MEDIA CENTRE

Brussels 14 March 2018. Alcoholic beverage sectors presented this week to the EU Health Commissioner a joint framework to voluntarily list ingredients and nutrition information, hereby opening a crucial phase: implementation by all sectors, not just the brewers.

EU Commissioner for Health & Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis welcomed the fact that the sectors had respected the deadline set by the European Commission for submitting a joint self-regulatory framework on the provision of nutrition information and ingredients listing.

The meeting was also an opportunity for the individual beer, cider, spirits and wine sectors to unveil both to the Commissioner and to each other, their individual annexes explaining how each sector would be moving forward with implementation.

Following the publication of the sector annexes, Pierre-Olivier Bergeron stated: “Brewers are responsible for their own implementation annex and will pursue their work and keep the Commission updated on progress. We fully agree with key stakeholders such as The European Consumer Organisation and the European Alcohol Policy Alliance that any attempt by any sector to dismantle or even dilute the fundamentals of Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 that govern legal, meaningful, fair and satisfactory information to consumers will not be acceptable.”

The Brewers of Europe had already presented the beer commitment to Commissioner Andriukaitis on 28 February, with the Commissioner stating: “I appreciate the rigour and ambition with which The Brewers of Europe and the beer sector have been committed to providing information to consumers. I can only encourage the brewers to continue the good work and to keep me informed on progress.” The Commissioner stated this week that the Commission would carefully analyse both the joint proposal and the individual sector annexes before taking a decision on whether the alcoholic drinks sectors had replied satisfactorily to the Commission’s request to “respond to consumers’ expectations and present within a year of adoption of this report a self-regulatory proposal that would cover the entire sector of alcoholic beverages”.

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Note to editors: Launched in the European Parliament in 2012, the European Beer Pledge is a voluntary initiative by brewers across Europe to support EU Member States under the European Union’s Alcohol and Health Forum. The Brewers of Europe, a founding member of the Forum, committed Europe’s brewers to taking concerted and measurable action under three areas of activity, with the first pillar being to increase consumer knowledge of beer and its responsible consumption. In March 2015, The Brewers of Europe announced in Brussels a major voluntary move from brewers across Europe to list ingredients and nutrition information, in line with the legal requirements for all non-alcoholic drinks, including non-alcoholic beer. Read more here.