Alcohol and Health Forum Updates

The third Plenary Session of the Alcohol and Health Forum was held in Brussels on Thursday 13th November.

The agenda included the following items:

Update of members' commitments

A total of 102 commitments for concrete action have been made by 57 out of 59 members of the Alcohol and Health Forum. A summary report of commitments was presented by Wilfried Kamphausen at the meeting and will be available on the Commission Website:

http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/alcohol/Forum/alcohol_forum_en.htm

A future on-line data base of commitments will soon be available on the Commission Website.

Monitoring and evaluation process

A presentation on Monitoring and Evaluation was given by Tom Ling, from RAND.

The Schedule for reporting on commitments is as follows:

Before end 2008: Circulation of draft template for interim/final report
By mid January: comments from Forum members on template design
By end January: provision of final template
By end march: submission of intermediate or final reports on all commitments
April 2009: publication on Forum's website.

The Eurocare Secretariat will be holding an informal one day workshop on “Evaluation and Monitoring of Commitments” on 4 th December 2008 in Brussels. This workshop is open to all Eurocare members and other NGOs in the Forum, and will be useful to discuss the practicalities of the monitoring, and exchange ideas.

1.- Reporting from the Science Group

On behalf of the Chair of the Science Group, Professor Ian Gilmore (Royal College of Physicians, London, UK), Dr. Jacek MOSKALEWICZ (Institute of Psychiatry & Neurology, Warsaw, Poland) gave an update of the second Meeting of the Group, which took place on Thursday 30th October 2008, in Brussels.

A working group has been set up for the Science Group's mandate to investigate “ The impact of marketing communication on the volume (and patterns) of consumption of alcoholic beverages, especially by young people”.

The next meeting of the Science Group will be held on 23rd February; a draft interim report on the findings is expected to be presented at the next Forum meeting in March 2009.

The full list of experts can be found here:

http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/alcohol/Forum/alcohol_science_group_en.htm

2.- Reporting from the Marketing Communication Task Force

The last Task Force Meeting was held on Wednesday 12 th November 2008 in Brussels.

The issue of ‘Social Marketing' was discussed, and as part of the remit of the Task Force, it is envisaged that the following reports will be prepared and presented to the Forum:

a report on Social Marketing
a report on Self Regulation
a report on “Targeting/ not targeting” youth

A report of the Task Force Meeting will follow shortly.

All presentations given during the Task Force Workshop of 16 th July 2008 in Brussels can be found here:

http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/alcohol/Forum/ev_20080716_en.htm

The next Marketing Communication Task Force will be held on 10th March 2008.

it included a series of presentations made by participants as well as discussion.

Information about the previous Task Force Meeting,

3.- Reporting from the Youth Task Force

The last meeting of the Youth Task Force was held on 18th September 2008 in Luxembourg. Participants further discussed the “Clearing House” concept, and it is envisaged that these discussions will continue in forthcoming meetings.

A Summary Report as well as the Presentations given during the meeting can be found here:

http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/alcohol/Forum/alcohol_forum_en.htm

The next meeting of the Task Force will be held on 20th January 2009 in Luxembourg.

4.- Reporting on the progress of the RAND study on "Affordability of Alcoholic Beverages"

Lila Rabinovich, of RAND, presented the interim findings of the report commissioned by DG Sanco “Understanding the Links between Alcohol Affordability and Harms in the EU”. An animated debate followed, and representatives of different alcohol producing companies expressed their doubts regarding both the methodologies and findings; a representative of the wine producers pointed out that this report had not been commissioned as a result of a consensus between Forum members. Chair Robert Madelin defended the need for such a report, claiming that “it was good use of taxpayer's money” to investigate the issue of affordability as a driver of harm, as he once again emphasised the “ multifactorial nature” of alcohol related harm.

The final interim report is expected to be circulated before the end of 2008.

Other news from the Forum:

On- line ‘Alcohol Library'

An ‘Alcohol Library' has been created on the European Commission Website to include relevant documents from stakeholders taking part in the Forum. It can be accessed here:

http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/alcohol/Forum/alcohol_library_en.htm