First tobacco and now alcohol. The European Commission wants to dissuade Europe's citizens from excessive consumption of alcohol by proposing a combination of higher taxes, shocking warning labels on every bottle, advertising restrictions and an increase in the minimum age for purchasing beer, spirits and wine.

According to EU statistics, 25 percent of European men and 10 percent of women drink more than what is considered a healthy amount of alcohol and between three and five percent of adults are said to suffer from alcoholism. This has persuaded the European Commission that it needs to take steps to protect its citizens from themselves and their vices. The EU's Health Commissioner, Markos Kyprianou of Cyprus, plans to submit the anti-drinking proposals in September. A ministerial committee responsible for the issue would then be charged with transforming them into binding directives.

It is the Scandinavians that are leading teetotalling efforts the charge. Since beer and spirits now flow almost unrestricted across the borders of the EU's internal market, threatening the state alcohol monopolies in places like Finland and Sweden, the Nordic countries have reportedly experiencing a rapid rise in the number of people suffering from alcohol problems. There has also been an increase in private imports across the Baltic Sea, with many people taking "booze cruises" to cheaper countries to load up on their alcohol supplies. During the recent World Cup, one might have been forgiven for thinking that the thousands of Swedes who made the trip over to Germany had come as much for the reasonably priced local beer as for the football.

But what seems like harmless fun and shrewd shopping to many is alarming Scandinavian finance ministers, as they see revenues from the state-run alcohol shops plummet. Their solution? They would like to see the same high taxes on alcohol imposed across Europe. The Finnish government, which holds the EU presidency until the end of the year, is offering strong support in the hope of have the anti-drinking proposals implemented.

However, with cheap beer almost a way of life in many European countries such as Germany and the UK, and powerful vintners' lobbies able to exert pressure on many governments, the proposals are certain to face stiff opposition.