EC members in charge of customs and commerce Algirdas Šemeta and Karel de Gucht said in a letter to Russia's economic development minister and customs chief that Moscow should immediately lift the measures.
"Any such broad, trade-disruptive measures, not tightly linked to objective specific risks, would be inappropriate and discriminatory, and their WTO consistency would be questionable," reads the letter.
The EC members emphasized that the 100-percent physical control procedures launched last week, which involve the unloading of entire vehicles loaded in Lithuania, is a very costly and time-consuming process.
Šemeta and de Gucht refer to informal reports that "the enhanced controls are associated to breaches by operators of customs legislation" but emphasize that this would not "justify collective punitive action on the basis of the place of loading of the goods or the carrier's nationality."
"Therefore, we strongly appeal to you to lift these measures with immediate effect," the commissioners said.
The letter was sent to Russia's Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev and Head of the Federal Customs Service Andrey Belyaninov.
