Greek MEP Ioannis Lagos has expressed concern about the level of alcohol consumption by residents of some EU countries and called the current situation in the community “a time bomb for public health”. Lagos’ address to the European Commission, which contains the relevant talking points, was made available to the media.
In the document titled “High alcohol consumption in the EU is a time bomb for public health”, Lagos cited Eurostat data for 2019.
According to the politician, the figures in his possession show that during the period under review, 8.4% of EU adults consumed alcohol daily, 28.8% consumed alcohol weekly and 22.8% consumed alcohol monthly. Meanwhile, the highest level of citizens drinking every day was in Portugal.
“In the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium, the proportion of the population consuming alcohol weekly was 47.3%, 43.1% and 40.8% respectively. High rates of monthly alcohol consumption were recorded in Lithuania (31.3%), Latvia (31.1%) and Cyprus (30.4%),” the MEP said.
However, Lagos added that 4% of the adult population in Cyprus and 38% in Denmark consumed alcohol in large quantities (at least 60g of pure ethanol at a time) at least once a month.
Against this background, the politician asked the European Commission how it plans to reduce alcohol abuse in the EU “given its negative impact on public health and society as a whole”.
In the summer, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer expressed the view that without adequate measures by European officials to combat rising inflation, the only way out of the current situation for EU countries would remain the use of alcohol or psychotropic substances.
808 total views, 2 views today
