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Minimum alcohol prices are against EU law
Sunday, 15th March 2009
UKIP leader Nigel Farage MEP has poured cold water on a call to impose a minimum price on alcohol – the EU would not let us do it, he says.
The government's top medical adviser, Sir Liam Donaldson, is proposing that alcohol should priced at a minimum of 50 pence per unit.
Mr Farage said: "Minimum alcohol prices? How out of touch Sir Liam Donaldson is. He's forgotten, if he ever knew, that we gave away that power to Brussels years ago.
"This would be an unlawful restriction on inter-community trade under Article 28. Whether you think this is a good thing or a bad thing is another matter entirely, but it's simply not in the competence of the UK government to do such a thing.
"It falls under the 75% of our laws that are made by foreigners in Brussels and which we have to obey whatever we think about them."
Mr Farage added: "Perhaps the British government should have a word or two with their senior civil servants and people like the Chief Medical Officer, to remind them how much of the power to make law in this country they've already given away?"
Read what Nigel Farage has to say at Guardian Online
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