Malone in talks on duty-free shopping

The Dublin Labour MEP, Ms Bernie Malone, said yesterday she believed duty-free shopping should not be abolished within the EU…

The Dublin Labour MEP, Ms Bernie Malone, said yesterday she believed duty-free shopping should not be abolished within the EU until VAT and excise taxes were harmonised throughout the Community.

She was speaking after a meeting between an inter-party group of which she is vice-president and an official from the Internal Market Commissioner's Office yesterday.

Ms Malone said Mr Vanden Abele, the director-general of the Commission, acknowledged there was a jobs problem if duty-free shopping was got rid of and suggested it might be dealt with either by new budgetary proposals, state aid or compensation.

She said her group ruled out state aid and compensation and proposed that the EU budget should deal with the jobs fallout in funding redeployment of workers.

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Ms Malone also criticised Fianna Fail's stance on the duty-free issue, describing it as "opportunistic". She pointed out that when the decision to abolish duty-free shopping was made in 1991, Ireland's representative, Mr Bertie Ahern, had not attended.

Ms Malone also claimed that Stena duty-free workers were already on notice and that up to 5,000 Irish people faced a similar threat.