A majority of European lawmakers appear to back further EU proposals for tobacco regulation but face opposition from pro-industry colleagues and the 100-strong cohort of Brussels tobacco lobbyists nicknamed “Goliath” by anti-smoking campaigners.
The stated aim of the revision to the Tobacco Products Directive is to make smoking and other tobacco items less attractive, especially to young people, thereby curbing the estimated 700,000 deaths and €25 billion costs related to smoking-induced illnesses.
The proposed measures include large pictorial health warnings and a ban on some cigarettes and roll-your-own tobaccos with taste-masking flavors.
“This is not regulating for the sake of regulating,” Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner Tonio Borg told a conference in the European Parliament on Monday (26 February).
“The main aim is saving lives,” said Borg, who replaced Dalli as Malta's commissioner in Brussels last November.
Borg said he hoped the revised directive would reduce the number of smokers in the EU by 2% over five years.
If approved by the EU legislative and European ministers, the regulation would compel tobacco manufacturers to include shocking pictorial warnings of the product's health effects on its packaging across the European Union. It would further ban additives with ill-health effects, "marketing" additives such as vitamins or caffeine, and so-called characterizing flavors, seen as attractive to younger people.
“Tobacco should taste like tobacco, not like vanilla or sweets,” Borg said.
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