Europe Doesn’t Want Scotland to Introduce Minimum Prices for Alcohol

Scotland may be known for producing some of the world's finest whisky (and not-so-fine Buckfast) but there is another, more troubling side to the country's relationship with booze. Scots are some of the heaviest drinkers in the UK, with nearly 30 men out of every 100,000 dying of alcohol-related diseases in 2013, compared to the overall UK average of 19.

This number is on the rise. For the past three years, Scottish deaths from alcohol have increased, reaching 1152 last year and prompting the Scottish government to introduce measures to combat binge drinking, including a minimum unit price for alcohol of 50p.

However Scottish ministers have reached a stumbling block in their attempts to fully implement the policy, something health groups say would discourage heavy drinkers.

While Scottish Parliament passed legislation in 2012 to enforce this minimum price, it was set back amid drinks industry lobbying and this week, Europe's highest court caused further delays by ruling that the policy would breach European Union free trade and competition laws.

European Court of Justice (ECJ) advocate general Yves Bot released an official opinion stating that minimum unit pricing for alcohol would be legal only if Scotland could show that other methods, such as increased taxation, would not be as effective in achieving public health benefits.

He wrote: "It is difficult to justify the rules at issue, which appear to me to be less consistent and effective than an 'increased taxation' measure and may even be perceived as being discriminatory."

Bot's opinion has been welcomed by the Scottish Whisky Association, with chief executive David Frost saying that it "encourages us in our long-held view that minimum unit pricing is illegal when there are less trade-restrictive measures available." He added that such policy would also damage Scottish trade and economy.

Although the ECJ opinion is a setback to the minimum pricing policy, which was one of Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon's flagship targets in the fight against alcohol abuse, it shows that such policy could be legal in Scotland, if it is able to prove that tax increase would not be as effective.

Many health campaigners, including Eric Carlin at Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems, have seen Bot's opinion as a positive step.

Carlin said: "The advocate general has made clear that the Scottish minimum unit pricing policy is justified as a regulatory measure that is permitted in European law to work alongside taxation to reduce the lives being destroyed and early deaths causes to Scots every day by cheap alcohol."

Meanwhile Sturgeon has vowed to work to introduce minimum pricing policy, saying that minimum unit pricing would "save hundreds of lives in coming years and we will continue to vigorously make the case for this policy."