Meeting report: Regional consultation on alcohol and health (2016)

On 24 November 2016, following the 7th European Alcohol Policy Conference (7EAPC), the WHO Regional Office for Europe held a regional consultation on alcohol and health in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The consultation was attended by representatives of 30 Member States of the WHO European Region and a number of international organizations working on alcohol policy. The meeting focused on alcohol and pregnancy, and on trends in consumption and alcohol-attributable harm – themes of two recent WHO/Europe publications. The meeting also provided a forum for representatives of Member States to discuss implementation of the WHO Global strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol, the WHO European action plan to reduce the harmful use of alcohol 2012–2020, and the Action plan on youth drinking and on heavy episodic drinking (binge drinking) (2014-2016) of the Committee on National Alcohol Policy and Action.

The consultation is part of a three-year project entitled monitoring of national policies related to alcohol consumption and harm reduction (MOPAC). This aims to support collaboration between the European Union and WHO in monitoring and surveillance of countries’ progress in reducing the harmful use of alcohol. MOPAC activities are carried out with funding from the European Union.