The European Spirits Organisation

Release date: 21 April 2010 @ 14:00

Brussels 21 April 2010:  The European Commission’s new Eurobarometer report on attitudes to alcohol misses the bigger picture, according to CEPS and EFRD, the representatives of the European spirits industry. 

Says Jamie Fortescue, Director-General of CEPS:

“As the latest Eurobarometer report shows, the vast majority of consumers are already aware of the risks of alcohol misuse. This corresponds with our own research[i], which shows that between 97% and 99% of consumers are aware of the dangers of excessive or harmful drinking.”

At the same time, the Eurobarometer report shows that Europeans lack basic information. For example, only 27% of EU citizens can accurately give their country’s blood alcohol limit for driving.

“Many Europeans don’t know that a standard glass of wine, whisky or beer contains the same amount of alcohol; whether they should drink when pregnant or what a safe limit is to drive.  These are some of the knowledge gaps that Europe needs to bridge in order to bring about a change in behaviour. It is clear that measures such as health warnings on bottles or in advertising can do little to achieve this”, adds Fortescue.   

What is needed, according to CEPS and EFRD, are targeted information and education campaigns which involve all stakeholders. Here the Eurobarometer survey misses the point by implying that only public authorities have the responsibility to protect consumers from alcohol-related harm[ii].

“Protecting consumers from alcohol related harm is a collective responsibility. This is central to the EU’s Alcohol Strategy, but the report does not seem to recognise this. In fact it ignores the role of many other important stakeholders including industry”, concludes Fortescue.

The spirits industry is leading a number of initiatives[iii] both autonomously and in public partnerships across Europe to improve knowledge about alcohol. These include: providing responsible drinking messages in commercial communications, codes of conduct on marketing, product development, campaigns to tackle underage drinking and drink driving, and support for educational initiatives.

See www.drinksinitiatives.eu and www.responsibledrinking.eu for more information. ENDS

For further information contact:  

Jamie Fortescue (email/text only)
Director General
European Spirits Organisation – CEPS
Mob: + 32.474.250.229
jamie.fortescue@europeanspirits.org

Carole Brigaudeau (email/phone)
EFRD Manager
Mob: +32.486.117.199
cbrigaudeau@efrd.org

Lisa Rose (email/phone) 
Communications and Social Aspects Manager
European Spirits Organisation – CEPS
Tel: +32 2 779 24 23
lisa.rose@europeanspirits.org

Notes for editors

¹ The European Spirits Organisation - CEPS is the representative body for the spirits industry at European level. Its membership comprises 31 national associations representing the industry in 27 countries, as well as a group of leading spirits producing companies.

² The European Forum for Responsible Drinking - EFRD is an alliance of Europe’s leading spirits companies whose aim is to drive the industry’s commitment to promote responsible drinking in the EU and encourage industry to adopt responsible self-regulatory standards for commercial communications.

 EFRD member companies include:

• Bacardi-Martini
• Beam Global Spirits & Wine
• Brown-Forman
• Diageo
• Moët-Hennessy
• Pernod Ricard

The EFRD, located in the CEPS offices, supports CEPS in delivering on the EU social agenda.

[i] Market research carried out by Millward Brown in Germany, Spain and Poland (600 respondents) for CEPS/EFRD.  Please see www.europeanspirits.org for more information.

[ii] Eurobarometer report 331 p.51

[iii] In February, CEPS and EFRD launched their own database drinksinitiatives.eu. The database contains information on over 300 separate industry-led responsible drinking initiatives from across Europe. The database is available at www.drinksinitiatives.eu.

New videos clips highlighting some of the initiatives from the database can be viewed at www.efrd.org    

For a pdf (adobe) version of our press release click here.

News from: www.europeanspirits.com/news/newsArticle.asp?newsid=229