Alcohol in Europe: Health, social and economic impact

At the time when the European Commission has been preparing its own strategy on alcohol to cover the full range of activity that takes place at a European level,1 it also called for an analysis of the health, social and economic impact of alcohol in Europe. The report, Alcohol in Europe,2 published by the Commission at the beginning of June 2006, views alcohol policy as “serving the interests of public health and social well-being through its impact on health and social determinants”, itself embedded in a public health framework, a process to “mobilise local, state, national and international resources to ensure the conditions in which people can be healthy”. The main findings of the report are reproduced here.