MEPs demand ‘alcopop’ controls

Date: 19/06/1997

MORE than 200 MEPs have given their backing to a campaign to clamp down on 'alcopops', the sweet-tasting alcoholic drinks which have become popular with under-age drinkers.

Euro MPs from across the political spectrum signed a declaration this week calling for better marketing controls on the drinks, reflecting concern that they are being cynically targeted at children through the use of colourful packaging.

They also intend to seek amendments to the Union's food labelling directive to try to tackle the problem.

British Socialist MEP Eryl McNally, who drafted the declaration, claims the drinks are sweetened to disguise their alcoholic content which, in some cases, can be as high as 8&percent;. “All the research shows that the biggest market for these drinks is among 12 to 14-year-olds. It is morally reprehensible,” she said, adding that children who drank alcopops risked alcoholism, accidents, pregnancy or choking to death if they were sick.

The Parliament's move comes in the wake of calls from Swedish Health Minister Margot Wallström for EU guidelines on the marketing and sale of alcopops which would restrict or prohibit campaigns which targeted the young.

Both Wallström and McNally argue that voluntary marketing codes for drinks manufacturers have failed, and say that tax measures are needed to make alcopops more expensive and thus less attractive to youngsters.

McNally is also calling on Health Commissioner Pádraig Flynn to launch a campaign warning of the dangers of alcopops. Flynn has already set up a working group on alcohol and health, made up of experts from non-governmental organisations and member states, which met for the first time last week.

But a spokeswoman for Flynn stressed that the Commission had no power to impose EU-wide controls on the marketing of such drinks and it was up to member state governments to take action.