Report on the implementation and evaluation of Directive 2008/118/EC concerning the general arrangements for excise duty

Council Directive 2008/118/EC 1 Article 45(2) states: “By 1 April 2015, the European Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report on the implementation of this Directive.” To gather evidence for this report, the Commission requested two external evaluation studies. The first evaluation study, on Chapter V of the Directive (i.e. rules on commercial movements of excise goods on which duty has already been paid) was published in 2015. The second study, which concentrated on Chapters III and IV of the Directive (i.e. provisions on tax warehousing and electronic control system), was published in 2016.

Each of the above studies consisted of a question based survey to Member States and to traders, the results of which were compared to ensure a coherent and consistent view of the issues in question. For both studies a series of case studies, which went into greater depth, were carried out in approximately a third of Member States. The Member States selected are considered representative, based on size of the country, geographical location and whether the Member State is a producer or a consumer of excise goods.

The Commission decided to carry out an evaluation of this regulatory area in the framework of the Commission’s REFIT programme. The detailed evaluation results are described in the Commission Staff Working Document that accompanies this report. Following the five key evaluation questions, relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency and EU added value, this evaluation assesses whether the intervention embodied in Directive 2008/118/EC has satisfied the intended objectives and to what extent it has achieved its expected effects.

EUR-Lex: SWD(2017)131: Commission Staff Working Document on the REFIT evaluation of Directive 2008/118/EC and on the implementation of the Directive http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2017:131:FIN

European Parliament: European Parliamentary Research Service: Briefing: Implementation Appraisal, March 2018: General arrangements for excise duty – H armonisation and simplification (Revision of Directive 2008/118/EC) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2018/615653/EPRS_BRI(2018)615653_EN.pdf

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