After Ireland, health alarmist label warnings also in Belgium: The world of Made-in-Italy wines and spirits in apprehension over a Belgian proposal to introduce a health warning in all advertising messages, including labels.
In January of this year, the Kingdom of Belgium notified the European Commission under the TRIS procedure of a decree that, on the one hand, introduces important forms of protection with regard to minors and, on the other hand, authorizes the Belgian Ministry of Health to develop a’health warning to appear in all forms of alcoholic beverage advertising.
“The industry’s commitment to protecting minors is not in question,” says Federvini President Micaela Pallini . We remain convinced that efforts should be made to counter all forms of promotion of alcoholic beverages to minors. So is the commitment to combat alcohol abuse, as demonstrated by the “No Binge” initiative, promoted by Federvini in collaboration with several Italian universities and in European initiatives such as Wine in Moderation. However, we cannot fail to denounce the risks of a measure such as the Belgian one, and for this reason we hope that Italy will intervene decisively and punctually in the planned forum, through a detailed opinion by the scheduled deadline of April 22.”
For one thing, the broad definition that is given of “advertising” makes the scope of the Belgian rule almost boundless, with the risk that even a label or typical elements of the presentation of an alcoholic beverage could fall under the definition of advertising and, therefore, obliged to carry the message on health warnings. On the other hand, the health warning, the content and form of which will be decided by the Belgian Ministry of Health, leaves Italian producers of Made in Italy wines, aperitifs, bitters, liqueurs and spirits in total ambiguity having no basis to be able to evaluate the measure as a whole, with the aggravating factor that they cannot resort to any other equivalent message.
Health alarmist label warnings in Belgium as well. After the case of the health warnings introduced by Ireland, widely contested in Europe and beyond, and in light of this new Belgian initiative, Federvini stresses the importance of no individual national initiatives being taken that are not aligned at the European level as such unilateral actions could undermine regulatory harmonization and the overall effectiveness of EU measures.
“If the advertising of alcoholic beverages throughout the EU is already a regulated matter ,” recalls Micaela Pallini President of Federvini. in Italy with the self-regulatory code of commercial communication of the Advertising Self-Discipline Institute, first, and with the guidelines promoted by the Federation itself, then, we wanted to write in black and white that any form of direct and indirect advertising is prohibited toward minors. But that is not the point – continues the President – because the real risk behind the Belgian measure is that in a few years we will find ourselves with a health message along the lines of the Irish one!”
