19.01.2026
On January 17, 2026, Ms. Tsvetelina Mitrova, Chief Inspector in the Post-Clearance Audit Department at the Sofia Customs Territorial Directorate, delivered a lecture to students of the Master’s degree programme "Customs and Tax Control", headed by Assoc. Prof. Tsvetan Madanski, PhD. The guest lecture was held as part of the course "Customs Regimes and Procedures".
Ms. Mitrova presented the topic "Authorized Economic Operators". In the context of globalization and the changing international environment, customs authorities, together with economic operators, play a key role in ensuring the security of the supply chain while at the same time providing facilitations to compliant traders.
The presentation offered highly interesting and useful information and addressed issues related to the mutual recognition of AEO certificates, security and safety threats, AEO status, participants in the international supply chain and their responsibilities, the procedure for applying for AEO status, as well as a specific requirement that applicants must have successfully completed training in customs legislation corresponding to their level of involvement in customs-related activities. Such training must be provided by the customs authorities of a Member State or by an educational institution recognized by the customs authorities for the purposes of granting this qualification.