The wine was declared food product and the wine market will be liberalized, while the advertising of wine products will be permitted. The MPs adopted a relevant initiative proposed by unaffiliated MP Ion Balan in the first reading, IPN reports.

The author of the bill said Moldova’s population during the last few years has consumed more strong alcoholic beverages with a concentration of over 40 degrees. They annually consume more than 150 million liters of beer, over 70 million liters of beverages with a high alcohol content and only 15 million liters of wine. In most of the cases, it’s not clear from what raw material the strong alcoholic beverages are produced.

“We pretend not to see that most of these beverages are made from contraband ethyl alcohol mixed with water and the strong alcoholic drinks are thus cheaper than the wine, but the people’s health is affected. Time has come to educate the population to consume grape wine. This will bring benefits to the people’s health and will stimulate the national businesses,” stated the MP.

The members of the Parliament’s commission on human rights criticized this bill, saying it actually liberalizes the alcohol market and will further increase the amount of consumed alcohol per capita.