Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-04-Speech-2-328"
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"en.20070904.28.2-328"2
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"Mr President, alcohol-related mortality and morbidity affect hundreds of thousands of EU citizens every year and alcohol competes strongly with tobacco as a main cause of preventable serious harm to humans. Road traffic accidents, domestic violence, sexual abuse of children, hepatic cancer, liver cirrhosis and foetal damage are just some of the known detriments of alcohol.
Yet alcohol is widely available at affordable prices everywhere in Europe. It is regarded as a necessary component in most social events, including many such events in the European Parliament. Its production is supported and subsidised by the EU. Its consumption is extensively and directly advertised on TV, radio and the press, and most alcoholic beverages carry no proper health hazard warning.
Why is this so? Why are national governments, national parliaments and the EU so tolerant of alcohol? Is it because of the very strong alcohol industry-related lobby? Is it because there is, historically, a general degree of naivety as regards this substance? Is it because of an as yet not well understood psychological or cultural factor? The sad fact is that the EU strategy in reducing alcohol-related harm has fallen victim to the same factors.
I dare say, respectfully, that this report, despite the noble intentions of the rapporteur, instead of tackling the problem drastically and effectively, merely scratches the surface and deals mildly mainly with heavy drinking and extreme drinking patterns, or drinking in particular circumstances, e.g. by children or pregnant women. I am not advocating alcohol prohibition, but I believe that our chance as MEPs to deal with alcohol as a potentially killer drug of addiction, the use of which needs to be seriously, not mildly, restricted, has been missed.
Unfortunately, the alcohol lobby has succeeded once again. This much watered-down alcohol strategy for Europe proved that the alcohol industry won and the EU citizens lost. Just as a piece of information, alcohol acts by interfering with the function of neurones in the central nervous system and by killing nerve cells which can never be replaced again in a person’s life. So, whether we drink little or much, the damage is there. It is just the degree of damage that differs."@en1
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