Swedes react soberly to ‘alcopop’ drinks

Date: 20/02/1997

By Mark Turner

CALLS for action to allow EU governments to control the sale of 'alcopops' are likely to go unheeded, say European Commission officials, because the institution is powerless to act and member states are unlikely to seize the initiative.

Swedish temperance groups have voiced increasing concern that Union competition rules do not allow the country to control the sale of such drinks, known in the industry as fruit-flavoured alcoholic beverages (FFABs).

Alcopops have risen to prominence over the past year. The most popular varieties - 'Hooch' and 'Two Dogs' - are sweet, lemon-flavoured drinks aimed at the younger alcohol drinker.

Sales in the UK are worth around 70 million ecu a year, far more than anywhere else in Europe. But large brewing companies are now beginning to market their products in the rest of the EU, including Scandinavia.

Critics claim that although they are more potent than many beers, alcopops' soft-drink image is particularly attractive to under-age drinkers. In the UK, for example, research suggests that as many as a third of 15 to17-year-olds have tried them.

These findings, and a traditional public sensitivity to alcohol, prompted the Swedish alcohol monopoly Systembolaget to decide against stocking the product.

But following warnings that this would breach EU free market rules, it was forced to retract the decision.

This inflamed tempers already frayed by internal market rules on alcohol, the subject of a long-running battle between Sweden and the European Commission.

Following a lively debate in the Swedish parliament, Swedish Green MEP Ulf Holm insisted something must be done. “Does the Commission believe that there is nothing more sacrosanct than free trade?” he asked.

But Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn has said that while the Commission “shares concerns about the sale of alcoholic drinks to youth, and the danger that 'alcopops' can lead to a growth in excessive consumption of alcohol”, there is no EU-level code regarding the denomination, packing and marketing of alcoholic lemonades.

Given that public health policy remains largely the preserve of national governments, there is little the Commission could do even if it wanted to.

An official said this week that Swedish calls for action were unlikely to be answered by other member states, especially in light of the controversy over the Commission's proposed ban on tobacco advertising.

Andrew Chevis of the Portman Group, which promotes the concept of 'sensible drinking', strongly defended alcopops, saying: “Clearly these products need to abide by the industry's best practice of product labelling and marketing because of possible confusion. But most alcopops are clearly drunk by people in their twenties and older.”