Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:1999:104
Date: 1999-02-25
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Taxation;Excise duties
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: France

Summary of the Judgment 
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) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-166/98 
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) 
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 legis­
lature 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 bev­
erages was not to harmonise taxation 
as between wine and beer. Under the 
powers expressly conferred on it by 
Article 99 of the Treaty (now Arti­
cle 93 EC), and in order to ensure the 
establishment and operation of the 
internal market, the Council was seek­
ing to harmonise, first, national legis­
lation on excise duty applicable to wine 
and, secondly, that relating to excise 
duty on beer. Moreover, the Commu­
nity 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. 
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