Commission to launch alcohol-awareness plan

By Ariel Alexovich

Date: 20/10/05

The European Commission is putting the finishing touches to a strategy to prevent alcohol abuse, but it has yet to decide whether to recommend that taxes on alcohol be used to finance awareness programmes.

Philippe Brunet, deputy head of cabinet for Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, told a conference this week that a Commission paper would focus on three areas of action: gathering more evidence about alcohol abuse, helping young people and adults practise more responsible behaviour and finding ways to raise funds to increase alcohol awareness.

He explained that the Commission did not yet know where it would obtain funds, with some parties favouring regulatory funding and some non-governmental organisations preferring to raise taxes on alcohol.

"For us, it will have to be somewhere in the middle of the polarised sides," said Brunet.

Brunet told the Third European Forum for Responsible Drinking in Brussels on Wednesday (19 October) that in order to reduce alcohol abuse, the EU needed to launch more education programmes and initiate stricter legislation against alcohol crimes.

Jean-Paul Repussard, in charge of road safety in the Commission's transport and energy department, said that adopting an EU-wide blood-alcohol content (BAC) level of 0.5 mg/ml would lower the number of drink-driving accidents. Last year, 43,000 people died in the EU in alcohol-related crashes.

Although proposal for standardised BAC legislation failed in 2001, resulting in only a recommendation asking member states to establish individual drink-driving BAC levels, Repussard said: "I think there's more willingness now to adopt these measures."

So far, alcohol awareness campaigns - especially those such as EuroBOB that emphasise the use of designated drivers - have been effective and well-received by young people, according to Repussard. But he said that mass media campaigns should be part of a wider crusade involving stronger law enforcement.

John Brock, chief executive of Belgium-based brewing giant InBev, stressed his company's "very serious" commitment to educating consumers about excessive consumption.

"Self-regulation is the choice of InBev and its partners," said Brock, adding: "We are committed to this."

Article reports that the European Commission was finalising a strategy to prevent alcohol abuse, but that it had yet to decide whether to recommend that taxes on alcohol be used to finance awareness programmes. The strategy was to focus on three areas of action: gathering more evidence about alcohol abuse, helping young people and adults practise more responsible behaviour and finding ways to raise funds to increase alcohol awareness.