1. EU adults drink 27g alcohol (nearly three drinks) a day, more than twice the world’s average.

2. About 138,000 EU citizens, aged 15-64 years, die prematurely from alcohol in any one year.

3. EU drinkers consume more than 600 times the exposure level set by the European Food Standards Authority for genotoxic carcinogens, of which ethanol is one.

4. Countries with more strict and comprehensive alcohol policies generally have lower levels of alcohol consumption, and policies are tending to get stricter in recent years.

5. Alcohol policies impact on alcohol consumption, even when talking into the impact of urbanization associated with increased consumption.  

6. Online alcohol marketing and alcohol branded sports sponsorship increase the likelihood of 14 year olds to drink alcohol.

7. Brief interventions for risky drinking and pharmacological treatments for alcohol use disorders are effective.

8. The proportion of people who need treatment who actually access it ranges from only 1 in 25 to 1 in 4.

9. Young people are often already drunk by the time they go out, fuelled by cheap alcohol from shops and supermarkets, with drinking venues exacerbating problems further.

10. Monitoring alcohol policy and its impact needs much improvement.