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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.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Guidance document accompanying the submission form for commitment

DG Sanco hosted a Workshop on monitoring and evaluation, 3 June 2008.

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

Eurocare Members participating in the Forum

Meetings

10/12/2010

7th meeting of the Science Group of the Alcohol and Health Forum

18/11/2010

3rd Open Alcohol and Health Forum

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

Plenary Meetings

Click here to view the documents and summaries of the meetings

Task Forces

Task Force Marketing Communication

Task Force on Youth-Specific aspects of Alcohol

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 i n-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