Brussels, March 25, 2026 (Lusa) – The Council of the European Union (EU) and the European Parliament (EP) will choose on Wednesday the headquarters of the new EU Customs Authority (EUCA), with Porto among the nine candidate cities.

According to a European source, the process starts at 9:00 a.m (8:00 a.m Lisbon time), with the two institutions voting until there are two lists with two favourite cities for Member States and Members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

At 11:00 a.m, the two confidential lists of finalists are voted on jointly, at the Council building, with the remaining candidates being eliminated.

If no candidate is chosen on both lists, which would result in an immediate victory, joint voting begins with a secret ballot until a winner is declared.

In addition to Porto, the candidate cities are Bucharest, The Hague, Liège (Belgium), Lille (France), Málaga (Spain), Rome, Warsaw, and Zagreb.

The EU Customs Authority will support the national customs authorities of Member States and ensure the effective collection of customs duties on the national and EU budgets, contributing to the protection of trade and the single market against illegal or unsafe products, according to the European Commission.

The EU has more than 30 decentralised agencies spread across several Member States, and the two based in Lisbon are the European Maritime Safety Agency and the European Union Drugs Agency.

IG/RYOL // ADB.

Lusa