EU Commissioner attacked in Customs seizures row

John Healey, the UK Treasury Minister responsible for indirect taxes, has accused Frits Bolkestein, European Commissioner for the Single Market, of trying to play 'the popular hero'. On 18 September 2002 Mr Bolkestein gave the UK Government two months in which to provide detailed answers on Customs' search and seizure policies. The row concerns UK Customs officers' alleged harassment of 'booze cruisers' whereby UK citizens travel to the Continent to purchase alcohol and tobacco. If Mr Bolkestein is not satisfied, he will begin a process that could ultimately end in the European Court of Justice, to defend what he has described as the 'fundamental right' to shop across borders within the European Union.