misstates who is party to the declaration.

Two situations worth naming

UK businesses

A GB EORI number is not valid for customs formalities in the EU, so a UK company trading with the Union needs a separate EU EORI. As a business established outside the customs territory of the Union, a UK company follows the non-EU rule above – it registers where it first clears – and will usually need an indirect representative for imports. The GB EORI vs EU EORI comparison sets out where each number is valid.

HMRC issues GB EORI numbers free of charge, usually within a few working days, and you apply directly with HMRC. We do not register GB EORI numbers. If you already have one and can’t find it, we can locate it and if you trade with the EU, you’ll need a separate EU EORI, which we do register.

Marketplace and online sellers

Storing stock in an EU fulfilment centre does not establish your company there, and it does not decide your EORI country. The country where your import declaration is lodged does. Sellers shipping a first consignment into a Dutch or German fulfilment network register where that consignment clears, then keep the same number as stock moves onward.

If you have already registered in the wrong country

Nothing catastrophic follows, and day-to-day clearance carries on: the number is valid across the Union. Two situations are worth acting on.

• You are established in the EU but registered somewhere else. This is a genuine error. Your establishment country is the only correct registrar. Contact both authorities and have the registration moved.
• You are outside the EU and your trade has settled in a different member state than the one you registered in. Usually no action is needed – you keep the number and keep using it. Only if you become established in the EU, by incorporating a subsidiary, does a new registration arise, and it arises for that new legal person.

In both cases, tell the issuing authority when your details change. The Commission’s guidance puts the duty on you: the operator is responsible for “the accuracy, completeness and maintenance up to date of the information given to the customs authority”.

You can apply for an EORI number yourself, directly with the customs authority. We charge because we prepare the application, file it, chase it, and answer the questions that come back. Both routes are legitimate – pick the one that costs you less of what you have least of.

Common questions

Which EU country should I register my EORI number in?

If your business is established in the EU, register in the member state where it is established – that is the only correct answer, whatever your trade lanes look like. If it is established outside the EU, register where you first lodge a customs declaration or apply for a customs decision, which in practice means wherever your goods are cleared.

Can I choose any EU country for my EORI number?

Only if you are not established in the EU, and even then the choice is constrained by where your customs operations actually take place. An EU-established company has no choice: Article 9 of the Union Customs Code ties registration to the country of establishment.

Is an EORI number from one member state valid in all the others?

Yes. The European Commission states that registering in one member state gives you an EORI number valid throughout the European Union. You may hold only one, used in every member state you trade with.

Does my EORI have to be in the same country as my VAT registration?

No. VAT and EORI are separate registrations under separate law, and often sit in different member states. Import VAT falls due where the goods are imported, and deferment arrangements are a tax question for your adviser – they do not change where your EORI belongs.

I’m a UK company. Which EU country do I register in?

A GB EORI number is not valid for customs formalities in the EU, so you need a separate EU EORI. As a business established outside the customs territory of the Union, you register where you first clear customs, and for imports you will usually also need an indirect customs representative established in the EU.

What if my freight forwarder already registered an EORI number for me?

Then you have one, and should not apply for another. Duplicates have to be unwound before anything moves, and the Commission’s guidance keeps the first number issued and invalidates the second. Check before you file.

Does storing stock in an EU warehouse decide my EORI country?

No. A warehouse or fulfilment centre is not a permanent business establishment for these purposes, and does not by itself make you EU-established. The member state where your import declaration is lodged decides your registration country.

Official sources

We link to primary sources so you can verify anything here yourself.

• EUR-Lex – Union Customs Code, Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 (Articles 9, 18 and 170)
• EUR-Lex – Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446, Article 5 (registration)
• European Commission – EORI Guidance document (PDF)
• European Commission – Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI)
• Swedish Customs (Tullverket) – EORI
• German Customs (Zoll) – Using the EORI number
• Dutch Customs (Douane) – EORI application for companies headquartered outside the EU
• Irish Revenue – EORI system (registration via ROS)
• Netherlands Tax Administration – Reverse-charge mechanism on import: Article 23