La Commission préfèrerait de nouvelles taxes pour lutter contre le « binge drinking »

“Binge drinking isn't some fringe issue, it accounts for half of all alcohol consumed in this country. The crime and violence it causes drains resources in our hospitals, generates mayhem on our streets and spreads fear in our communities,” according to UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

He added: “We're consulting on the actual price, but if it is 40p that could mean 50,000 fewer crimes each year and 900 fewer alcohol related deaths per year by the end of the decade.”

“The government needs to make sure it does not just create a cash windfall for the supermarkets, instead of lowering prices of other goods or supporting better prevention and treatment of alcohol abuse to cut crime further and save lives,” said the shadow UK Home Secretary, the Labour Party’s Yvette Cooper.

“I think one has to be quite sceptical,” said Gavin Partington, interim chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association. “Only a few months ago you have got two ministers saying they understand it to be probably illegal, and suddenly now they are advocating it - I don't think the legal position has changed any.”

“Irresponsible drinking has cultural causes and retailers have been hugely engaged in information and education to change attitudes to drinking,” according to Andrew Opie, of the British Retail Consortium. “It's a myth to suggest that supermarkets are the problem or that a pub is somehow a safer drinking environment. Effectively, a minimum price is a tax on responsible drinkers,” Opie added.

“Health care workers who struggle every day to cope with the impact of our nation's unhealthy drinking will welcome tough new policies in areas such as price and licensing that are based on evidence and should bring about real benefits,” said Eric Appleby, of Alcohol Concern.

“Europe’s brewers are opposed to further punitive tax hikes that harm the brewing sector, kill off further jobs and thereby damage Europe’s growth prospects. Beer consumption in the EU already declined by 8% in the two years following the start of the economic crisis, whilst 260,000 jobs were lost, primarily in the bars, pubs and cafés that depend on beer,” according to Pierre-Oliver Bergeron, secretary-general of The Brewers of Europe, the trade confederation of European brewers associations and breweries.

“As to whether tax and price increases are an effective way of addressing alcohol-related harm, we can only draw people’s attention to the fact that the highest prices and taxes are to be found in Scandinavia and the British Isles, the countries that interestingly also have the highest levels of binge drinking in Europe,” Bergeron concluded.

“Price plays an important part in consumption levels. And minimum pricing is a very equitable way to curb binge drinking and alcohol related harm as it will primarily affect young people and heavy drinkers,” said Monika Kosinska, secretary-general of health NGO the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA).

"There is a pressing need for a wide range of measures to tackle excessive alcohol consumption. A minimum pricing scheme supported by a number of other measures, such as restrictions on the volume of adverts promoting alcohol, will help turn back our increasingly damaging patterns of consumption. The European Commission is to propose a new European Alcohol Strategy. We look forward to strong proposals that will ensure a level playing field across EU countries." Concluded Kosinska