Election September 2006
In the general election in September 2006 a new majority came to the Parliament and a four party coalition government was formed by the Conservative, Liberal, Centre and Christian Democratic parties.

The social issues including alcohol policy are handled by ministers from the Christian Democrats. In the platform of the government it is made clear that the alcohol policy will be a restrictive one, with the goal to reduce total consumption of alcohol and to make the EU take the alcohol problem more seriously. Also the minister of finance, a conservative, has supported high alcohol taxes.

The official estimates of the total alcohol consumption
Most figures show that the most dramatic increase of alcohol consumption has stopped.

The level today is estimated to be just under 10 litre/per person 15 years and above. The top was 10.5 and the level before Sweden entered the EU was estimated to about 7 litres.

Sweden and the European court
Sweden has had a case in the European court on the issue of internet sales of alcohol. It concerned sales where alcoholic beverages are ordered through the Internet, from another member state and are transported to the Swedish customer by a commercial transporter and not by the consumer himself.  The decision by the court is that Sweden has to accept private imports through the Internet, but at the same time the importers are obliged to pay the Swedish alcohol taxes. It remains to be seen if the Swedish customs authorities will de able to track down these imports and secure taxes. If that is the case, the damage by the court decision might be limited.

The Swedish government still insists that this form of private imports is not compatible with the agreement between Sweden and the EU that we can keep our retailing monopoly.

 ICA conference in Stockholm 100 year jubilee
Sweden hosted the 100 year jubilee conference for ICAA during five days in June. The organisation has now decided to limit the influence of the alcohol industry, which has made it more attractive for new and old members in the voluntary movement. The conference programme was filled by leading persons from the alcohol policy area and one can hope that this conference marked a turn around in the ICAA history. If you didn´t take part in the conference you can see/listen to all the main speakers in www.icaaconference.se

September 2007
A report on the effects of a retail alcohol monopoly has been published by a group of international researchers led by Harold D Holder. It gives strong support for the monopoly concept and the effects to reduce alcohol related harms. Also repeated opinion polls show that there is support by the majority of the public for keeping the state monopoly.

The state budget
In the budget for 2008 there are about 28 million Euro reserved for mainly primary alcohol and drug prevention. A special campaign will be carried out to discover children living in families with alcohol problems. Just these days there has been a national video conference with 21 regional conferences with 7 000 participants. They are now urged to follow up the activity on a regional and local level.

A new commission
A new government commission (probably a so called “one man commission”) will be appointed to review the alcohol law. The frames of reference of the commission have just been published. The commission will review some proposals to reduce some of the rules concerning serving of alcohol, primarily “on premises”, but the review should be founded on a restrictive alcohol policy.

Information

Websites where you can find information in English about, research, statistics and alcohol policy.
www.systembolaget.se
www.can.se
www.fhi.se
www.iogt.se
www.sorad.su.se

Kjell-Ove Oscarsson
Swedish Council on Alcohol and Drugs