French wine executives are outraged over a report for the European Parliament that “aims, first and foremost, to prevent cancer.” The report notes that while Europe accounts for a tenth of the world’s population “but a quarter of the world’s cancer cases.” Lives lost to cancer in the EU are set increase by more than 24% by 2035, making cancer the leading cause of death in Europe, the report says.
Saying “prevention is more effective than any cure (and) . . . also the most cost-efficient long-term cancer control strategy,” the Cancer Plan seeks to raise awareness of, and to address key factors, including “harmful alcohol consumption.”
The report hints at steeply higher alcohol taxes, saying it “ will review EU legislation on the taxation of alcohol and on cross-border purchases of alcohol by private individuals.” To reduce “exposure of young people to alcohol marketing, the (European) Commission will “closely monitor the implementation of the Audiovisual Media Service Directive provisions on commercial communications for alcoholic beverages, including on online video-sharing
platforms.”
And it wants to see a mandatory list of ingredients on all containers by the end of next year and health warnings on labels before the end of 2023.
Needless to say, that left he chairman of the French independent winegrowers’ organization sputtering. “This decision is a provocation, a declaration of war and a condemnation of our industry,” the producers’ chairman, Jean-Marie Fabre, said.
“No consumption means no production, which means dismantling a strategic sector for the European Union. It is a political choice that the Parliament, the Commission and the Council will have to take responsibility for”, warned Fabre, who called on each institution to show a sense of responsibility.
“Cancer is a disease caused by multiple factors. These are simplistic analyses based on a partial study by the Lancet that reflect an ideological, dogmatic and utopian viewpoint”, adds the Fitou winegrower. He compared the logic of the report to saying that “to avoid getting lung cancer caused by fine particles, the committee is capable of banning people from breathing in… It is a well-known fact that pleasure is a way of enhancing life expectancy. Let’s build a policy of prevention and education.”
What are the chances the report’s recommendations will become law? Better than even: “All the amendments that are problematic for the industry have been voted on by the committee. We will have to galvanise support during the plenary session, but it won’t be easy,” warns Anne Sander, an MEP from Alsace.
It will be an important battle for the U.S. industry, too. You can safely bet that anything the European Parliament adopts, antialcohol progressives will push for the U.S. to adopt too, because, well, you know — the Ruropean culture is far superior, so they say, to the U.S.