Confiad nasce a Venezia il 14 maggio 1982 quando i pioneri di quattro asociazioni di doganalisti del sud Europa decisero di unirsi a livello internazionale. I fondatori erano i dirigenti delle associazioni nazionali di doganalisti della Grecia (OETE), Spagna (Consejo general de los Colegios de agentes de aduana) , Portogallo (Camara dos despachantes oficiais) e Italia (Anasped). L’obiettivo comune è stato chiaramente definito nei primi statuti e definito durante i primi incontri. La ricerca di identità e di rappresentanza internazionale è stato senza dubbio un primo incentivo fondamentale che stava per diventare così straordinariamente importante, tre anni dopo la fondazione. Nel 1985, infatti, nella fase che il Portogallo e la Spagna hanno aderito all’Unione europea, un Libro bianco europeo per un mercato interno senza frontiere e privo di supporti cartacei, a partire dal 1993, ha spianato la strada al nuovo futuro che creava enormi preoccupazioni per gli spedizionieri doganali .
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It was not a pure coincidence that the 1Oth General Assembly and the 48th Board meeting were planned in Venice. Indeed it all started in Venice twenty years ago when the pioneers of four associations of customs agents in the South of Europe decided to be united at the international level. In the very heart of the City of the Doges the Confédération internationale des agents en douane was founded on the 14th of may 1982. The initiators were the decision makers of the national customs brokers associations of Greece (OETE), Spain (Consejo general de los Colegios de agentes de aduana), Portugal (Camara dos despachantes oficiais) and Italy (Anasped). The common goal was clearly laid down in the initial statutes and defined during the early meetings. The search for international identity and representation was undoubtedly a first basic incentive that was going to become so overwhelmingly important three years after the foundation. In 1985 indeed, at the stage that Portugal and Spain joined the EU, a european White Paper towards a borderless and paperless Internal Market from 1993 on was paving the way to new future huge concerns for customs agents. In the meantime France joined Confiad’s Euroclub for customs agents and Confiad nearly focussed in the eigthies and early nineties its entire attention to the consequences of the 1993 Internal Market, the biggest challenge in its history. The transition towards the Internal Market ,the endeavours to generate awareness of both the profession and the European Commission, as far as the risks were concerned of a borderless and paperless environment, are fixing the chapters of a two decades Confiad book that is not finished yet..