European binge drinkers top 55 million

Fifty-five million European adults are drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol, the European Commission warned today.

Brussels was announcing a new campaign against binge drinking – but promised there would be no witch-hunt against “moderate” drinkers.

European Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said: “Binge drinking, under-age drinking and drink-driving are real public health issues in Europe, especially among young people.

“The Commission is not targeting moderate alcohol consumption, but seeks to actively support Member States’ measures to reduce the harm caused by alcohol abuse.”

He went on: “I also believe that industry can do more to reduce alcohol harm, promote responsible drinking and improve consumer information.”

A Commission paper said Brussels would support EU cooperation on projects which would help reduce the annual estimated 195,000 alcohol-related deaths in the EU.

The report says excess drinking has a major negative economic impact, apart from the injury and death caused by drink-driving and under-age drinking.

“Fifty-five million adults are estimated to drink to hazardous levels in the EU. Harmful and hazardous alcohol consumption is a net cause of 7.4% of all ill-health and early death in the EU,” says the report.

“Absenteeism due to hazardous alcohol use, drinking during working hours, or working with a ‘hangover’ – all have a negative impact on work performance, and thereby on competitiveness and productivity.”

It says that in the 15-29 age group, drink is responsible for a quarter of male deaths and 10% of female deaths. Alcoholism is also blamed for 16% of cases of child abuse and neglect.

And about 10,000 people are killed in alcohol-related road accidents in the EU every year.

The Commission acknowledges that national authorities have the main responsibility for national alcohol policy and says it will not be trying to bring in EU-level laws to counter alcoholism.

But it says Brussels has a role in encouraging cooperation and coordination between member states, and to help fund programmes to counter under-age drinking, drink-driving and to draw up EU-wide reliable statistics on the drinking problem.

EU officials want to promote the exchange of national good practice on the selling and marketing of booze and to encourage closer study of the prevalence of binge-drinking, particularly in girls.

The report said: “Through the EU Research Framework Programme, the Commission will launch research on young people’s drinking habits in order to analyse current trends and motivations for drinking, as well as the wider determinants of youth drinking.”

The European Spirits Organisation said it broadly welcomed the move because it targeted alcohol misuse, rather than alcohol itself.

The Commission had recognised the “huge diversity” of local drinking cultures within the EU and come up with a balanced approach to alcohol-related problems and an appropriate role for the EU.

Jamie Fortescue, the Organisation’s director general, said: “We welcome the recognition the communication gives to the role the alcohol industry can play in reducing alcohol-related harm, most notably in terms of promoting responsible consumption, and we for one will play our part in its implementation.”

The Organisation adopted a “Charter on Responsible Alcohol Consumption” a year ago, pledging that three-quarters of spirits advertising would carry “responsible drinking messages” by 2010.

The Charter also vowed to work on drink driving programmes and to combat under-age drinking.

The first annual report on the success of the scheme is due out later this month.