Brussels, 23/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - Following a very close vote resulting in the adoption of contradictory amendments, the European Parliament rejected the advisory report on Wednesday 23 May of Astrid Lulling (EPP-ED, Luxembourg) on the draft directive on adjusting minimum excise rates on alcohol and alcoholic drinks in line with inflation (EUROPE 9261). Faced with amendments that were adopted against her opinion, the rapporteur advised MEPs from her group to vote against the whole of the amended report. The dossier returns to the parliamentary committee for re-examination.
The rapporteur's amendments were adopted in parliamentary committee (EUROPE 9405) and aim to replace directive 92/84/EEC on the approximation of excise rates for alcoholic drinks with a simple code of conduct. They were rejected in plenary session (313 votes for, 335 against, with 17 abstentions). Socialist group amendments, however, that call for an adjustment of excise rates by taking the rate of inflation since EU enlargement in May 2004 as a reference, were adopted. This complies with the most recent draft compromise on the Council's table (EUROPE 9315 and 9316). The Socialists, however, were unable to succeed with their aim of periodically and automatically revising excise rates, or allowing Bulgaria to apply zero rates on drinks produced from their own distillery production.
The day before saw the debate on the dossier produce sharp divisions. László Kovács spoke against “the abolition of minimum rates” for excise and “sincerely” hoped that the EP would give its support on the question. The commissioner for taxation pointed out that the Commission was not aiming at harmonisation or convergence of rates, but simply wanted a re-evaluation of these rates based on inflation. He also referred to reasons why getting rid of excise rates for alcoholic drinks would have “extreme consequences…more distortion of the internal market…stricter restrictions on the quantity of alcohol that people could transport from one member state to another”; a massive increase in “contraband and cross-border shopping, which has nothing to do with fair trade”; the creation of a “dangerous precedent” for excise on tobacco and energy products, as well as Value Added Tax.
Ms Lulling declared: “There is only one single, reasonable, logical and intelligent solution: leave aside minimum rates that have no reason to be such, and agree on a code of conduct”. She stressed that the 1992 directive did not allow for approximation of these rates in the EU. The president of the “Viticulture-Tradition-Qualité” inter-group at the EP regretted that Mr Kovács had not seized the opportunity offered him by the parliamentary committee to “get out of the impasse without losing face”. Piia-Noora Kaupi (EPP-ED, Finland) agreed with Lulling and said that getting rid of excise rates would provide member states with the possibility of “choosing the level of excise suitable to their economic and cultural conditions” even if they were tempted by new barriers. She said: “We will leave it to member states to take their stupid decisions if this is what they want”.
The French Socialist Pervenche Berès opposed the rapporteur's appeal for, “tax competition and free movement of products in an internal market, which would in effect not be one”. She said that “to say that it is better to abandon everything, using the pretext of the task being difficult, does not appear to me to be a good strategy” or that of unconditionally supporting the position of Commissioner Kovács. (mb)