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On Wednesday, the Seimas met for the first session of the spring session.
Before that, V. Čmilytė-Nielsen told reporters that various amendments to the law should be considered regarding measures to restrict alcohol consumption.
In the first place, he highlighted a revision of the prohibition of the advertising of alcoholic beverages.
“Because this ban on advertising and the theft of magazine pages is certainly not a fight against alcohol consumption. This is your imitation. And so few things that are imitative and that do not have a real impact, a real positive impact in the fight against alcoholism, will be abandoned, ”said the Spokesperson for Seimas.
In addition to changes in the prohibition of advertising alcoholic beverages, according to V.Čmilytė-Nielsen, changes in the age of the time required to buy alcohol, changes in the time of sale of alcohol are being considered.
Photo by Luke April / 15min / Victoria Čmilytė-Nielsen
The president of the Seimas emphasized that the colleagues will register specific proposals in the Seimas in the near future.
“An informal working group has been established to review the current rules, and it is doing so in a comprehensive manner. It appears there will be a set of proposals,” he said.
V.Čmilytė-Nielsen mentioned that he could not specifically comment on whether measures to restrict alcohol consumption had achieved their goal: to reduce alcohol consumption in the country.
However, he said recent research shows that alcohol use is not declining, especially among younger age groups.
“Something probably needs to change”
Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said the working group formed at the Seimas would consider and submit proposals on relaxing alcohol restriction measures.
“Something probably needs to change, but I won’t really get out of the hat. I think not only a change is needed, a self-assessment is also needed, and what works, what doesn’t, what could have worked better, what could and what it could not have happened ”, said the Head of Government.
Photo by Lukas Balandus / 15min / Ingrida Šimonytė
According to I. Šimonytė, it is probably not so easy to say about the impact of specific decisions made in 2017 about alcohol consumption.
He recalled that at that time there were some “overlapping” changes in the excise policy.
“Whichever effect was strongest, I think it would require more research. There were expert evaluations that said those adjustments were not effective in reducing alcohol consumption. But I’m not an expert and couldn’t comment on it from someone’s hat. way and I wouldn’t like it, ”said the Prime Minister.
Before the change
Former Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis does not see the need to change the restrictions introduced to reduce alcohol consumption.
Especially since the last term was said to have corrected “some of the nonsense.”
He mentioned that restrictions on the sale of low-alcohol alcohol in outdoor cafes and beaches were lifted.
Photo by Sigismund Gedvila / 15min / Saulius Skvernelis
“It’s fixed and there are more major flaws that I don’t really see. We see that everything has probably improved with the advertising. The only solutions found are, the non-alcoholic products are advertised and the sales show that they have really paid off, and the consumer has agreed to change those products from possibly traditional to non-alcoholic.
And I don’t see anything essential anymore. All the more because in terms of age, which is limited today, as far as I remember, four years ago when we conducted the surveys, one of the most supportive among the people was the age limit to buy alcohol ”, the first. the head of government told reporters in the Seimas.
According to S. Skvernelis, the current procedure that alcohol is sold in stores on Sundays until 3 pm is also quite logical, which does not cause any major inconvenience to anyone.
“Now maybe the problem is that if you don’t have a beer after 15 hours, you could have gone to a cafe earlier, you can’t do it now,” he said.
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