1

1) ACT of October 26th,1982 on Upbringing in Sobriety and Counteracting Alcoholism (modified yet about 35 times…)

2) PARPA was established in 1993

3) NATIONAL PROGRAM for the Prevention and Solving of Alcohol-Related Problems 2011 – 2015

• 4) The fourth place on the world, as a market for vodka…

ALCOHOL POLICY IN POLAND

2

• The Act established three complementary action programs implemented at various levels of administration and constitute the basis for Polish model for the solving of alcohol-related problems

www.parpa.pl

• PARPA was established in 1993. It is a specialized government agency subordinated to the Minister of Health. It develops and presents expert opinions on draft laws and action plans in the scope of alcohol policy. PARPA operates under art. 3 of the Act on upbringing in sobriety and counteracting alcoholism

3

2) National Program for the Prevention and Solving of Alcohol-Related Problems 2011 – 2015

4

Designates the tasks to be implemented by the national governmental administration, the National Broadcasting Council, the State Agency for Prevention of Alcohol-related Problems and local governement.

1)HARM TO HEALTH CAUSED BY ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION 2) EXCESIVE AVAILABILITY OF ALCOHOL 3) ALCOHOL-RELATED FAMILY LIFE DISRUPTION 4) CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL BY CHILDREN AND YOUTH 5) PHENOMENON OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE RELATED WITH ALCOHOL 6) DETERIORATING QUALITY OF ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY COMMUNES 7) ALCOHOL-RELATED VIOLATION OF LAW 8) LACK OF SCIENTIFIC DATA ON ALCOHOL-RELATED ECONOMIC LOSS

5 www.parpa.pl

2,3 2,4 2,6

3,2

4,6

6,0

4,6

3,8

3,5

2,0 1,7 1,7

2,4 2,5 2,5 2,7

3,0 3,4

3,2 3,2

0,1 0,5 0,6 0,7

0,9 1,2

0,9 0,9 0,8

1,4 1,27 1,34 1,36 1,27 1,03 1,09 1,07 0,98 0,84 0,84

0,8

1,3 1,3 1,7

2,0 1,7 1,6 1,7

2,1

3,7 3,7 3,9

4,1

4,5 4,4

5,0

5,1 5,2 5,0 5,0

0,0

1,0

2,0

3,0

4,0

5,0

6,0

7,0

litry

How much do we drink?… (100 % alcohol - liters per capita - „GUS” data)

beer vodka and liquiers

wine

In 2011 globaly 9,31 liters

The challenges???

6

EVIDENCE BASED DATA AND DOCUMENTS

7

8 www.parpa.pl

February 2012 - June 2012

Will it be like in Sweden?

The challenges???

9

LOBBYING

10

THE ROLE OF THE INTEREST GROUPS IN THE LEGISLATIVE PROCES IN POLAND

By prof. Krzysztof Rybinski, VISTULA University, Warsaw

11

• The Authorized interview with MR Andrzej Szumowski, the deputy chairman of Wyborowa SA board and the chairman of Polish Vodka Association (PVA):

• Who was conducting the effective lobbing in case of the said regulation?

• The lobbing was conducted by professional lobbers and also by people of the beer industry. I’m very impressed by the effectiveness of the proceeded campaign. The campaign was not only based on sending the campaign materials to the journalists and MP’s. Specific atmosphere around opinion groups and policy makers was taken into account in the

campaign. Neutralizing the efforts of PARPA, which traditionally acts against those kinds of changes, in legislative process for this act, was an outstanding achievement.

12

• The Authorized interview with MR Andrzej Szumowski, the deputy chairman of Wyborowa SA board and the chairman of Polish Vodka Association (PVA):

• Disorganized wine industry was not participating in the lobbing procedure, what had made it impossible to advertise this alcohol beverage, being less socially stigmatized than other spirit beverages. In my opinion the fact that wine was excluded from the group of socially acceptable alcohol beverages was a great achievement.

13

• The Authorized interview with MR Andrzej Szumowski, the deputy chairman of Wyborowa SA board and the chairman of Polish Vodka Association (PVA):

• In what form and on which stage were the pre-parliamentary and parliamentary proceeding affected by the lobbing?

• Lobbing took place in every possible form and on every stage. Spirit industry was talking also about their interests during the sessions of parliamentary commissions. We tried to pay attention to a much bigger influence of spirit industry on the economy of agriculture in particular, but as we can see the beer industry was much more effective. The beer industry acted a lot in parliament, government and in the media. Media had their own interest in the matter because they profited from the beer advertising. Celebrities, experts and NGO’s and sport associations were included in the commercial campaigns.

14

The challenges???

16

ALCOHOL NO ORDINARY COMMODITY…

17

1) To take the alcohol away from pubs and shops as a food and put it as a problem into public health area

2) To put into Medical University’s programs more knowledge about addictions (now it is 6 to 30 hrs)

3) To implement IBI into GP’s practice

Small success: the first time the costs of alcohol were discussed on Economic Forum in Krynica (Poland) as an economic problem for national economy…