Brussels, 21/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to refer Sweden to the European Court of Justice over its tax discrimination against wine in comparison to beer. A litre of beer of 10 % will bear 14.7 SEK in excise duties, whereas a litre of wine of exactly the same strength will be taxed at 22.08 SEK.
The Commission is convinced that there is discrimination in favour of beer produced locally, which discourages Swedish consumers from buying table wine. It also underlines that this interpretation has been confirmed by the Court of Justice, which made several rulings describing wine and beer as competing products.
Taxation Commissioner Frits Bolkestein commented: "The Commission must act against all forms of protectionism in the single market. Although I fully support Member States' attempts to address public health concerns linked to alcohol, there is simply no valid reason to apply much heavier taxation to a foreign product such as wine than to the competing national product, which is beer.”
In 2002 the Commissioner failed in his attempt to introduce a minimum excise tax on wine of EUR 14 per hectolitre (approximately), whereas there is now a minimum rate of zero. This proposal was aimed at putting wine on an equal footing with beer, which has a minimum rate. It was rejected by a large majority of Commissioners - 14 out of 20.