Member States increase pressure on European Commission.

Three items on the agenda of the last EPSCO Council on 21 July dealt with stricter regulations on tobacco and nicotine consumption in the European Union (EU). Two items have been placed on the agenda by the Member States under "Any other business". They are increasing the pressure on the European Commission to take action to combat tobacco and nicotine consumption in the EU.

Novel tobacco products

The Latvian delegation, with the support of twelve Member States, has presented a call for action at EU level to protect young people from harm caused by novel tobacco products and nicotine-containing products. The non-paper focuses on novel tobacco products such as e-cigarettes. New data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study shows that e-cigarettes are now more popular than conventional cigarettes: 32 per cent of the 15-year-olds surveyed had already used e-cigarettes, 20 per cent in the last 30 days. Targeted marketing tactics including making e-cigarettes available in many tempting flavours are enticing children and young people to smoke even more. In the debate, the Latvians pointed out that flavours, advertising via social media and the lack of EU-wide regulations, such as a ban on distance marketing, are preventing novel tobacco and nicotine products from becoming less available and less attractive in the EU.

Advertising and sale of tobacco, especially on digital platforms

With support, even from Germany, the Danes have called for increased efforts to protect children from direct advertising and the sale of tobacco products and nicotine-containing products, particularly via digital platforms, in a further information note . The note calls on the European Commission to initiate a debate on nicotine-containing products: " We must set a high bar and future-proof the tobacco legislation to ensure that both new and future products fall within the regulatory scope and that social media providers take greater responsibility for marketing and sale of tobacco and nicotine products on their platforms […]. Initiatives should include a ban on flavours in nicotine products, a limit on nicotine content in these products and, where necessary, a ban on certain products." During the debate, the German delegation expressed its support for an ambitious EU tobacco control policy and called for the presentation of Council recommendations on smoke-free environments, which should also include e-cigarettes.

Smoke-free environments

A prevention package was actually due to be presented by the European Commission end of January, but only part of the package - the Council recommendations on vaccine-preventable cancers - was published (see News 07/2024). The proposal to revise the Council's recommendations on smoke-free environments has been months in the making. The new recommendations would have called on Member States to protect the public from second-hand smoke, both from cigarettes and aerosols from novel products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco devices. The repeated delays were already criticised at the Commission event on the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan in January. When Belgium held the Council Presidency, the Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke publicly criticised the delay, suggesting that it was due to strong lobbying by the tobacco industry. "These actions have been undermined by powerful industry interests, at the cost of Europeans' health," he told the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). The recommendations for smoke-free environments are now to be presented by the Commission on 17 September.