The European Parliament adopted by 556 votes to 51, with 23 abstentions, under a special legislative procedure (Parliament’s consultation), a legislative resolution on the proposal for a Council directive amending Directive 92/83/EEC on the harmonisation of the structures of excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic beverages.

The European Parliament approved the Commission proposal subject to an amendment to refer to the judgment of 17 May 2018 in the Kompania Piwowarska case, by which the Court of Justice ruled on the calculation of the degree Plato.

According to the amended text, all the ingredients of the beer, with the exception of those added after the completion of fermentation, shall be taken into account for the purposes of measuring the degree Plato.

The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs adopted, under a special legislative procedure (Parliament’s consultation), the report by Miguel VIEGAS (GUE/NGL, PT) on the proposal for a Council directive amending Directive 92/83/EEC on the harmonisation of the structures of excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic beverages.

The committee recommended that the European Parliament approve the Commission proposal without amendments.

As a reminder, Directive 92/83/EEC on the structures of excise duty on alcohol and alcoholic beverages sets out the common rules on the structures of excise duty applied to alcohol and alcoholic beverages, including beer and wine. It defines and classifies the different types of alcohol and alcoholic beverages, according to their characteristics, and provides a legal framework for reduced rates, exemptions, and derogations in some sectors, like intermediate products used in wine preparation in certain regions of the Kingdom of Spain.

The Directive has not kept pace with the challenges and opportunities offered by new technologies and developments within the alcohol industry . Some problems have been identified and inefficiencies persist, causing possible distortions of the internal market.

Therefore, the Directive was identified by the Commission for an evaluation under the Commission’s Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT).

The main areas on which the study and impact assessment were focused included the following: (i) dysfunctions in the application of exemptions for denatured alcohol; (ii) dysfunctions in the classification of certain alcoholic beverages; (iii) dysfunctional application of reduced rates for small producers and low strength alcoholic beverages; (iv) unclear provisions to measure degrees Plato of sweetened or flavoured beer.

PURPOSE: to amend Directive 92/83/EEC on the harmonisation of the structures of excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic beverages.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Directive.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the Council adopts the act after consulting the European Parliament but without being obliged to follow its opinion.

BACKGROUND: Directive 92/83/EEC on the structures of excise duty on alcohol and alcoholic beverages sets out the common rules on the structures of excise duty applied to alcohol and alcoholic beverages.

The Directive has not kept pace with the challenges and opportunities offered by new technologies and developments within the alcohol industry.

Some provisions of Council Directive 92/83/EEC are outdated and unclear and result in unnecessarily burdensome administrative procedures for both tax administrations and economic operators. The costs for economic operators of complying with those procedures have the effect of restricting the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in trade in alcohol and alcoholic beverages in the internal market.

The source of the current complications for the excise duty exemption for denatured alcohol, classification of certain alcoholic beverages, status of independent small brewers and measurement of degree Plato lays precisely in the absence of clear rules at EU level.

The majority of Member State administrations have pointed out the need for improving the common definitions and rules of alcohol and alcoholic beverages for excise purposes at EU level.

CONTENT: the proposal aims to amend Council Directive 92/83/EEC in order to improve the regulatory framework to bring benefits to businesses, Member States and citizens.

In concrete terms, the proposal:

clarify the provisions relating to the degrees Plato measurement of beer : all the ingredients of the beer, including those added after fermentation, shall be taken into account for the purposes of measuring the degree Plato; provides for a uniform certificate for small independent breweries across the EU. This will improve the cross border functionality of the existing relief for small breweries; increases the threshold to which reduced rates may be applied to low strength beer from 2.8% to 3.5% so as to encourage brewers to innovate and create new products; introduces a definition of 'cider' . This shall also facilitate the application of reduced rates for independent small cider makers, within the following limits: (i) the reduced rates shall not be applied to undertakings producing more than 15 000 hl of cider per year; (ii) the reduced rates, which may fall below the minimum rate, shall not be set more than 50% below the standard national rate of excise duty for cider; clarifies the provisions relating to exemptions for denatured alcohol and to increase the legal certainty for economic operators and Member State authorities; deletes a provision which currently allows the UK to provide exemptions for certain products which are no longer exempted in the UK.