It is reported that EU Health Commissioner, Vytenis Andriukaitis, is not pleased with the “inconsistent” proposal recently submitted by the alcohol industry on labelling and will insist that European consumers should be presented the full information of the products they purchase. “Our path is clear and we are doing the legal assessment [of the proposal]. At first sight, I am not satisfied with the proposal because it is not consistent and does not address some issues related to information for consumers: consumers should be fully informed.

In March, the alcohol industry presented its selfregulatory proposal on labelling. The main feature of the proposal was the flexibility among the different alcohol sectors, with alcohol makers free to decide whether to place information on the label, online or both. Individual producers will be able to decide what information they provide on the label and online. It is thought that smaller enterprises are likely to use online means only.