A new policy is needed because alcohol-related harms are on the rise, and alcohol has become increasingly accessible over time, both in terms of price and availability, said Brigitta Õunmaa, head of health behavior policy at the Ministry of Social Affairs.

"It's been over 10 years since the Green Paper was adopted, and most of the activities outlined in it have already been carried out. In that time, our environment and the world have changed significantly; we now have online alcohol sales, which we could not foresee back then; advertising is more targeted, etc. The fact that alcohol becomes more accessible to people every year is a somewhat absurd situation," she said.

Several proposals have now been put forward to try and reduce consumption and the associated health risks.

These include additional restrictions on alcohol sales times, limits on advertising, and banning alcohol sales at gas stations. Õunmaa said the proposals are based on evidence-based recommendations made by the WHO and OECD to Estonia.

"Today we know that, for the state, a cost-effective and highly effective alcohol policy includes reducing accessibility and limiting sales hours. As shown by the example of Lithuania, such measures can have an immediate impact on people's behavior, health, and harm reduction," she said.

Jaanus Vihand, head of A. Le Coq brewery and board member of the Estonian Breweries Association, said alcohol producers also want to reduce health damage caused by alcohol.

However, Vihand said the draft needs significant changes. The current version only contains prohibitions and restrictions, without addressing the real causes of alcohol overconsumption, he believes.

"It is not a convincing document, but rather something pulled out of thin air — what else could we ban or make more difficult? And for those who already have a problem with overconsumption, these restrictions won't actually make a difference. We should focus on reducing consumption and overconsumption for other reasons, not because we have once again shortened sales hours or imposed some other silly restriction," Vihand told ERR.

Measures should be backed by thorough impact analyses, he said: "We should really understand what and why we are doing something, analyze the impact of each measure, review past actions, look at practices in other countries that actually work. A good example here is the campaign from a few years ago to build large partition walls in stores, which cost retail chains millions, even tens of millions, but whose impact has not been assessed by anyone at all to this day."

Õunmaa acknowledged that the impact of specific measures can be analyzed in later stages, such as during legislative changes.

Dr Irja Lutsar (Estonia 200) said discussions about alcohol policy have not yet featured in the coalition negotiations. Õunmaa added that it is currently unknown whether or how the completed draft version will move forward.

"These development directions form a very broad document, describing a decade's worth of various activities. Which of them will be pursued and at what pace, that has not been decided," she said.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!