Questions over effectiveness of tobacco-funded EU anti-smuggling campaign

A report being presented to the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control committee raises concerns over the effectiveness and monitoring of the deal under which the four biggest international tobacco manufacturers co-operate with the European Commission in the fight against the illegal trade in tobacco, according to a New Europe story.

The four companies pay about €200 million a year towards funding initiatives aimed at combating contraband, which is said currently to account for more than one in 10 of the cigarettes sold in the EU.

Bart Staes, a Belgian Green member of the European Parliament is presenting a report to the committee that suggests there are some uncertainties about what the funds are used for.

“Some of the member states earmark the payments to fight cigarette smuggling, while others direct the money to the general budget,” said Staes.

“The Commission has so far not provided the committee on Budgetary Control and the European Parliament with the movements on this account and the necessary explanations.”

Staes was quoted as saying the Commission had not followed up by asking the member states what the funds had been used for.

In addition, while the tobacco firms had to make payments if their cigarettes were discovered being smuggled, the payments made in 2012 had accounted for only about 20 million of the 3.8 billion cigarettes confiscated in the EU that year. The 3.8 billion figure presumably refers to all cigarette brands seized, as well as counterfeit products.