Spirits producers report good progress on implementation of social responsibility commitments

26 November 2008. The European Spirits Organisation – CEPS presented its third annual report documenting members' progress on their social responsibility commitments. The CEPS Charter implementation report highlights industry activities to tackle alcohol related harm in Europe from August 2007 to July 2008.

In its third year, the report details the progress done in the implementation of the 2005 CEPS Charter on Responsible Alcohol Consumption in the 26 EU countries where CEPS has national member associations.

Some of the initiatives taken by the members include: Estonia adopted a marketing code in March 2008, industry participated in information and/or server training campaigns to tackle underage drinking in 17 countries (up from 13 last year), the first industry-sponsored campaign against drink-driving was run in Bulgaria and new consumer information websites were launched in the Czech Republic and Spain, together with the EU portal www.responsibledrinking.eu.

The Charter implementation report is published together with the Drinks Industry Initiatives Brochure 2008, jointly issued by CEPS and the European Forum for Responsible Drinking (EFRD), which lists the wide array of European spirits industry programmes to tackle alcohol related harm and promote responsible drinking patterns in detail.

CEPS has said that further progress is needed to implement the CEPS Charter by the end-2010 deadline and that this will require more practical and focussed assistance by the CEPS Secretariat and EFRD, especially towards countries where self-regulation is still a relatively new concept such as the newer EU member states.