Health commissioner turns to drink

Presenting early results from a grouping of experts targeting diet, physical activity and health - commonly known as the obesity platform - last week, European health commissioner Markos Kyprianou was full of praise for the project. "This is a new approach to a complex problem that cannot be solved through legislation," said the Cypriot.

The obesity platform groups together doctors, politicians, industry groups and health lobbyists with the aim of finding non-legislative ways to help Europeans lose weight. And the European Commission directorate-general for health and consumer protection (DG Sanco) thinks our eating habits should not be the only thing to benefit from the platform approach. An EU alcohol strategy published last month included plans to set up an ‘alcohol and health forum’, using the obesity platform as a model.

This "new approach" builds on the old idea of roundtable discussions between different interest groups by agreeing common aims early on. The Barroso Commission’s commitment to cutting back on EU red tape has given voluntary agreements an added appeal.

Finding a way to draw up successful alternatives to legislation is particularly attractive for the Commission when it comes to health: an area in which its competences are limited.

The obesity platform has started to yield results, with industry heavyweights including McDonald’s and Coca-Cola agreeing voluntary measures such as advertising restrictions and new health labels. But the platform project has prompted accusations that the Commission is being soft on industry, and claims that measures agreed by big business will never make us swap chocolate for rice cakes.

The alcohol forum will probably have to struggle even harder to overcome concerns from industry and public health lobbyists.

Kyprianou has said he hopes to have the same success with alcohol as food. "The issues are similar," he told journalists this month. "We still have to deal with responsible consumption and excessive consumption."

Changes to advertising and agreements not to target young people are two of the voluntary measures discussed with food makers that could also be on the table for the alcohol industry, he added.

The ‘young people’ in question are however very different. For the food industry attention has focused on the under-12s; for drinks producers the main problem is teenagers.

This is just one area in which superficially similar problems - getting people to eat less fat and to drink less alcohol - can be very different. Kyprianou pointed out that, while the obesity platform has in some cases encouraged changing the products themselves, this will not be an option for the alcohol forum.

Kyprianou’s comment points to the biggest difference between the obesity and alcohol projects. Food groups could in theory change their products to meet low sugar and fat criteria, while keeping sales high.

Alcohol producers have less room for manoeuvre before sales go down.

And while no healthy eater would recommend cutting food out altogether, there are lobby groups which would welcome a total ban on alcohol.

Temperance voices are a minority in Europe but remain vocal enough to keep industry on its guard.

Mainstream EU public health groups stress that they are not calling for prohibition, but say that Europeans will have to reduce drastically the amount they drink in order to reduce health and social problems.

The challenge is to find ways of changing drinking patterns - encouraging responsible drinking, as the Commission would put it - without losing billions of euros in alcohol sales.

Kyprianou is not this time around in the mood to offer any concessions to industry. "Surprisingly aggressive lobbying" from industry before the strategy came out, according to the commissioner, has created "doubts as to their willingness to cooperate. Now more than before they will have to prove that they are willing to work with us."

The obesity platform may have given the Commission reasons to praise industry actions but the alcohol forum will be the real test of DG Sanco’s new approach to health.

Presenting early results from a grouping of experts targeting diet, physical activity and health - commonly known as the obesity platform - last week, European health commissioner Markos Kyprianou was full of praise for the project. "This is a new approach to a complex problem that cannot be solved through legislation," said the Cypriot.