EU council calls for an alcohol strategy
EU COUNCIL CALLS FOR ALCOHOL STRATEGY
Director of IAS Katherine Brown says:
“Europe is the heaviest drinking region in the world, so it is vital the EU has a strategy that allows Member States to effectively tackle alcohol harm. There have been repeated calls for the Commission to produce an EU Alcohol Strategy, including from the Parliament, Member States and health bodies. Today’s call from the Council must be heeded. With alcohol harm costing societies in Europe €155,8 billion each year, we can’t afford for the Commission not to take action in this vital policy area.”
The Council calls on the European Commission to continue to support Member States in their efforts to reduce alcohol-related harm, while fully respecting the principle of subsidiarity and proportionality. It states that, by the end of 2016, a comprehensive EU strategy should be adopted with a cross-border dimension and an EU added value as a follow up to the first EU Alcohol Strategy (2006-2012) based on the work of the Committee of National Alcohol Policy and Action (CNAPA) as well as the WHO Global Strategy and WHO European Action Plan 2012-2020.
The Council Conclusions stress that harmful use of alcohol is recognised as an important risk factor in the need to reduce the burden of alcohol-related avoidable deaths, chronic diseases, injuries, violence, health inequalities and other social consequences to third parties. The Council emphasises that the reduction of alcohol-related harm requires action on policies across a range of sectors, both at national and at EU level.
(Articolo pubblicato dal CUFRAD sul sito www.alcolnews.it)