Welcome to the first Spirits News of 2010!
Only a month in and already 2010 is shaping up to be a busy year for the EU spirits industry. We are working on a variety of important European legislative proposals, social responsibility projects, international trade issues as well as the WHO global alcohol strategy discussions.
This year marks a significant milestone in our industry’s ambition to help tackle alcohol misuse. November 2010 marks the deadline for spirits producers to meet their social responsibility commitments, as laid down in the ‘CEPS Charter on Responsible Alcohol Consumption’, agreed upon in 2005. We are of course also looking ahead to beyond 2010. We will be working hard on focusing our efforts on introducing new and improved commitments to help reduce alcohol related harm in the coming years.
In each edition of the newsletter we focus on one of the following FOUR topics to give you an insight into some of the developments in that area;
ALCOHOL & SOCIETY TRADE INTERNAL MARKET FISCAL AFFAIRS
Each edition will also contain a section entitled INDUSTRY INITIATIVES where you will find specific information on voluntary initiatives introduced by the spirits industry to help reduced alcohol related harm.
Lastly we will present a COUNTRY FOCUS on one EU Member State to give you an insight into this country’s industry and some interesting facts and statistics.
In THIS EDITION of the newsletter you will gain an insight into developments on INTERNAL MARKET issues. Here we will update you on the work we are doing in relation to the European Commission’s Food Information proposal, the Communication on Agricultural Product Quality Policy and a sample of some of the environmental issues we are working on.
In our ISSUE FOCUS we will give you the lowdown on the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which it is hoped will be approved this year. The impact of this FTA will be huge for the international trade community in terms of future opportunities for growth.
This month's INDUSTRY INITIATIVE takes a look at what one of the newer Member States - ROMANIA - has been doing to encourage its citizens to drink responsibly.
Lastly we will use our COUNTRY FOCUS to take a look at the spirits industry in SPAIN - current EU Presidency holders and a country renowned for its spirit drinks.
The European Spirits Organisation – CEPS is the representative body for the spirits industry at European level. Its membership comprises 31 national associations representing the industry in 27 countries, as well as a group of leading spirits producing companies.