Strasbourg, 11/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - A (provisional) end has been reached on the EP taxation saga on minimum excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic drinks (see EUROPE 9316). On Tuesday 10 July, MEPs voted massively (627 votes to 46, with 13 abstentions) against the advisory report by Astrid Lulling (EPP-ED, Luxemburg) on the draft directive raising minimum rates of excise duty in line with inflation. This EP opinion being only advisory, it is, of course, not binding. The Ecofin Council could, if it so desires, take a unanimous decision on this issue, which does not, however, feature on the provisional agendas of any of the Portuguese presidency's meetings.
While she would have preferred the EP to call on the Council simply to scrap directive 92/84/EC on minimum excise levels on alcoholic drinks, the rapporteur, nonetheless, got the plenary session to reject the draft directive as a whole. “The wisest course of action would be to change nothing for the moment while awaiting the outcome of (the Commission) study” (initially expected in the first half of half of 2007) on the application of these levels in the EU, said Ms Lulling just before the vote. In the plenary session, a small majority of MEPs voted against all but one of the amendments adopted in the EP economic and monetary affairs committee (see EUROPE 9457). This committee proposed a 4.5% increase in minimum excise duty levels, reflecting inflation since the 2004 enlargement. This position, now with the backing of the Commission, was included in the last compromise put to finance ministers at the end of 2006.
At the end of May, the Lulling report had to be sent back to the Parliamentary committee because of the continuing differences between the political groups, which resulted in the adoption of contradictory amendments at the first reading vote in the EP at the end of May (see EUROPE 9431). The EP economic and monetary affairs committee final report “did not come about thanks to any slender majority. It was the result of extremely detailed discussion with the Commission and with the Council,” said French Socialist MEP Pervenche Berès before the vote, which she had hoped would see the committee's second report adopted. (mb)