Prolonged debate on regulations on tobacco, nicotine and e-cigarettes
Member States increase pressure on European Commission.
CC – 07/2024
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.