Ireland passes a law requiring health warning labels on products that contain alcohol
It becomes law in Ireland the regulation providing for the affixing of the spirits of a’label with health warnings. This was announced by the Minister of Health, Stephen Donnelly. This is the first example in Europe where the calorie content and grams of alcohol in the product are indicated on bottles, as well as warnings about the risk of consumption during pregnancy and serious liver disease and fatal tumours.
The law will apply for a three-year transition period starting May 22, 2026. “I am delighted that we are the first country in the world to take this step and introduce comprehensive health labeling of alcohol products,” Donnelly said. It’s time for other countries to follow our example.”
Alcohol, label with health warnings: Italy and 13 other EU states are against
The choice of Ireland has triggered the criticisms of 13 European Union states and the WTO such as theItalia and by alcoholic beverage producers, who deem the law an “unjustified and disproportionate” barrier to trade. There EU Commission for its part, it properly gave its approval but neither did it condemn the Irish choice despite last week the European and national associations of producers of wine, beer and spirits presented official complaints in this regard to open a infringement procedure against Dublin. The issue of labels will be on the agenda of the “technical barriers to trade” committee on June 21st.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigidacommented immediately: “We will work, together with my colleague Tajani, with whom we are discussing right now, to understand, also together with other European nations, such as France and Spain, but not only, who have signed with us a document of strong criticism of the Irish actionhow to counter this choice of Ireland also in the name of defending a European market that is respectful of the products of each nation”.
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