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How a vote today could have serious consequences for wine in Europe

14 February 2022 By Patrick Schmitt

The European Parliament is voting today on whether to adopt the recommendations of a beating cancer report, which could make health warnings mandatory on wine – among other proposed measures for alcoholic drinks in Europe, which we’ve listed below.

In December last year, as reported by db at the time, the European Commission approved the conclusion of a report from BECA – the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Beating Cancer – which stated that any amount of alcohol consumption carries a health risk; there is “no safe level”.

With 29 votes in favour, and just one against (along with four abstentions), it meant that this report had to be studied, before a further vote by the European Parliament on its findings, which takes place today, on 14 February.

Following this, should the report by fully adopted, wine producers in the EU’s 27 member nations could face a series of restrictions, which may concern the way the product is promoted, and how it’s priced, while it’s also feared that the EU could stop funding anything related to the making of alcoholic drinks, vineyard management included.

The wine industry has hit back at the findings of the BECA report, with the Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins (CEEV) stressing that “the moderate consumption of wine, particularly as part of the Mediterranean diet and as part of a healthy lifestyles, is associated with greater longevity and the prevention of disease”.

It has also pointed out that the “no safe level” assumption is based on a single study – Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) study published by The Lancet in 2018 – which “has been severely criticized by the scientific community for its analytical flaws”, according to the CEEV.

See below for what’s being proposed, according to the report, as published by the European Parliament.

The justification for the BECA report proposals:

Ethanol and acetaldehyde from the metabolism of ethanol in alcoholic beverages are classified as carcinogenic to humans by the IARC [the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of The World Health Organisation], and that in Europe an estimated 10% of all cancer cases in men and 3% of all cancer cases in women are attributable to alcohol consumption.
The lower the amount of alcohol consumed, the lower the risk of developing cancer is.
Alcohol consumption is a risk factor for many different cancers, such as oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colorectal and female breast cancer.
The study referred to by WHO which recognises that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption when it comes to cancer prevention, and stresses the need to take this into account when devising and implementing cancer prevention policy.

The proposals from the BECA report

Welcomes a target of achieving a reduction of at least 10% in the harmful use of alcohol by 2025;
Encourages the Commission and the Member States to promote actions to reduce and prevent alcohol-related harm within the framework of a revised EU alcohol strategy*, including a European zero alcohol consumption strategy of for minors, accompanied, where appropriate, by legislative proposals, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity and current national legislation on age limits on alcohol consumption;
Supports the provision of better information to consumers by improving the labelling of alcohol beverages to include health warning labels and introducing the mandatory indication of the list of ingredients and nutritional information, and in addition, by introducing digital labelling;
Asks the Commission to take specific actions targeting heavy and risky drinking**; considers it important to protect minors from commercial communication on alcohol consumption, as well as product placement and sponsorship of alcohol brands, including in the digital environment, as advertising must not be aimed specifically at minors and not encourage alcohol consumption;
Calls for the prohibition of alcohol advertising at sport events when those events are mainly attended by minors, and calls for the prohibition of alcohol sponsorship of sport;
Calls for the close monitoring of the implementation of the revised Audiovisual Media Service Directive***;
Calls for the proposed Digital Services Act to strengthen the ability of Member States to uphold and enforce legislation seeking to protect minors and other vulnerable populations from commercial communication for alcoholic beverages;
Encourages the allocation of public funds for national and European awareness campaigns;
Supports the planned review of EU legislation on the taxation of alcohol and on cross-border purchases of alcohol by private individuals and a review of alcohol pricing policies, including considering an increase of taxes on alcoholic beverages;

It’s worth noting that this same report is also looking to further crack down on tobacco, stating that it “supports the Commission’s proposal to update the Council recommendation of 30 November 2009 on smoke-free environments, to extend its coverage to emerging products, such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, and to extend smoke-free environments to include outdoor spaces.”

* Commission communication of 24 October 2006 on a EU strategy to support Member States in reducing alcohol-related harm (COM(2006)0625).

* https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(21)00279-5/fulltext

* Directive (EU) 2018/1808 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 November 2018 amending Directive 2010/13/EU on the coordination of certain provisions laid down by law, regulation or administrative action in Member States concerning the provision of audiovisual media services (Audiovisual Media Services Directive) in view of changing market realities, OJ L 303, 28.11.2018, p. 69.

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