As per media reports, six European Union countries—Austria, Belgium, France, Latvia, Slovenia and Spain—are seeking to introduce guidelines to curb alcohol consumption, including imposing higher taxes and placing restrictions on advertising. This is in sync with the European Commission’s proposal to introduce a cardiovascular health plan.
The Commission is currently collating evidence from interested parties on the cardiovascular health plan, which is due by the end of the year, according to a report in Politico.
These countries have raised concerns over alcohol during a recent roundtable organised by the Commission on cardiovascular disease. France “outlined key challenges best addressed at the EU level,” and sought “action on tobacco and alcohol taxation,” according to the document, which lays out different EU countries’ positions.
Latvia also highlighted EU action, including higher excise taxes and advertising restrictions on alcohol, while Austria “emphasised the importance of systemic, determinants-based measures, including on commercial environments that enable low-threshold access to tobacco, alcohol, and highly processed foods.”
Slovenia supports “stronger EU action on tobacco food and alcohol policies,” while Spanish representatives highlighted “the need to make progress at the European level in regulating “the social and commercial determinants of health related to food, alcohol, and tobacco.”
Belgium brought up the “need to build on several measures that are already part of the European Beating Cancer Plan, such as the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive and alcohol-related measures.”
Currently, the only EU requirement for alcohol manufacturers is to include a mandatory label on alcohol strength by volume. In the last mandate, the European Commission proposed further obligatory alcohol labelling on nutrition and health warnings, in the Farm to Fork Strategy, but it failed to garner support from the capitals, coming up against strong opposition from countries with large wine and beer industries.