Grocery stores and supermarkets across Finland began selling drinks with an alcohol content of up to eight percent from 9am on Monday morning, as the government's reform of the nation's alcohol laws came into effect.
The previous limit for alcohol sold in shops was 5.5 percent.
In its programme for government, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo's (NCP) administration promised to "reform Finland’s alcohol policy in a responsible manner to make it more in line with the alcohol policy in other European countries."
However, the decision to set Finland on a 'European path' has not been widely welcomed. Pia Mäkelä, a Research Professor with public health authority THL and a specialist in alcohol policy and drinking habits, questioned the government's justification for changing the law.
Alcohol is a factor in the deaths of about one million people in Europe every year, Mäkelä noted, and the harm caused by excessive drinking is well documented.
Currently, people in Finland drink less alcohol than the EU average based on figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), leading Mäkelä to question why the government wants to follow a romanticised version of European drinking culture.
She cited the example of southern European countries, such as France and Spain, where people drink more alcohol than Finnish people do, but in smaller quantities. Finnish drinking culture is closer to the other Nordic countries and the UK, where people tend to drink alcohol less frequently than in southern Europe, but in larger quantities at a time.
"For us eastern and northern Europeans, alcohol is not primarily an accompaniment to food, but a social lubricant," Mäkelä said, adding that changing Finland's laws on alcohol to be similar to the regulations in southern European countries does not automatically mean the culture will change too.
Minister defends law change
Yle asked Minister of Social Security Sanni Grahn-Laasonen (NCP) to explain what the government means by a 'European path'.
Replying by email through her special adviser, Grahn-Laasonen wrote that overall alcohol consumption and binge drinking have both continued to decline in Finland since the alcohol laws were last reformed in 2018.
This shows that the country's alcohol laws can be reformed on a step-by-step basis to be more in line with other EU countries, she wrote, adding that the new law change "will probably not have much impact on the everyday lives" of people in Finland.
THL's Pia Mäkelä however noted that definitive evidence has emerged over the past 20 years that the so-called "moderate consumption" of alcohol clearly increases the risk of developing cancer.
This has led many countries, including Estonia, Lithuania and Ireland, to tighten their laws on alcohol, she added.
"We in Finland should be proud of the way we have conducted our alcohol policy. We don't need to make changes just to be more part of Europe," Mäkelä said, adding that she believes there is one very obvious reason why the law was changed.
"Shops and retailers want a bigger slice of the alcohol market and that is what the reform is all about," she told Yle.
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