Days of Cheap French Drink May Be Numbered
After big tobacco tax rises, health advisers urge ministers to consider similar increases in alcohol prices.
The French government braved the fury of a nation of unrepentant smokers last year by increasing the price of a packet of cigarettes by 50%. Now, one of its advisory commissions has recommended it risk outright revolution by doing the same with alcohol.
In a report yesterday, the government-appointed high council for the future of public health insurance advised the cabinet to consider increasing alcohol taxes as one way of helping to cut a health budget overrun estimated at €10bn (£7bn) last year.
"A simple comparison of the figures between what alcohol raises in tax revenues and what it costs in healthcare shows there's still an awful lot to be done here in terms of preventing alcoholism," said Jean-Marie Le Guen, a council member and Paris Socialist MP. "In contrast to tobacco, nothing's been done for years."
Taxes on drink are a deeply sensitive subject in France, where any government attempt to tinker with the price of such emblematic tipples as bordeaux or burgundy, champagne, cognac and pastis is seen as an assault on the national fibre.
When Jean-François Mattei, the health minister, floated the idea of putting an extra five cents on a bottle of wine last September, more than 200 MPs and senators from wine-producing areas and beyond were up in arms.
Alain Juppé, a former prime minister and influential president of the ruling UMP party, who is also the mayor of Bordeaux, eventually ensured that this suggestion was buried - dismissing it out of hand as "an extremely bad idea".
But outside the powerful industry lobby, a growing number of voices are calling for a substantial rise in alcohol taxes. These currently account for 16.6% of the total price of a bottle of wine, 22.6% of a bottle of beer and 38.1% of whisky, and raised €2.9bn for the government last year. By contrast, after three increases in the past year, taxes comprise 75.9% of the price of cigarettes, and will bring in €8.8bn this year. France is now Europe's third most expensive country for cigarettes, after Britain and Norway.
"What the government has done in terms of tobacco obliges it to act just as radically with alcohol," Philippe Batel, a psychologist specialising in alcoholism, told the newspaper Libération.
Cigarettes are said to kill 30,000 French people a year. Drink, despite a 40% fall in alcohol-related deaths since the 1960s, is blamed for 45,000 deaths, including 23,000 directly related to excessive consumption. Booze is blamed for one third of all road deaths, 30% of domestic violence and up to 20% of industrial accidents.
Most public health experts believe that a significant increase in the price of alcohol would change French habits - as it is apparently doing for smoking - "by signifying that the product is dangerous", said Mr Batel.
The government appears unconvinced, aware of the potential electoral backlash.
"An across-the-board increase in alcohol taxes would not be as effective as it was with tobacco," said Didier Jayle, head of the inter-ministerial committee on drugs and alcohol.
"Experts say something like a 40% price hike would be needed to change drinking behaviour. That would cause economic and social problems way out of proportion to the limited gains in terms of public health."
The big rise in tobacco prices has sent some British smokers farther afield, to places such as Luxembourg, in search of cheap cigarettes, and a similar hike in alcohol could sink the "booze cruise" market. Britons cross the Channel about 3m times a year to buy cheap wine, beer and spirits in France.
How the costs compare
Prices
Standard bottle of red wine: UK £3.99, France £2.08
Litre of vodka: UK £11.29, France £9.61
Bottle of Becks beer: UK £0.90, France £0.61
Health
· Alcohol-related mortality (per 100,000): UK 11.1 men 6.4 women, France 28.0 men 11.0 women
Proportion of road deaths involving drivers over drink-drive limit: UK 15% (out of 3,400), France 29.5% (out of 7,242)
Annual per person (litres pure alcohol): UK 8.5, France 10.5
Total (in million litres of pure alcohol): UK 507, France 626
In a report yesterday, the government-appointed high council for the future of public health insurance advised the cabinet to consider increasing alcohol taxes as one way of helping to cut a health budget overrun estimated at €10bn (£7bn) last year.
"A simple comparison of the figures between what alcohol raises in tax revenues and what it costs in healthcare shows there's still an awful lot to be done here in terms of preventing alcoholism," said Jean-Marie Le Guen, a council member and Paris Socialist MP. "In contrast to tobacco, nothing's been done for years."
Taxes on drink are a deeply sensitive subject in France, where any government attempt to tinker with the price of such emblematic tipples as bordeaux or burgundy, champagne, cognac and pastis is seen as an assault on the national fibre.
When Jean-François Mattei, the health minister, floated the idea of putting an extra five cents on a bottle of wine last September, more than 200 MPs and senators from wine-producing areas and beyond were up in arms.
Alain Juppé, a former prime minister and influential president of the ruling UMP party, who is also the mayor of Bordeaux, eventually ensured that this suggestion was buried - dismissing it out of hand as "an extremely bad idea".
But outside the powerful industry lobby, a growing number of voices are calling for a substantial rise in alcohol taxes. These currently account for 16.6% of the total price of a bottle of wine, 22.6% of a bottle of beer and 38.1% of whisky, and raised €2.9bn for the government last year. By contrast, after three increases in the past year, taxes comprise 75.9% of the price of cigarettes, and will bring in €8.8bn this year. France is now Europe's third most expensive country for cigarettes, after Britain and Norway.
"What the government has done in terms of tobacco obliges it to act just as radically with alcohol," Philippe Batel, a psychologist specialising in alcoholism, told the newspaper Libération.
Cigarettes are said to kill 30,000 French people a year. Drink, despite a 40% fall in alcohol-related deaths since the 1960s, is blamed for 45,000 deaths, including 23,000 directly related to excessive consumption. Booze is blamed for one third of all road deaths, 30% of domestic violence and up to 20% of industrial accidents.
Most public health experts believe that a significant increase in the price of alcohol would change French habits - as it is apparently doing for smoking - "by signifying that the product is dangerous", said Mr Batel.
The government appears unconvinced, aware of the potential electoral backlash.
"An across-the-board increase in alcohol taxes would not be as effective as it was with tobacco," said Didier Jayle, head of the inter-ministerial committee on drugs and alcohol.
"Experts say something like a 40% price hike would be needed to change drinking behaviour. That would cause economic and social problems way out of proportion to the limited gains in terms of public health."
The big rise in tobacco prices has sent some British smokers farther afield, to places such as Luxembourg, in search of cheap cigarettes, and a similar hike in alcohol could sink the "booze cruise" market. Britons cross the Channel about 3m times a year to buy cheap wine, beer and spirits in France.
How the costs compare
Prices
Standard bottle of red wine: UK £3.99, France £2.08
Litre of vodka: UK £11.29, France £9.61
Bottle of Becks beer: UK £0.90, France £0.61
Health
· Alcohol-related mortality (per 100,000): UK 11.1 men 6.4 women, France 28.0 men 11.0 women
Proportion of road deaths involving drivers over drink-drive limit: UK 15% (out of 3,400), France 29.5% (out of 7,242)
Annual per person (litres pure alcohol): UK 8.5, France 10.5
Total (in million litres of pure alcohol): UK 507, France 626
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