EU Directives 92/12 and 08/118
Created on 18th August 2005 Last Modified on the 24th of August 2009
In 2002, the Commission commenced a major review of Articles 7-10 of Directive 92/12/EEC; this is the part of the Directive that covers the sale of duty-paid excise goods on board ships and aircraft and which causes the problems for mobile operators outlined in the Trading Environment section of this site. The International Travel Retail Confederation (ITRC), which subsequently became the European Travel Retail Council, therefore made a detailed submission to the Commission on behalf of all European travel retail operators. The submission identified the problems faced by operators, and suggested both a short-term solution (clearance on board) as well as other more innovative possibilities for the longer term. Representatives of both the ITRC and UKTRF had meetings with the relevant Commission officials to press our case, and the UKTRF also provided a supplementary memorandum to the Commission.
The Commission duly published its report of the review in April 2004. Whilst the report fully recognised the problems faced by mobile operators, (several pages were devoted to sales on board ships and aircraft), there were no substantive proposals to resolve them. The Commission suggested that the introduction of simplified procedures should be authorised by simple administrative agreement rather than full bilaterals, but this is of little use if some Member States are not minded to enter into such arrangements. The report also stated that "to provide a satisfactory response to traders' legitimate demands for simplification, the Commission calls on the Member States to collaborate with it in drawing up common simplified procedures whilst remaining within the existing legal framework". Fine in theory, but in practice nothing at all happened to implement this.
The UKTRF and ETRC therefore sought an alternative solution to the problem. In January 2005, ETRC and ECSA (European Community Shipowners Associations) gave a joint presentation to a meeting in Brussels of the Excise Committee of the EU. This was an historic occasion - the first time ever that representatives of commercial interests had been allowed to meet directly with the Excise Committee and the first time that ECSA and ETRC had shared a platform together. The presentation proposed that two complementary measures be introduced; firstly, the granting of tax warehouse status to ships and aircraft and secondly, the introduction of a single common identifying mark for excise products sold on board ships and aircraft undertaking intra-EU journeys. These measures would together overcome all of the problems experienced by mobile operators since 1999 and were enthusiastically supported by the Commission itself. However, there was insufficient support from the Member States for the Commission to pursue these proposals further.
Changes to the text of the Directive therefore remained the only viable option. In January 2006, the Commission publilshed a consultaion paper, primarily to seek views on the changes to the Directive necessary for the introduction of EMCS, but which also invited views on the simplification for traders involved in cross-border business. Both the UKTRF and ETRC therefore made strong submissions to the consultation; a copy of the UKTRF submission can be seen by clicking on the link below.
However following this consultation, a new EU Directive was agreed in 2008 - 08/118/EEC - which replaced Directive 92/12, and contained the changes necessry for the introduction of EMCS (Excise Movement and Control System), scheduled for 2010. Unfortunately despite all of our efforts and representations, there is nothing in the new Directive 08/118 which addresses the problems faced by mobile operators. The UKTRF will continue to press for a solution to these problems, although it is difficult at this stage to identify any further alternatives.
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