Eurocare Updates

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

As part of the preparatory work for the release of a Global Strategy to reduce alcohol related harm, the WHO will hold a round table meeting with NGOs and health professionals on 24-25 November 2008 in the WHO headquarters in Geneva.

In particular, the Resolution notes that:

1. Although on the whole the health of young people in Europe is satisfactory, certain fields are of particular concern such as nutrition, physical activity, alcohol abuse, sexual and mental health;

2. Particular attention should be paid to promoting a healthy lifestyle and preventive measures, especially in the context of sexual activity, alcohol abuse and drug use, smoking, eating disorders, obesity, violence, gambling and addiction to information and communication technologies;

Eurocare welcomes the initiative of the WHO in coordinating a global response to reducing alcohol related harm.

Deadline for submissions has been extended to 15th November
http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/activities/hearing/en/index.html

To read the full response sent in by Eurocare click here

See also some of the contributions sent by Eurocare members: IAS, IOGT-NTO, NORDAN, STAP. Actis

Strasbourg, 22 October 2008. The rapporteur for the text in ENVI committee, MEP Ms Renate Sommer (EPP-ED DE), met the European Parliament Intergroup on wine, tradition and quality for an exchange of views on the labelling regulation ( COM(2008) 40 final. Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the provision of food information to consumers).

9 October, Berlin. EASA's President Jean-Pierre Teyssier spoke at the conference entitled "Alcohol advertising - impact and (self)control" on 25 September, which was organised by the German Drug Commissioner Sabine Bätzing.

The summary report of the third meeting of the Task Force on Youth-Specific aspects of Alcohol (18 September) is now available on the Public Health section of the DG SANCO website.

Geneva, 2 October. Each year, more than two million people die from alcohol-related causes which is why World Health Organization (WHO) was asked by its Member States in May at the World Health Assembly to develop a global strategy to combat the harmful use of alcohol. All parties with an interest in reducing the harmful use of alcohol are now invited to share their views in a public hearing being organized by the World Health Organization (WHO). The one month web-based hearing will run between 3 and 31 October.

The brewers have learned from the spirits industry and have started experimenting with different flavours and admixtures of different non-alcoholic beverages. A beer mixed with energy drink is already available in Germany (check the CAB website: http://www.cab-drink.com/). The promotion of such drinks definitely targets young people. The problem from the legislative point of view is – especially in Germany – that this drink is based on beer. This makes it cheap (low tax) and the legal purchase age for beer is 16 years (in Germany). Brewers were certainly happy after the introduction of the special tax on spirit based Alcopops.

These developments should be observed closely.

A debate hosted by Lambert Van Nistelrooij MEP and Claude Moraes MEP, Co-Presidents of the Intergroup on Ageing, in cooperation with AGE and EPHA on the 14th of October 2008 from 08:45-12:00 in Room A5E-2 at the European Parlieament, Brussels.

For PDF of Program click here..