Alcohol and alcoholic beverages: adjust the minimum rates of excise duty (amend. Directive 92/84/EEC)

The Council examined proposed adjustments to minimum excise duty rates on alcoholic beverages, aimed at countering the effects of inflation, and a proposed mechanism for review of the rates in order to cater for inflation in the future.

It invited the Commission to carry out a comprehensive study of the taxation of alcohol and alcoholic beverages, including trends in competitive positions and in levels of taxes and prices, and to present the results of that study during the first half of 2007, with a view to facilitating further Council decision-making as regards alcohol taxation.