EU: Shopping for alcohol in the European Union should be liberalised, the European Commission said yesterday as it published proposals to do away with some of the remaining restrictions on cross-border trade.
The proposals would make it easier for residents of countries like Ireland, which has the highest duties on table and sparkling wine in the whole of the EU, to buy their drink abroad.
The commission wants to abolish the current "indicative" limits on how much alcohol can be carried across a national border while still being regarded as "for personal use".
It also wants to end the requirement that the purchaser who buys alcohol abroad must personally take it home in order to escape excise duty in his or her own country. Consumers should still qualify for the lower rate of excise duty in the country of purchase even if the goods are shipped through a transport company, the commission believes.
The commissioner for the single market, Mr Frits Bolkestein, said yesterday: "The European Commission wishes to ensure that private individuals and businesses are free to buy and sell goods across borders in the internal market."
The fact that he added a corollary, "while safeguarding member-states' tax revenue", suggests he expects opposition from the finance ministries of states that impose high levels of duty.
The proposal will need the unanimous support of national governments to become law. A spokesman for Mr Bolkestein said any finance ministers who opposed it "would have to explain themselves to their electorate".
The commission proposal would make it simpler and cheaper for Irish citizens to buy wines in France, where excise duty is much lower, or Italy or Germany, where no duty is levied. At present, in order to pay duty in the country of purchase, rather than in Ireland, they must visit the country and bring the wine or spirits back personally.
But under the commission's proposals they would not even have to visit France but could make the purchase over the Internet or phone, and pay the lower rate of duty, as long as they arrange the shipping.
But the commission is not content with these rules, believing that they impose "cumbersome formalities" on private buyers.
The commission is unhappy that the indicative limits of 10 litres of spirits, 90 litres of wine and 110 litres of beer have been interpreted "very narrowly" by the customs services of some states. Last year it began legal action against the UK and Spain over what it saw as heavy-handed treatment of some citizens.
The limits, according to the commission, have been perceived by the public as real quantitative limits, when they were intended to be only one of several criteria for helping the customs service distinguish what constituted personal use.
It is the use of the product rather than the quantity which should determine its tax liability. The commission is not proposing to change the rules on tobacco.