Ministry of Agriculture against warnings on wine bottles about the harm of alcohol to public health. The measure, which is also ruled out by Health, may be applied in the EU.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food considers that the public health warnings that the Republic of Ireland introduced on the labels of alcoholic beverage bottles do not comply with European Union (EU) standards on product labeling, reports the weekly Expresso in its paper edition.
Official source from the Ministry headed by Maria do Céu Antunes says that the creation of such warnings about the harm of alcohol to public health, along similar lines to what was followed on tobacco labels, is “inconsistent” and “incompatible” with EU regulations and amounts to a “restriction of competition in the internal market”, putting “the free movement of goods” at stake.
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The Ministry of Agriculture also states that “sectoral interests”, particularly from the national wine sector, to support their criticisms. In terms of exports alone, the wine sector was worth approximately 941 million euros in 2022.
This opposition of the Portuguese Government has been known to the European Commission since January, when the Ministry of Agriculture expressed its opposition to the decision of the EU executive body to authorize Ireland to introduce labels on bottles of wine, beer and other drinks. The Irish will warn consumers about the risks of cancer and liver disease caused by alcohol, as well as the calorie content and grams of alcohol.
The Ministry of Health is not as strict as the Ministry of Agriculture. In addition to not having responded to the direct question about the new labeling of alcoholic beverages, an official source only told Expreso that “reducing excessive and harmful consumption of alcohol fully integrates the mission of the different National Plans for the Reduction of Addictive Behaviors and dependencies.”
The body led by Ursula von der Leyen will prepare the extension to all EU Member States of a measure similar to that of Ireland, within the scope of the European Plan to Fight Cancer.
According to the newspaper Público, one of the measures already in force refers to the delivery of information on the harmful effects of alcohol, as well as the energy value, in bottles of wine produced and bottled as of December 8 of this year. But the information can be available through a QR code.
Source: Observadora
