Taxes in the EU countries are an important source of government budget source.
The world recession and obligation to keep budget discipline as one of the obligatory criteria of quaranting common monetary policy creates possibilities for reforming tax systems of each EU Members State.
The excise tax as one form of indirect taxes refers to such products as: motor fuel, heating oil and gas, alcohol and tobacco products. Production and trading taxes of these group of products are harmonized by the EU regulates, however there are also products which are not harmonized excise – duty goods.
The aim of the paper is an analysis of changes in excise tax policy in different EU countries against fiscal policy and integration processes. On the basis of EUROSTAT and OECD statistics authors try to explain how the EU Member States behave having free choice of the most tax rates with special attention to excise tax under recession.