Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1 Tax provisions - Harmonisation of laws - Excise duties - Directives 92/83 and 92/84 - Alcohol and alcoholic beverages - Minimum excise duty required for beer but not wine - Within the discretion of the Member States

(EC Treaty, Art. 95 (now, after amendment, Art. 90 EC); Council Directives 92/83 and 92/84)

2 Tax provisions - Harmonisation of laws - Excise duties - Directives 92/83 and 92/84 - Alcohol and alcoholic beverages - Minimum excise duty required for beer but not wine - Whether permissible - Within the discretion of the Community legislature - Whether Article 99 of the Treaty (now Article 93 EC) infringed - No such infringement

(EC Treaty, Art. 99 (now Art. 93 EC))

3 Tax provisions - Harmonisation of laws - Excise duties - Directive 92/84 - Alcohol and alcoholic beverages - Difference between the minimum rates for wine and beer - Whether a specific statement of reasons required - No such requirement

(Council Directive 92/84)

Summary

1 Directive 92/83 on the harmonisation of the structures of excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic beverages and Directive 92/84 on the approximation of the rates of excise duty on alcohol and alcoholic beverages merely require Member States to apply a minimum excise duty on beer. Consequently, the Member States retain a sufficiently wide margin of discretion to ensure that the relationship of the taxes on wine and beer excludes any protection for domestic production within the meaning of Article 95 of the Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 90 EC).

2 The intention of the Community legislature in adopting Directive 92/83 on the harmonisation of the structures of excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic beverages and Directive 92/84 on the approximation of the rates of excise duty on alcohol and alcoholic beverages was not to harmonise taxation as between wine and beer. Under the powers expressly conferred on it by Article 99 of the Treaty (now Article 93 EC), and in order to ensure the establishment and operation of the internal market, the Council was seeking to harmonise, first, national legislation on excise duty applicable to wine and, secondly, that relating to excise duty on beer. Moreover, the Community institutions are free to introduce harmonisation gradually or in stages. Accordingly, the adoption by the Council of those Directives, which require Member States merely to apply a minimum excise duty to beer, is not incompatible with Article 99.

3 The difference between the minimum rates for wine and beer, provided for by Directive 92/84 on the approximation of the rates of excise duty on alcohol and alcoholic beverages is not, strictly speaking, a measure adopted by the Council but the consequence of parallel harmonisation of domestic excise duties on wine and beer, so that it does not require any specific statement of reasons.