Alcohol, Estonia, Legislation, Markets and Companies

The consumption and overconsumption of alcohol is a touchy subject in the society, Roivas said in an answer to the Estonian Employers' Confederation and the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "As a former minister of social affairs I know that according to studies the most effective measure for fighting against the overconsumption of alcohol is the price, which the state can regulate through excise policy," he said.

Roivas stressed that the governments he has headed have raised the excise duty and affirmed that it also plans to do it in the coming years. "When implementing other restrictions their impact has to be analyzed very carefully and it has to be made sure that a public ban would really have the desired result," he added.

According to Roivas the danger of overimposing restrictions is big. He added that the sector's self-regulation should be implemented more than before.

Roivas said that he considers imperative that important decisions are made involving different sides and added that business organizations are important partners in that. He expressed hope that everyone can learn from each other's mistakes and delicate subjects can be discussed constructively.

Estonia's Minister of Health and Labor Jevgeni Ossinovski has decided to substantially curb alcohol advertising and is seeking opinions on a bill that would among other things ban audio and visual design elements in such commercials, allowing only a single-color static image to be shown, and happy hours in establishments where alcohol is served.

The bill would ban outdoor advertisement of alcohol and require larger stores to designate special areas separated from the rest of the premises with non-transparent walls for the sale of alcohol by 2018.

According to the Estonian Traders Association reducing alcohol consumption is important and reasonable measures must be implemented to achieve that, but the package of measures proposed by Ossinovski will not reduce access to alcohol and therefore solve the real problem.