‘Commission Too Receptive to Lobbying’

The European Commission is inappropriately receptive to tobacco lobbying, according to a white paper scheduled to be presented on April 11, reports Europorter.

Concerned about the slow progress toward the EU goal of creating “tobacco-free generation” and the union’s inaction on its 2011 tobacco taxation directive and its 2014 tobacco products directive, which are due for revision, several European deputes and public health associations have studied the interactions between industry and EU public office holders.

The discussions were led by Michèle Rivasi, Anne-Sophie Pelletier and Pierre Larrouturou, with the participation of Smoke-Free Partnership, Alliance Against Tobacco, the University of Bath and Corporate Europe Observatory, among other health groups.

The themes discussed included the parallel tobacco trade, the “Dentsu Tracking/Jan Hoffmann” traceability controversy, tobacco lobbying efforts and tobacco’s environmental impact.

The white paper summarizing the working group’s findings will be distributed in French and English to the 27 member states, the Commission, political groups, along with lawmakers and members of the press.