On 1 October, Poland notified the Draft Act amending the Act on a sober upbringing and counteracting alcoholism to the European Commission under the TRIS 2015/1535 procedure (Notification 2025/0551/PL). The proposal introduces mandatory information message on the harmful effects of alcohol on pregnant or breastfeeding on all alcoholic beverages sold in Poland.
spiritsEUROPE strongly supports initiatives aimed at protecting pregnant and breastfeeding women; however, it has concerns regarding consistency with EU legislation, the risk of market fragmentation, and potential impacts on trade.
Breach of the TRIS notification rules
While the draft law establishes the principle of labelling products with an information message on the harmful effects of alcohol for pregnant or breastfeeding women, the notified text does not contain any indication of the size, content, format, and placement of the warning; no draft or concept of an implementing act has been made available. In fact, the draft law merely states that ‘the Minister of Health shall determine, by regulation, the size, perimeter, format and methods of display [of the information message], ensuring that it is visible, understandable and unambiguous’.
This text therefore appears to be in complete contradiction with the spirit and letter of the rules governing the TRIS notification procedure. Indeed, Directive (EU) 2015/1535 states that:
- ‘in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market, it is appropriate to reach the greatest possible transparency of national initiatives aimed at establishing technical regulations’, and
- ‘it is essential that the Commission has the necessary information before adopting technical provisions. Member States which (...) are required to facilitate the performance of its task must therefore notify it of their draft technical regulations’.
As it stands, this draft therefore does not allow the European Commission, the Member States or the economic operators concerned to ensure that the measures envisaged ‘are necessary to meet imperative requirements and pursue an objective of general interest for which they are an essential guarantee’ (4th recital), nor to assess "their possible effect on the market ‘ (9th recital).
The impact assessment provided by the Polish government explicitly acknowledges that ’at this stage of the legislative process, detailed recommendations on how to place labels warning of the harmful effects of alcoholic beverages have not yet been defined". According to the impact assessment, this situation will result in costs for economic operators ranging from €700 to €3,800 per company, a ratio of 1 to 5!
In the absence of this essential information, it is not possible for stakeholders to properly assess the impact, feasibility, or proportionality of the proposed measure.
A transition period of only 24 months
If the implementing act were adopted late in the transition period, operators would face severely constrained timelines to redesign labels and manage existing inventories, resulting in avoidable market disruption. Consistent with other alcoholic-beverage sectors, we therefore call for a 36-month transition period, together with an exhaustion-of-stocks provision.
Risk of fragmentation of the Single Market
- The draft law does not contain any mutual recognition clause that would allow information messages aimed at pregnant and breastfeeding women that already exist in other Member States, such as France or Lithuania, to be recognised as equivalent to the proposed provisions. The absence of such a clause makes it all the more impossible to assess the impact of these proposals on economic operators and on the integrity of the internal market.
- More generally, this draft law would establish additional national labelling requirements at a time when the European Commission may be preparing a harmonised EU-wide framework for alcohol health information, as recommended under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. spiritsEUROPE therefore encourages Poland to refrain from unilateral decision and instead work towards an EU-level harmonised solution for consumer information on alcoholic beverages.
