European Commission’s proposals would ban e-cigarettes

New European Commission proposals, if adopted, would ban every e-cigarette on the EU market and would severely limit or make unviable the development of new products, according to Clive Bates, the director of Counterfactual, a public interest consulting and advocacy group.

“Late last week the European Commission circulated a confidential new proposal for regulating e-cigarettes,” Bates wrote on The Counterfactual website.

“The document was sent only to those negotiating the future of e-cigarettes behind closed doors in Brussels—representatives of the European Parliament and European Council.

“This isn’t a final proposal, but it provides the negotiators with something to discuss.”

Bates said that a copy of the document had been obtained by the Nicotine Science and Policy website and was at http://nicotinepolicy.net/documents/policy/Article%2018%20-%20Electronic%20cigarettes%20-%20Commission%20proposal%2022%20Nov%202013.pdf.

“It is quite frankly appalling—lacking any legitimacy in public health or internal market policy-making …,” Bates continued. “Make no mistake, if implemented this proposal bans every product on the market today and would severely limit options for future products—and may make it commercially unviable to develop in future.”

In a long piece, Bates goes on to list the main troubling features of the document; how the proposals should be scrutinized; and how to respond to the proposals.

His piece is at http://www.clivebates.com/?p=1655.