Nordic Countries want to halve EU personal import quotas for alcohol - and make them binding

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The health ministers of the Nordic Countries have called for reducing the non-binding limits for personal imports of alcoholic beverages from other member states.
      At their meeting in Copenhagen on Monday, the ministers called for halving the advisory limits of ten litres of strong spirits, 20 litres of fortified and sparkling wines, 90 litres of table wines, and 110 litres of beer. They also advocated making the limits binding.
      The health ministers expressed concern over the implications of large amounts of strong spirits flowing into the Nordic region from countries with a lower tax on alcohol.
      One Finnish official at the meeting, Ismo Tuominen of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, said that the proposal does not mean that all EU countries should set a mandatory upper limit if they do not want to. The Nordic EU members simply want to be allowed to do so if they wish.
     
The ministers also proposed a minimum tax for wine. In many EU countries there is no wine tax at all. They also called for a sharp increase in the minimum tax on strong spirits in all member states.
      The proposals made by the ministers of health came at the request of the prime ministers of the countries concerned.
     
The Nordic ministers of health urged the World Health Organisation to study the economic impact of the health damage caused by alcohol.
      Finland’s Minister of Social Services, Liisa Hyssälä (Centre), said that the EU must not focus exclusively on economics. She feels that welfare policy is important, and that alcohol affairs are an important part of it.
      The traditional Nordic restrictive alcohol policy based on public health concerns has been undermined by the view that prevails in the rest of the EU, in which alcohol is seen as one commercial commodity among many others.
      The Nordic Countries have been at the receiving end of a domino effect. Estonia’s low prices forced Finland to bring down its alcohol tax when import quotas within the EU ended, and after Estonia became a member. Meanwhile, pressure from Germany forced Denmark to bring down its prices, and the Danish and Finnish moves are pushing neighbouring Sweden in the same direction.
      The decisions of the EU also have repercussions on the non-EU countries Norway and Iceland.
     
Hyssälä said that she believes that the common strategy of the Nordic EU member states could make the rest of the EU listen more attentively than before.
      Asked why it has taken such a long time to set up a common Nordic strategy, Hyssälä said that the change in conditions is a possible reason.
      "There has been an increase in alcohol-related travel between Sweden and Denmark. It has had a clear impact on sales at [the Swedish alcohol retail monopoly] Systembolaget. There is a grey market in Sweden. Alcohol is being sold to schoolchildren in stairways", she said.
      Ismo Tuominen notes that even the more southerly member states are paying serious attention to the harm caused by alcohol, something which he says could make it easier for the Nordic Countries to push through their points of view on the alcohol question.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Consumption of alcohol bought in Finland increases by 7.6 percent in first half of 2004 (3.9.2004)
  Little support for quick rise in alcohol tax - liquor tourism to Estonia eases somewhat (10.8.2004)
  Cheaper alcohol sparks surge in retail sales nationwide (12.3.2004)

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