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The Secretary General of the European Confederation of Enterprises in the Wine Sector(CEEV), Ignacio Sánchez Recarte, opposes a report by the European Parliament's Committee on Combating Cancer(BECA). The draft states that any form of alcohol consumption, no matter how small, increases the risk of cancer. In an interview with France's vitisphere.com, he said some actors and organisations were "simplifying and trivialising" communication about the consumption of alcoholic beverages and the risk of cancer. "We did not expect the Parliament's BECA committee to consider only a partial view of the scientific findings," he said. The report would be voted on in the EU Parliament - and would thus be the official position of the European Parliament if approved.
"If the paper is passed in this way, it would suggest that there is no doubt that all alcohol consumption is harmful to health. However, we know that this is only a partial view of the scientific results," Sánchez Recarte stressed. This basic tendency in terms of content had so far mainly been observed in the Northern European countries. Now this position had found its way into Brussels.
The argumentation, however, justifies "a blank cheque for the introduction of a policy that is supposed to restrict consumption per se, but not abuse". As a consequence, the political leaders would "call into question the support programmes for the wine sector, including support for advertising". This could be "the beginning of the end of the wine sector as we know it".
The CEEV (Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins) in Brussels represents around 7,000 companies in the European wine sector. According to CEEV, the companies represent more than 90 percent of European wine exports with a value of about 12.8 billion euros.
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(uka / Source: vitisphere.com - Photo: 123rf)