Skip to main content
Taxation and Customs Union

Public consultation on excise duties applied to manufactured tobacco

Title

Consultation on excise duties applied to manufactured tobacco

Policy fields

Taxation

Target groups

The European Commission seeks the views of all interested parties on a set of possible options for revision of Directive 2011/64/EU.

Period of consultation

From 17/11/2016 to 16/02/2017

Objective of the consultation

This consultation was intended to gather the views of EU citizens and stakeholders on a set of possible options for the revision of Directive 2011/64/EU.

Council Directive 2011/64/EU sets out EU rules on the structure and rates of excise duty applied to manufactured tobacco. In particular, it defines and classifies various manufactured tobacco products according to their characteristics and lays down the relevant minimum rates of excise duty for the different types of products. The purpose of the Directive is to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market and a high level of health protection.

Every four years, the European Commission is required to submit a report to the Council on the rates and the structure of excise duties, accompanied - where appropriate – by a proposal for the revision of the Directive. The latest report (21 December 2015) was prepared in the context of the Regulatory Fitness and Performance Programme (REFIT) and was supported by an external study.

According to the Commission report, there might be scope to improve Directive 2011/64/EU in order to reduce administrative burden for both Member States and economic operators and reduce distortions in the internal market. The ECOFIN Council discussed the Commission report and adopted a set of conclusions on 8 March 2016 requesting the Commission to carry out the necessary studies to prepare a possible legislative proposal for revision of the Directive. On 16 June 2016 the European Commission published an Inception Impact Assessment providing the background and a first description of the problems and possible policy options under analysis.

How to submit your contribution

This public consultation has ended.

View the consultation document

Consultation document

Contact details

responsible service

DG TAXUD – Directorate C – Indirect Taxation

Unit C2 Indirect Taxes other than VAT

e-mail

TAXUD-UNIT-C2atec [dot] europa [dot] eu (TAXUD-UNIT-C2[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

postal address

European Commission
Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union
Rue de Spa 3, Office 5/82
B-1049 Brussels

View the contributions

In the interests of transparency, organisations have been invited to provide the public with relevant information about themselves by registering in the Transparency Register and subscribing to its Code of Conduct.

The Commission has dealt with contributions and personal data according to the Specific Privacy Statement attached to this consultation.
The public consultation generated more than 7 500 contributions. The submissions and a simplified statistics report of the results of the public consultation are published here.

The contributions reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Next steps

The Commission will analyse the content of the contributions received and produce a synopsis report of the entire consultation result. The synopsis report will be an integral part of the Impact Assessment report, which is scheduled for publication in Q4 2017.