SCOTLAND'S planned minimum alcohol price is in breach of EU rules as it would act as a barrier to drink imports, the European Commission said.
Brussels officials said the 50p per unit of alcohol price would discriminate against French brandy producers. They warned it would prevent importers from launching new products, citing Irish and Swedish cider brands that discounted to gain a foothold in the Scots market.
The EC's objection emerged in September but the full contents of opinion were made public yesterday. It came as the UK Government announced plans for a 45p per unit minimum price south of the Border.
Catherine Day, the general secretary of the European Commission, said the Scottish Government's plan was "in breach" of EU rules protecting free trade among member countries. The claimed health benefits, she said, were not "proportionate" to the impact on trade.
She said: "Eighty two per cent of French Brandy is sold at a price lower than 50p per alcohol unit and only 3% of malt whisky is sold at a price lower than 50p per alcohol unit, which indicates a restrictive effect of the measure on foreign produced spirit in comparison to Scotch Whisky."
On establishing new products, she added: "Foreign suppliers – particularly from Ireland and Sweden – have used pricing strategies such as discounting and multi-pack offers.
"These pricing strategies will no longer be possible."
Given David Cameron's backing for minimum pricing, the UK Government has vowed to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Holyrood ministers.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Minimum pricing will save lives and reduce harm caused by alcohol misuse.
"We believe the policy, backed by expert opinion, is the most effective measure.
"We are confident that we can demonstrate minimum price is justified on public health and social grounds."
Campaign group Alcohol Focus Scotland said that it "profoundly disagreed" with the EC's verdict.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article