Public health: drinking of alcohol by children and adolescents. Recommendation

The Commission has accepted in full the amendments relating to: - the new wording proposed which is more explicit and reflects the statements of the Commission's communication on road safety; - highlighting the need to promote research and data collection. It also makes sense to underline the need to enable young people to make informed choices and in this context to also mention the regional level; - the addition of the statement "support the study of alcohol consumption as one of the health determinaints on the basis of which the consequences at local, national, regional and Community level could be assessed and encourage in the content the development of data banks to address systematically all relevant issues with regard to alcohol and health"; - student organisations should indeed be mentioned in the proposal together with youth and sport organisations; peer pressure, parental abuse and lack of self-esteem are important areas if concern; to help to eliminate negative images associated with alcohol-free alternatives is a valid aim; - strengthen the role of young people. �