Brussels, 06/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the Ecofin Council, held in Luxembourg, gave its political agreement on the draft directive aimed at extending until end 2003 the exemptions granted to Sweden on duty-free purchases for travellers. Since it joined the European Union in 1995, Sweden has been authorised to reduce the quantities of alcohol and tobacco that travellers may import from other EU member countries without paying additional taxes. This exemption should come to an end on 30 June 2000, but at the insistent request of the Swedish government, the European Commission agreed to propose renewal of this regime until end 2003, to bring Sweden's situation into line with that of Denmark and Finland. During this new transitional period, Sweden should, however, gradually increase traveller duty-free allowances for alcohol and tobacco according to a binding timetable (see EUROPE of 20 April, p.12).
The principle behind this extension had already been accepted by the Fifteen during a meeting of the Ecofin Council on 13 March this year. The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Frits Bolkestein, was for a long while hostile to this idea but resolved to put the proposal forward on 25 May. The proposal will be formally adopted by the Council after the European Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee have given their opinions.
On Monday, the Ecofin Council also noted a report by the European Commission on application of the extensions granted to the three Scandinavian countries on travellers' duty-free allowances.