The social cost of underage drinking
Interview with Catherine Stihler MEP

Catherine Stihler's report "Public health: drinking of alcohol by children and adolescents" is based on a Commission recommendation for a future Directive. Ms Stihler is Rapporteur of the Environment, Public Health, and Concumer Policy Committee of the European Parliament. This interview originally appeared in the Rapporteur, an independent weekly magazine covering the European Parliament. It is reprinted with permission of the editor.

Why did you push so hard to secure this rapporteurship?

This issue of underage drinking is one that is very close to people's hearts. At the World Health Organization's conference on underage drinking at Stockholm three weeks ago, it was said that a quarter of young men's deaths in Europe are in some way alcohol related! The highest rate of binge-drinking across the EU amongst fifteen year olds is in Scotland, so this report will have an obvious impact upon constituents, who often feel as if we are too far away.

So why do you think underage drinking is on the increase?

Well, I don't know. We need systematic data collection on the causes, nature and scale of the problem, and this crucial recommendation will appear in my report. We need to understand the pressures on young people to abuse alcohol. If we don't include young people in consultation then we will not reach an answer, and this leads to a lot of problems in local communities we can see on a day to day basis across the EU, which again is why this Directive can be effective for people in local communities. They've all had this experience: that's where it hits home.

But is it possible to tackle underage drinking in practical terms?

We are not able to say definitively without this systematic information gathering. Academic expertise exists, but Member States can collect data on this in different ways, so there needs to be more cohesion to get a true European picture. All Member States have existing restrictions on sale to minors, and enforcement of these is one of my suggestions. But drinking and driving is an example of how we can bring about a change in drinking culture. People of my generation generally tend to see it as unacceptable, but this only took place after years of continual high profile advertising and a comprehensive drive towards educating people as to the dangers. There needs to be a comprehensive health education aspect in this report, and this is a priority of the Swedish Presidency. The young are drinking at the same levels as their elders but cannot experience any of the attendant health benefits of alcohol consumption that older drinkers can, even when drinking in moderation. Clear labelling of alcohol units is a first step I am recommending, but only a very small one. One statistic that came through from the WHO conference was that in no European country do adolescents below twenty years of age drink more than their elders. We need to think about the examples our young people are following. Parental influence has to be taken into account, and we must all accept the social responsibility we bear.

How much responsibility do advertisers bear? Do you think that they have been acting irresponsibly?

It depends who they are. If you see some of these adverts they're very clever, very hip, very suggestive, and they make drinking appear attractive, which is bound to appeal to younger people. As I am lobbied I am sure some of them will be very responsible, but you can't tar everyone with the same brush. The industry is totally self-regulating at present, and I want to know more about what industry are doing to help the problem. I am interested in what is best practise. What criteria are they using to regulate themselves? Do we need to have any outside controls?

You have not yet presented your report in committee. How do you think discussions will go there?

This is such an important issue to get right. Everyone will want to have their say, and it will boil down a lot to cultural attitudes to alcohol. I am looking forward to the debate in committee. My other colleagues' perspectives are sure to make it stronger. It is quite exciting.