The new government of Italy has proposed raising the nation's legal drinking age from 16 to 18, big news in a country where moderate alcohol consumption even from early ages has long been seen as socially acceptable.

The Financial Times reported Oct. 6 that the proposal by the government of prime minister Romano Prodi calls for fines of up to 6,000 euros for selling alcohol to anyone under 18, and also would ban alcohol sales at service stations along highways.

Government officials said the higher drinking age would bring Italy into alignments with other nations in the European Union. It's also hoped that the law would cut down on alcohol-related traffic crashes.

Critics including restaurant and bar owners, as well as some lawmakers in Prodi's coalition government. "It sends a repressive and prohibitionist message to young people, and it could have the opposite effect to that intended -- making the abuse of alcoholic drinks more attractive," said communist legislator Gennaro Migliore.

"I wonder if it's really true that you can change people's lifestyles with prohibition," said Lino Stoppani, president of a group representing Italy's hospitality industry.

"What are we doing? Are we forbidding 16-year-olds or 17-year-olds from drinking a beer in a pizzeria? If so, things will go as they did in the 1970s in England, where lads waited outside pubs for their friends to bring them something to drink," said Professor Enrico Tempesta of Italy's Permanent Observatory on Youth and Alcohol.