Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-16-Speech-3-130"

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"en.20010516.4.3-130"2
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". The report proves conclusively and extensively in its introduction that: a) the probability of adults' developing an addiction (alcoholism) increases significantly if they start drinking as children or adolescents, b) the use/abuse of alcohol by children and adolescents is increasing continuously in all the countries of the ΕU, c) many countries in the ΕU produce "alcopops", i.e. refreshments containing alcohol, which are freely sold to children and adolescents, d) there is a direct and worrying link between violence and antisocial behaviour and between road traffic accidents (deaths, disabilities) and the use of alcohol by children and adolescents. The rapporteur is therefore quite right to raise these major issues. However, just when you would expect fundamental proposals to combat this very serious problem, all you find is a series of amendments urging awareness-raising and recommending and encouraging producers to stop producing alcopops and bar waiters and owners to avoid selling alcoholic beverages to children and adolescents and include cheap, non-alcoholic drinks on their menus. Advertising should be directed solely at adults, inexperienced drivers should avoid having more than 0.2% alcohol in their bloodstream and parents, associations and sports personalities should persuade children and adolescents to resist the massive onslaught by manufacturers, retailers, bar and club owners and advertisers. At the same time, we should rely on these people to act altruistically and to stop selling or advertising alcohol to children. In other words, trivial, anodyne, fragmentary proposals which, at best, are ingenuous, in that they are a long way from dealing with a problem which claims the health and lives of millions of minors. Nowhere did we find any reference to the causes of the problem or any proposal to deal with the huge financial interests which use all means, fair and foul, to manufacture, market and promote alcohol to children and adolescents. Obviously, unless these issues are addressed, any proposal will just be an "aspirin", a simple wish list which merely perpetuates and exacerbates the problem. Finally, we note that the introduction to the report stresses that, under no circumstances, will even these anodyne proposals – which will run off the back of economic interests and profiteering – become binding proposals or legislation; they will simply remain as recommendations to the Member States."@en1

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