Alcohol politics and alcohol lobby in Germany EUCAM Conference on Alcohol Marketing in Europe Amsterdam, 25. and 26. November 2010 Walter Farke (MPH)

Alcohol politics and alcohol lobby in Germany

EUCAM Conference on Alcohol Marketing in Europe

Amsterdam, 25. and 26. November 2010

Walter Farke (MPH)

Regulation of Alcohol Marketing and Alcohol Advertising

Statutory and Non-Statutory Regulations

Federal Protection of Minors Act:• Statutory • Commercials and advertising in movie performances• Alcohol and tobacco products

Interstate Treaty for Protection of Minors fromUnsuitable Media Content:• Statutory• Radio, television, internet• Alcoholic beverages in general

Code of Conduct on Commercial Communication for Alcoholic beverages:• Non-statutory• Commercial communication• Alcoholic beverages in general

Source: STAP, 2007

Peculiarities in Germany

German Winefunds (Deutscher Weinfonds)

• is responsible for the promotion of the quality of German wine and the marketing of German wine

• is linked to Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and consumer Protection

• is financed by wine-growers (depends on the size of their acreage or produced amounts of wine)

• annual income 10 Million Euros on average

• the winefunds financed public relations activities, campaigns in the print media, brochures, etc.

Expenses for advertising of different alcoholic beverages in Million Euro in Germany

Source: Nielsen Media Research GmbH 2009

Current situation Alcohol Marketing

• In the opinion of the Federal Drug Commissioner an alcohol advertising ban is not necessary

• Alcohol and advertising industries is strictly against any statutory regulations on alcohol marketing and stress the maintenance of the existing legislation

• Brewers drew up guidelines for resonsible sponsorship

• Alcohol industries promote the positive aspects of their products (e.g. health impact)

• Alcohol industries launched several education campaigns on different issues (e.g. family based programmes)

• Alcohol industries tries permanently disprove existing evidence of the impact of alcohol advertising on young people

Current Activities and Opinions

Legislative conditions of political decision making processes

The process of a legislative initiative in Germany

Source: Deutscher Bundestag 2007

Federal Government

Mediation Committee

The federalist system in Germany has to take in consideration!

• the Federal Government enacts legislation and the governments of the Laender have to carry out them;

• the governments of the Laender could legislate without any agreement by Federal Government (e.g. school);

• Bundesrat is a federal body

Political role of the Federal Drug Commissioner

The Federal Drug Commissioner ...

• is directly linked to the Ministry of Health;

• has no political power, e.g. is not allowed to attend conferences or meetings of the Federal Government, in which alcohol policy issues are discussed;

• is responsible for the coordination of drug, alcohol and tobacco policy

Example of successful lobbying by the alcohol & advertising industries

Players in Alcohol Policy in Germany

Federal GovernmentParliament

Council

Ministries of Health, etc.

14

„Laender“ (16)

NGOs on Health, especially on addictionIssues, NGOs whichare not directly linked to the alcohol issue

Industries:Brewers, Wine producers,Spirits industry, Retailers,Advertising, Catering, Newspaper publishers, etc.

Organisations of sports

The Federal Drug Commissioner ask the Drug- and Addiction-Council to develope a “National action programme for Alcohol-Prevention“!

A selection of objectives of the programme:

• reduction of the per capita consumption of alcohol from 10 to 8 litres pure alcohol

• no availability of alcohol for young people

• alcohol advertising ban in TV and cinemas before 8 p.m.

• alcohol sponsorship ban for sports clubs (no shirt ads or ads in the sports arenas)

• lowering of the BAC level from 0.5 to 0.3 and on long-term 0.0

Starting Point

Source: Blasberg & Pletter 2010

Consent to the programme by the majority of the Ministers in the cabinet. This is necessary, if laws should be developed, modified or changed.

General objective

Leading player: Bavarian Brewer Association

Examination of the draft of the Alcohol Action Programme

Refutation of the evidence of the paper

Drawing up a manifesto

Answer of the Alcohol Industries

Source: Blasberg & Pletter 2010

The manifesto was sent to the following partners:

Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Hotel and Restaurant trade, Brewers associations, Retailers, Association of the Newspapers Publisher, Association of Advertising, Association for petrol stations, Spirits Industry, German Football League (DFL) and other sports associations Afterwards the manifesto was sent to the technical departments of the federal state parliament in Bavaria!

Coalition building

Source: Blasberg & Pletter 2010

One of the governing parties (CSU) invite the represenative of the leading player to consultations.

The German Football Association put pressure on the Federal Drug Commissioner to delete the sponsorship ban out of the paper.

The Federal Drug Commissioner conducted a hearing for all relevant stakeholders, afterwards the Brewers Association and the ZAW are invited for special hearings in the Ministry of Health

Effective Lobbying, Part I

Source: Blasberg & Pletter 2010

• The Federal Ministry for Economics examined the paper of the FDC and asked representatives of different industries, eg. Advertising, Brewers, etc.;

• the FDC was critized because the paper did not show the consideration of the affected industries;

• the Ministry for Economics stressed that they prefer self-regulation instead of new legislative restrictions, this statement was in the line with the current Media- and Communication report of the Federal Government;

• The Ministry for Economics wanted also to change the general objective of the paper: „Reduction of the risky alcohol consumption and alcohol abuse“ instead „of the general reduction of the alcohol consumption“

Next Step: The way through the Ministries

Source: Blasberg & Pletter 2010

• After the examinations by the different Ministries only couple of measures survived. The whole paper was watered down!

• Most of the policy measures are deleted.

• Educational measures are highlighted.

• Afterwards the Federal Government refused to concern themselves with the Alcohol Action programme. Reason: The Program contains not an innovative overall concept

Effective Lobbying, Part II

Source: Blasberg & Pletter 2010

Conclusions and Questions

• Lobbying by NGOs is rare (parliament, ministries)

• Alcohol industries and related industries have good relationsships to the relevant ministries

• Alcohol industries and related industries own economic power

• alcohol policy by relevant NGOs is very focussed on the activities of the Ministry of Health or Ministry of Family, Seniors, Women and Youth

• a lack of jurists within the NGOs

• coalition building could be improved among NGOs

• most of the NGOs have limited resources for the alcohol policy business

Conclusions

• Should NGOs on alcohol policy use jurists to secure their actions and arguments, especially on alcohol marketing?

• Should NGOs use professional lobbyists?

• Should it be effective to found an independent platform for NGOs, which takes action on alcohol policy issues?

• In which way should NGOs cooperate with the alcohol industries and related industries on national level?

• How should NGOs communicate their objectives to the whole population to raise awareness on the facts of alcohol related harm ?

Some questions

Thank you for your attention!

Contact: Walter Farke (MPH)Phone: +49 2925 / 976889Email: [email protected]