National Alcohol Action Plan to Raise Legal Age for Buying Hard Liquor

At its meeting on Friday, the Cabinet approved Luxembourg's first action plan to reduce alcohol misuse, entitled "PALMA" (Plan d'action de réduction du mésusage de l'alcool), for the years 2020-24.

The main objectives of PALMA are to significantly reduce the misuse of alcohol and its harmful effects in Luxembourg, as well as to create a favourable environment allowing the population to adopt a healthy and reasonable behaviour towards alcohol. The plan is aimed at people of all ages but particularly aims to protect young people.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health, Étienne Schneider, commented: “Above all, it is important to make citizens responsible for their consumption of alcohol. I think most people are aware of the ravages of alcohol misuse. It is notably at the origin of traffic accidents or acts of violence. But alcohol misuse mainly affects health in the long term and is an avoidable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, cancer, liver disease and even mental disorders".

Excessive alcohol consumption among adults is a major public health issue in Luxembourg. Indeed, the percentage of adults who have reported episodes of binge drinking is among the highest in the EU. With more than one in three adults, Luxembourg comes in third place after Denmark and Romania. On a more positive note, only one in seven 15-year-olds said they had been drunk at least twice in their life, which is the lowest proportion in the EU. 

PALMA 2020-24 

PALMA is organised around six axes, broken down into different measures and actions in order to ensure a holistic approach. Firstly, the governance of alcohol damage reduction aims to promote healthy and reasonable alcohol consumption behaviour and to adapt the legislative framework regulating the marketing of alcohol. In particular, it plans to reduce the accessibility of alcohol to young people by raising the ban on the legal age for the sale of alcoholic beverages with a high alcohol content from 16 to 18 years. Indeed, Luxembourg is currently one of the only EU Member States to authorise the purchase of alcoholic beverages from the age of 16 (rather than 18). 

The promotion of health and the prevention of alcohol misuse put a strong emphasis on raising awareness both of the general population and of specific populations (pregnant women, young people, the workplace, etc.) and on promoting shared responsibility and community in the face of alcohol misuse (raising awareness among health professionals and staff in socio-educational environments).
Early detection of alcohol misuse.

Another element is the improvement of care, from therapeutic care to rehabilitation and risk reduction. This aims to strengthen and optimise the care offer and accommodation offer for care. In addition, this element provides for the development of support and accompaniment offers for the benefit of loved ones. The training of professionals also aims to develop the knowledge and skills of professionals in the area of ​​alcohol misuse, whilst research aims to contribute to the development of knowledge on the misuse of alcohol in Luxembourg by carrying out research projects.

The evaluation of PALMA will be carried out through an annual activity report reflecting the progress of the plan and two external evaluations, which will be carried out in 2022 and 2024. In parallel, an epidemiological report enabling the monitoring of the impact of PALMA on the epidemiology of alcohol misuse and its consequences will be produced every five years.