Bolkestein had championed a plan to eradicate big differences in duty rates that fly in the face of the Single Market concept, encouraging cross-border shopping and smuggling. He was forced to shelve the plans which would have been rejected as politically unacceptable in low tax countries such France and Germany.
EU: Bolkestein persists in harmonisation quest
The EU's internal market commissioner, Frits Bolkestein, has pledged to devise a new plan to tackle the disparity in EU alcohol taxation and the resultant price differentials following the rejection of his plans for a shake-up of EU excise duty rates.