BRUSSELS — Lille beat off eight other European cities in voting on Wednesday to host the all-new EU Customs Authority.
The northern French city defeated Rome in the third round of a nail-biting run-off vote at European Council headquarters in Brussels.
EU governments and lawmakers had earlier separately backed the two candidate cities, setting up the final showdown. In joint voting, Lille won 36 votes to Rome’s 18, the Cyprus presidency of the Council confirmed.
The other contenders — Bucharest, Liège, Málaga, Porto, The Hague, Warsaw and Zagreb — went away empty handed.
Staffed by around 250 well-paid EU officials, EUCA will coordinate oversight of imports of everything from sketchy plastic toys to noncompliant cosmetics and illegal drugs.
Under a broader customs reform to be wrapped up on Thursday, the EU would also set up a central IT hub to help cope with a fast-growing influx of packages delivered by e-commerce platforms.
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