Portugal’s restaurateurs claim they are suffering discrimination and are to appeal to the Constitutional Court to force the VAT rate on meals back down to 13%.
The restaurant owners movement claim that there is inequality as restaurant owners are not entitled to any unemployment benefits yet they are forced to pay social security like everyone else.
The movement's coordinator said that restaurant owners have been betrayed by this government which keeps promising to reduce the VAT rate from 23% to a more manageable 13%, yet has failed to do so.
Reversion to the Constitutional Court may be a good move as the judges currently seems set against the government and are resolute in the face of stiff political winds, most recently from the President of the EC, Barroso himself.
