Brussels, Nov 7 - European Union finance ministers failed on Tuesday to reach a deal on possible increased duties on beer and spirits but an agreement is near, a deputy finance minister of the Czech Republic said.
"We are quite happy that finally we agreed on some compromise proposal where beer is excluded from the tax changes," Tomas Zidek said. Zidek said Scandinavian countries still had reservations about the compromise and it will have to be discussed further at the next meeting of EU finance ministers at the end of November.
The European Union's executive arm has proposed a 31 percent increase in the minimum EU duty on beer and spirits to reflect inflation since the tax was last set 14 years ago.
The planned rise, which would need the unanimous approval of the EU's 25 member states, would add one euro cent (about 1.3 U.S. cents) to the price of a half litre of beer.