A plume of smoke goes up at the EU Council on excise duties. On Friday 17 May, European Finance Ministers once again failed to reach political agreement ('general approach') on the three legislative texts on the table (see EUROPE 12124/12). Romania, which currently holds the Presidency of the EU Council, blocked their adoption because it failed to get the exemption it wanted on its 'homemade' alcohol.
An agreement at the meeting on the Directive on the harmonisation of the structures of excise duties on alcohol (see EUROPE 12211/15) was rejected from the outset by most Member States due to outstanding points. However, Germany, France, Slovenia and Poland have expressly requested that this text be negotiated separately from the other two texts, which are considered ready for adoption.
The divisions focus on the annual quantitative limit to be set in order to benefit from an exemption from excise duty or reduced rates for ethyl alcohol distilled from fruit by private individuals for personal use.
The Presidency compromise text submitted to the ministers provides for a maximum limit of 50 litres per year, except for Hungary and Romania, which would be entitled to apply a threshold of 100 litres per year (see EUROPE 12252/2).
On 15 May, the Presidency also drew up an alternative drafting proposal for this provision, which provides that Member States must limit the application of the exemption or reduced rates: - to a maximum of 30 litres of fruit alcohol per year per household of fruit growers; - to the quantity in force at national level at the time of adoption of the 1992 Directive, or ; - to the quantity in force at national level at the time of their accession to the EU.
At the meeting, only Greece and Malta endorsed the compromise text. The other Member States that took the floor all supported a common EU-wide limit of around 50 litres. This is the case in Germany, Spain, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and Poland.
Even Hungary has admitted that in order to find a compromise, a single threshold for all Member States would have to be restored, even if the country would like a higher threshold of between 70 and 80 litres per year.
Ministers then turned to the other texts with broader agreement, namely the Regulation on administrative cooperation as regards the content of the electronic register and the Directive on the general arrangements for excise duty.
Here, the only issue to be resolved was the rules applicable to the acquisition and transport from one Member State to another by private individuals of excise goods.
The discussions on Friday revealed that the opposition between France, on the one hand, and Belgium and Luxembourg, on the other, had been overcome by a Commission statement, annexed to the minutes of the meeting, clarifying the interpretation of the provision.
Thus, France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Spain and Slovakia have clearly expressed their support for these two texts. No objections were raised, except from the Romanian delegation, which refused to adopt the two texts without the first and therefore considered that the legislative package as a whole was not ready for adoption.
“The ministers' round table is extremely clear; there is agreement among all. The Presidency is held by Romania, we are examining a Presidency text and now the Romanian delegation explains that the text is imperfect, leaving a whole series of technical specificities that, in my opinion, have already been settled”, said the European Commissioner for Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, indignantly, asking that the two texts be adopted on the same day.
At a press conference, Romanian Finance Minister Eugen Orlando Teodorovici attacked his European counterparts, even accusing them of bad faith.
“It is obvious that all Member States are still not willing to do any efforts or progress on the issue related to fruit beverages for own consumption. You can imagine my disappointment that we didn’t find any flexibility or understanding on this very important point”, he said.
And to those who might hope that the situation will be resolved under the Finnish Presidency of the Council, he replied that in July, when he returns to his seat as Romanian Finance Minister, his position will be no different.
Criticized for his tendency to defend Romania's interests rather than those of the EU, Mr Teodorovici acknowledged that before he became President of the Ecofin Council, he was first and foremost a minister of his country. “This is my way, my style, very open approach, I have nothing to hide, but I really support the EU as principle”, he said. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)