The European Union substantially increased Travellers' Allowances last night to E.430 (?290/$565) for those entering by air and sea and to E.300 (?202/$394) for travellers entering the EU by land borders.

European Union Finance Ministers effectively more than doubled the previous allowance of E.175 (?118/$230) which is good news, although these allowances are not technically ‘duty free’ as they have been widely reported by a lot of media. They refer to the total value of goods bought in a non-EU country which may be imported by the traveller on one trip.
It should also be noted that perfume has also been taken out of the volume allowance and lumped into the two value allowance quotas.
The new two-tier allowances come into force in early 2007 and will benefit travellers taking domestic shopping trips to non-EU countries who then re-enter the EU as their final destination. The EU rationalised that it had set a lower level for travellers entering the EU by land to regulate cross-border alcohol shopping.
UK Chancellor Gordon Brown said he welcomed the rise, after the UK campaigned for the increase to reflect the increase in inflation since the allowance was last set in 1994. But it does fall substantially short of the ?1,000 ($1,947) limit that the UK Chancellor has argued for over the last two years.
He said: ‘We have campaigned long and hard for the updating of this allowance, which has not been reviewed since 1994, and we will continue to campaign for a further increase at the next review in four years' time.’