Alcohol and Health Forum
The European Commission’s Alcohol and Health Forum constitutes the backbone of the EU Alcohol Strategy.
Launched in June 2007, this multistakeholder platform is composed of NGOs and economic operators (alcohol producers, retailers, advertisers, and publishers). The Forum is modeled on the EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, launched in March 2005.
In line with the process described in the Charter establishing the European Alcohol and Health Forum members of the Forum have made a series of commitments aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm.
As part of the implementation of the Alcohol Strategy, the Commission did also set up:
-A Committee for national alcohol policy and action which brings together representatives from the national governments to share information, knowledge and good practice on reducing harmful alcohol consumption.
-A Committee on data collection, indicators and definitions to develop key indicators for monitoring overall performance of the strategy.
Comittments
Members of the Forum have made a series of 'commitments', voluntary actions aimed at reducing alcohol-related harm.
All commitments submitted so far can be found on the Commitments Database.
In September 2008, a Summary Report on Commitments made by members of the European Alcohol and Health Forum was published by DG Sanco.
Eurocare Committments
Eurocare submitted three committments in 2007:
- Supporting the creation of an Alcohol Policy Youth Network (APYN) (joint committment with European Youth Forum)
- Awareness Raising of the Dangers of Drinking During Pregnancy (in particular, the organisation of an event in the European Parliament to mark International 'Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders' (FASD) Awareness Day)
- Creation of a new Eurocare website, intended to be a "one stop shop" on alcohol policy issues
All committments made by Eurocare and members in the Forum can be found here
Meetings
Open Forum
The Open Forum is convened once a year to showcase the work of the Platform.
Click on the links below to view the summaries, presentations and relevant documents
- 2009 edition, 30 April 2009 in Brussels
- 2008 edition, 17 April 2008 in Brussels.
Plenary Meetings
Click here to view the documents and summaries of the meetings
Task Forces
Task Force Marketing Communication
- Composition (29 KB)
- Summary Report Task Force meeting of 11/12/2007 (15 KB)
- Mandate, Rules of Procedure and Work Plan (50 KB)
- Workshop of 04-05/03/2008
- Chair's report Task Force meeting of 05/03/2008
- Meeting 16 July 2008
- Meeting 12 November 2008
- Meeting 10 March 2009
- Meeting 09 June 2009
- Mapping Exercise- Targeting youth- Social Marketing - Self Regulation
Task Force on Youth-Specific aspects of Alcohol
- Report by the Chair of the Task Force on Youth-Specific aspects of Alcohol to the plenary meeting of the European Alcohol and Health Forum (90 KB)
- Composition (29 KB)
- Summary Report Task Force meeting of 22/11/2007 (15 KB)
- Mandate, Rules of Procedure and Work Plan (50 KB)
- Workshop of 20/02/2008
- Meeting of 18/09/2008
- Summary Report Task Force meeting of 20/01/2009 (115 KB)
Science Group
As described in the Rules of Procedure the Science Group has been established to:
- provide scientific guidance to the members of the European Alcohol and Health Forum;
- offer guidance on monitoring/evaluation and, on the basis of output from monitoring, as to areas where action by Forum members would have potential for reducing alcohol-related harm, and the forms of action;
- provide in-depth analyses of key issues identified by the European Alcohol and Health Forum
The final list of experts , who signed a declaration of interest can be found here; the reserve list can be found here.
Working Group Task Request
A Working Group was set up within the Science Group to investigate" The impact of marketing communication on the volume (and patterns) of consumption of alcoholic beverages, especially by young people”.
On 11th March, the Science Group presented the final report to the Forum Members. The overall description of the studies found consistent evidence to demonstrate an impact of alcohol advertising on the uptake of drinking among non drinking young people, and increased consumption among their drinking peers.
Read the full report here
Read the Eurocare press release here
Meetings
Click here to view the minutes and documents of the Science Group meetings
