European Award for Reducing Alcohol Harm 2018 goes to Estonia

Estonia has been awarded the EARAH award at the 8th European Alcohol Policy Conference in Edinburgh for their extraordinary commitment to alcohol policy.

In 2017 Estonia has placed alcohol policy high on the EU political agenda, with Council conclusions asking the European Commission to address cross- border trade issue. Estonia lead the EU Members States in asking the European Commission to produce a comprehensive labelling regime in the EU and end the exemption granted to the alcohol industry back in 2011.

Additionally Estonia has introduced a progressive alcohol policy at the national level and has showed real leadership in the area of alcohol policy.

When receiving the award on behalf of Estonia Triinu Taht thanked all partners at national and international level for the their support and collaboration over the past years.

Estonian policy changes include among others:
⦁ All alcoholic drinks must be separated from other products in stores
⦁ In shops bigger than 450m2 alcohol must not be seen by a customer except in the special area
⦁ Municipalities can regulate on- sale hours (off- sale hours are already regulated by the state)
⦁ Mystery shopping to discover sales to minors and illegal alcohol sale
⦁ Fines will be increased
⦁ The mandatory size for health warnings in printed media (20%)
⦁ Multibuys and happy hours will be banned
⦁ Advertisement of alcoholic beverages can contain only the name of the drink, the type of the drink, the name of the producer, the brand, the state and the region of origin, the content of ethanol, the image of the sale package of the beverage and the description of the characteristics of the beverage (colour, taste, aroma)
⦁ The TV add cannot contain any image of a living creature or animation objects, indicate positive impact of alcohol, tell stories, describe positive atmosphere etc
⦁ All outdoor advertising banned⦁ Alcohol advert watershed moved from 9pm to 10pm
⦁ Alcohol advertisement in social media banned except on the site/account of alcohol producer or retailer
⦁ The alcohol producer or retailer cannot produce the content aimed to be shared by users or use the consumer produced content in/ as advertisement
⦁ All kinds of consumer games are prohibited