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An Italian All-party parliamentary beer group is born, on the initiative of Giacomo Stucchi, a Lega Nord parliamentarian. The aim is to safeguard the interests of brewers inside the legislative State body. The group counts 32 Senators and parliamentarians.

This is an abstract of the announcement of this initiative:

The All-party parliamentary beer group [...] is formed with the idea of creating a place of contact and reflection for those interested in the problems that affect the beer industry in Italy, from those directly related to beer culture to the alcohol-related problems.

The main objective is to raise awareness and rediscover the beer as a food, natural and mildly alcoholic, rich in history, tradition, charm, versatile in its infinite pairings possibilities for different styles, compatible with the Mediterranean diet and the concept of healthy and proper nutrition.

I hope that this project can be translated into real benefits for the sector, since assumptions sounds pretty good, as they refer to a concept very close to that of craft beer. In a nation where bureaucracy tends to shelve rather than help, is nice to know that there’s a body which can grant a direct and constructive dialogue with the Parliament.

The announcement continues as follows:

Starting from this premise we want to restore a strong channel of dialogue with the institutions and especially with parliamentarians, conscious of representing an industry with annual sales of around 2.5 billion € and that, with its induced, grants a total employment of about 135,000 people, a large and diversified community of individuals and companies from large multinationals to micro breweries, well branched throughout the country.

The All-party parliamentary beer group would like to organize guided tours to breweries, seminars, meetings, tastings and periodically send its members information about the world of beer, with an agenda on the key institutional and un-institutional events that concern it.

They luckily not speak just of multinational breweries, since micros are expressly mentioned. In other countries the lobbying is vital to the development and survival of the craft beer segment. In Italy it would be desirable to rely on similar activities. What do you think? Waiting for your comments…