The EU Council formally approved the procedure negotiated with the European Parliament (EP) for selecting the headquarters of the new EU agency and announced that the final decision will be taken by the two institutions on 25 March.

The customs authority will have the mission of coordinating customs action and supporting national customs authorities' activities in a coherent manner across the EU.

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

Under the procedure, the Council and the EP each select two cities from the nine already approved by the European Commission, then meet to finalise an agreement.

If a location appears on both lists, it will be automatically declared chosen without a vote. If this situation does not occur, voting rounds will be held until a candidate is selected.

On 28 January, MEPs from the Internal Market and Consumer Protection committees heard arguments from authorities from the nine countries, including the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel, and Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, in favour of their respective candidacies.