Welcome to the October 2006 edition of the EPHA Newsletter.
On the 25 October, the European Commission unveiled the EU Strategy to support Member States in reducing alcohol related harm - a very disappointing text for health NGOs which hoped for a stronger commitment from EU officials.
The Strategy predominately promotes an education approach to combat Alcohol related harm which has be proven not to be effective instead of the proven best practice strategies such as better regulation of the product and its marketing.
While the paper makes clear that the European Commission does not intend to develop EU legislation in the field of the prevention of alcohol related harm, the Strategy contains five priorities and a set of tools for each priority area. The tools include areas where the EU can support Member State activities as well as some European mechanisms, such as stakeholder forums and other self-regulatory measures.
It is clear that the Strategy is very weak from the point of view of public health protection, however, given the enormous pressure from the alcohol industry and other parts of the Commission to water down and even to hamper the approval of the Strategy, health NGOs welcome the principle of a EU Alcohol Strategy and commit to continue support DG Sanco in its efforts to reduce harm done by alcohol in Europe.
Unfortunately, the process leading to the approval of the Alcohol Strategy is another example of the undue influence of the industry in EU policy making. European health NGOs, now more than ever, will continue working for a transparent and representative EU policy making process.
Read all the online articles of our newsletter for October 2006.
EPHA members can find the following new information in the Members Only section:
EPHA’s 2007 International Conference on Health and the Enlargement: 1st call for workshop leaders
DG Sanco Stakeholder Involvement Peer Review Group, report of last meeting
NGOs prepare for Euro-WHO’s Ministerial Conference on Obesity in November 2006
NGOs call a strong European Strategy on alcohol related harm, summary of the NGO mobilisation in the last weeks in support of a strong EU Alcohol Strategy
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