Europe Information Gateway
EU Identifiers Explained
A map of the identifiers people confuse most: what they are, what they are not, and where they belong.
Scope
- Informational guidance
- No account, no submissions
- Links to official sources where possible
This gateway explains systems; it does not replace authorities.
One sentence
EU identifiers exist to keep records consistent across authorities—registration, taxation, customs, and movement each use different identifiers for different purposes.
What counts as an identifier here
An identifier is a reference used by an authority or registry to uniquely link records: a company, a tax account, a customs actor, or an application/file.
Common families
- Business identity: national company numbers, registry IDs, legal-entity references
- Tax identity: VAT numbers used for intra‑EU trading and VAT reporting
- Customs identity: EORI numbers used for EU customs formalities
- Travel/procedure: application references and document numbers (case-by-case)
A simple rule of thumb
If the question involves tax → think VAT. If it involves customs → think EORI. If it involves legal existence → think national registry numbers.