The Czech Customs Administration, similar to the customs administrations of other countries, has two basic tasks - to protect and regulate the domestic market and to ensure that imported goods do not endanger the lives or health of persons, fauna or flora. Trends in economic conditions, including the preparation for membership in the EU, urgently required that, in carrying out its tasks, the customs administration facilitate legal trade as much as possible. This could be achieved only through modernization of the customs administration in the areas of customs procedures and technical facilities. Another factor that significantly predetermined the current organizational structure was the accession of the Czech Republic to the EU. This was related not only to the act of accession itself, but also to the long period of approximation of the customs legislation and customs procedures to European standards. The accession also led to abolishing of regular customs controls at the border crossing points of the Czech Republic, while new tasks were assigned to the customs administration, e.g. in the area of the common agricultural policy or statistics of the intracommunitary trade. These changes were accompanied by a decrease in the number of employees of the customs administration and modification of its organizational structure.
