Europe’s brewers support Swedish efforts to fight alcohol-abuse but disagree on approach
“The Swedish Presidency can be assured of our ongoing commitment towards fighting alcohol-related harm, in particular among young people and especially minors,” The Brewers of Europe Secretary General, Rodolphe de Looz-Corswarem stated ahead of the meeting. “The Brewers of Europe and its members’ leading role within the EU Alcohol and Health Forum is a strong proof of our commitment,” he pointed out.
However, Europe’s brewers do not share the Swedish approach to reducing alcohol abuse by aiming at lowering overall alcohol consumption by measures of prohibition, de Looz-Corswarem pointed out. “This equation is too simplistic and has not proven successful,” he said in reference to the result of a new report by the Swedish Retailer Institute (HUI) on the Swedish alcohol policy presented by the Brewers of Europe recently.
The report showed that the very significant increase (30 percent) in overall alcohol consumption in Sweden over the last 15 years has in proportion not lead to negative health effects as claimed by proponents of the ‘lower consumption equals lower-risk theory.’
The report also dismissed the method of raising alcohol taxes to lower consumption and hence lower abuse. “This to us in the brewing sector proves again that lowering overall consumption as a means to reducing harm is not a sustainable strategy,” de Looz-Corswarem said.
“Unlike these population-wide measures, which mainly hit the occasional and responsible drinker, we rather advocate an approach targeting solely the problem groups of excessive drinkers,” he added.
Despite these differing approaches, The Brewers of Europe were willing to work in close partnership with the Swedish EU Presidency and other stakeholders to fine-tune the EU’s alcohol strategy aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm, de-Looz Corswarem said. “We want to continue playing a constructive role in this debate. Our approaches might be different but we share the same objective,” he concluded.
