BEER – EUROPE’S CHOICE
Our 2024-2029 Manifesto for a sustainable brewing future
Connecting people, beer is a fermented beverage brewed with ingredients of agricultural origin. Offering a diversity of choice for every occasion and consumer, including lower and no alcohol options, beer brings people together and enhances conviviality. Brewers champion moderation as, consumed responsibly, beer can be perfectly compatible with an adult’s balanced lifestyle.
With 10,000 breweries creating over 2 million jobs and €40 billion in government revenues across the European Union, beer is not just an integral part of Europe’s rich culture and heritage, but a major contributor to social, economic and sustainable development.
Ahead of the European Elections in June 2024, The Brewers of Europe offers the following recommendations to policymakers, to support Europe’s brewing sector and beer value chain, for the benefit of citizens, the environment and our economies during the upcoming legislative mandate.
We call on the EU to:
- Recognise in alcohol and other policies the intrinsic nature of beer as a lower alcohol, fermented beverage that can incite consumers towards moderating their consumption, as a time-tested, evidence-based way to align business with public health objectives.
- Pursue a more progressive excise tax framework that is fair to beer versus stronger alcohol categories and, while respecting national subsidiarity, recognises the merits of nudging consumers towards lower alcohol beverages, the jobs created by beer in the hospitality and agriculture sectors, and the value generated by brewing from the local to the European level.
- Address legislative disparities in packaging and packaging waste legislation by fostering a fair approach that recognises best practise, supports brewers’ leadership in packaging circularity and obliges other categories to step up.
- Incentivise innovation and consumption of low alcohol products by supporting policies that encourage investment and promoting the production and marketing of beer, including lower and no alcohol alternatives.
- Develop proportionate alcohol labelling legislation that prioritises essential, objective, comparable facts, such as ingredients and calorie labelling on all alcohol beverages, whilst embracing the digital transition for further information to empower consumers.
- Promote a legislative framework on sustainable food systems that encourages innovation and boosts investment in decarbonisation technologies for the entire agri-food chain, including the brewing sector, to accelerate the green transition towards meeting the EU’s 2030 climate goals.
- Maintain Europe’s position as a leading beer-producing region by removing unnecessary bureaucratic burdens, cultivating a robust industrial policy that supports brewers in the twin transition, and broadening the dialogue on the future of EU agriculture to include the entire agri-food chain, thereby recognising beer and its raw ingredients as strategic products for a competitive and sustainable EU agricultural policy.
To download The Brewers of Europe 2024-2029 Manifesto for a sustainable brewing future as a succinct one-pager just click here.