On Friday 17 May, European Finance Ministers will attempt to reach a political agreement (a 'general approach') on several texts relating to excise duties applicable in the EU (see EUROPE 12124/12), including the Directive on general arrangements for excise duties on alcohol (see EUROPE 12211/15).
Considered not full-bodied enough to be adopted at the March Ecofin Council, the text was referred back to the technical level.
In order to overcome disagreements, the EU Council is planning a move towards a special exemption regime for homemade alcohol in Hungary and Romania, a European source told EUROPE on Friday 10 May.
One of the last major issues to be addressed regarding the Directive concerns the setting of the annual quantitative limit in order to benefit from an exemption from excise duties or to apply reduced rates for ethyl alcohol distilled from fruit by private individuals for personal use.
The discussion at Ecofin in March revealed a whole series of special interests (see EUROPE 12212/7). The special agreement text at the time suggested a limit of 175 litres per year, but Romania and Hungary wanted a high threshold of around 100 litres, while other countries such as Estonia, Sweden, Ireland and Bulgaria wanted the threshold to be as low as possible.
The new special agreement would propose a threshold of a maximum of 70 litres per year, except for Hungary and Romania, which would be entitled to apply a threshold of 100 litres per year, according to this source. The 70 litre threshold would then be more or less agreed in the EU Council, although northern EU countries, particularly Germany, would like to see an even lower limit. Hungary and Romania remain the only two countries who are insisting on a higher threshold.
At the March Ecofin Council, notice is paid to the remarkable intervention of the Romanian Minister of Finance, Eugen Orlando Teodorovici, who openly supported this exemption, which, in his opinion, made it possible to “keep traditions alive”.
The question is therefore whether to try to put in place a uniform regime for the twenty-eight countries, or whether a differentiated regime for those two Member States would be acceptable to all, our source explained.
General arrangements for excise duty
Another major issue to be resolved is the directive on general arrangements for excise duty. Here, the controversial issue is the rules applicable to the acquisition and transport, from one Member State to another by private individuals, of excise goods.
The text proposes to strengthen control powers by reversing the burden of proof and placing the burden of proof on the consumer rather than on the customs officer to prove that there would be no abuse in the use of excise products.
According to the same source, there is still a division between France, on the one hand, which strongly defends this provision, and Belgium and Luxembourg, which are not so much in favour of it and would have instead liked to have had undertaken an impact assessment on this provision, which was not included in the Commission's initial proposal.
The latest special agreement texts were discussed at the High Level Working Party on Tax Questions on 7 May and have yet to be endorsed by the Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) during the week of 13 May, before being submitted to ministers. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)