Chair,

Director General,

Excellencies,

Colleagues,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of the EU and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries the Republic of North Macedonia[*] and Montenegro* as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia align themselves with this statement.

The EU and its Member States thank the secretariat for the draft action plan, which is a result of an extensive 2-year effort to provide the member states with guidance for implementing a very important strategy. At EB146, the EU co-sponsored the decision that led to this action plan. The EU recognizes harmful use of alcohol as an important risk factor for the development of Non-Communicable Diseases and other health and social issues, the prevalence of which correlates with alcohol consumption. It is also a priority prevention area in the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.

We particularly welcome the plan to increasing capacity building efforts and the technical assistance to be provided to Member States on their request by the WHO on the Best Buy policies, inter alia on taxation and marketing policies.

We note that there are many proposed measures in the action plan for the economic operators in alcohol production and trade. We also note that the WHO may organise regular dialogues with the industry on their role in reducing the harmful use of alcohol, while ensuring, in line with FENSA, the prevention of undue influence and/or conflict of interest when developing alcohol policy options. We also reiterate our suggestion that WHO develops a standalone document made available to Member states wishing to engage with alcohol industry when developing and implementing public health policies. Overall, the WHO and Member States must maintain their focus on science and evidence-based policy measures.

The EU and its Member states support the adoption of the action plan in its current form and express hope that the action plan will be impactful and propose that the WHO Governing Bodies discuss the results up to 2030 at regular intervals.

The EU and its Member states also support the adoption of the draft intersectoral global action plan on epilepsy and other neurological disorders 2022–2031, which builds on the previous global resolutions, decisions, reports and commitments, including resolution WHA68.20 on the global burden of epilepsy and highlight the need for continuing efforts in this area.

Thank you.

[*] Montenegro continues to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.