TobaccoReporter logo

Tag: EU

  • Leaked EU Document Calls for “Substantial” Taxes on Nicotine Pouches

    Leaked EU Document Calls for “Substantial” Taxes on Nicotine Pouches

    According to The Vaping Post, a confidential European Commission (EC) document, leaked by Snusjournalen, has revealed a contentious plan to impose a substantial EU-wide tax increase on nicotine pouches (NPs). Spearheaded by the Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union (DG TAXUD), the proposed measure could trigger widespread economic, political, and criminal repercussions across the Union.

    Europe already finds itself in a tenuous economic situation, dealing with economic instability that includes inflation and escalating trade tensions with the United States. Worse on the nicotine front, a recent Europol report shared by Euroreporter, “The Changing DNA of Serious and Organised Crime,” highlights the direct link between excessive taxation and the rise of black markets—specifically citing tobacco and nicotine products. The report warns that strict tax policies create opportunities for criminal networks to expand operations, smuggle products across borders, and launder illicit funds. Experts fear that a steep price increase on NPs could drive a surge in illicit sales, with products being illegally imported from non-EU nations like China.

    Although the European Commission has yet to confirm the directive publicly, the leak has already sparked significant concerns among key stakeholders, including law enforcement, investors, and consumer advocacy groups. Given Europol’s warnings on illicit trade and the broader political and economic climate, this proposed tax increase is shaping up to be one of the most contentious regulatory battles in the coming months.

    “In light of these developments, the proposed tax hike on NPs adds yet another layer of uncertainty to an already volatile regulatory and economic landscape,” wrote The Vaping Post. “More importantly, with the vaping industry currently facing such a critical juncture, which could result in less availability of vaping products to smokers using them to quit, a harsh tax set on snus would be currently all the more detrimental to public health.”

  • France Wants EU to Raise Tobacco Taxes in Luxembourg

    France Wants EU to Raise Tobacco Taxes in Luxembourg

    Believing higher cigarette prices directly correlate to lesser use, France has continued to tax nicotine products in hopes of reducing smoking in the country. Though the number of cigarettes purchased in the country declined 26% between 2017 and 2022, the same can’t be said of the smoking rate which remains at 29.2%, a slight improvement from 33% in 2017. The problem is that consumers, predictably, will seek out better deals, and in this case need only to cross the border into Luxembourg.

    A pack of 25 cigarettes in Luxembourg costs €8, whereas the same pack across the way in France costs  €15. A recent study by the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies shows that the sales drop for cigarettes at the border is even more dramatic, at 46.2%. As such, French officials are petitioning the EU to level the playing field.

    “Public health policies aimed at reducing tobacco consumption see their effect limited, in particular, because of the development of the parallel market,” French MP Frédéric Valletoux said in a recent motion for a resolution calling for changes to anti-smoking regulations at the European level.

    “Aligning tobacco taxation across the 27 Member States would reduce price disparities and limit cross-border purchases,” according to a report on tobacco published in March 2024 by a European Parliament working group. The report acknowledged the challenges of achieving this goal, as taxation remains outside the EU’s jurisdiction, and price differences between member states continue to widen.

    Another solution being pushed by the French would be to impose tobacco delivery quotas within the EU, as outlined in the World Health Organization protocol to eliminate illicit trade in tobacco products. The quotas would limit tobacco deliveries to each country based on domestic consumption. For example, Luxembourg receives three billion cigarettes annually, despite its domestic consumption being only 600 million.

    Luxembourg is raising the prices on the cheapest cigarettes in its market by €0.30 but otherwise isn’t likely to take more aggressive actions as its Customs and Excise Administration says cigarette sales reached 4.9 billion units in 2024, generating €1.4 billion in revenue for the country. This figure is expected to rise to €1.6 billion in 2025 and €1.9 billion by 2028.

  • Dutch Urge EU to Get Tough on Vapes

    Dutch Urge EU to Get Tough on Vapes

    Dutch junior health minister Vincent Karremans told the European Commission that the decision to delay legislation on new nicotine products is “harmful” in a letter sent to EU health chief Olivér Várhelyi after the commission decided to exclude tobacco-related legislation from its 2025 work program. Karremans urged him to take “decisive” action to protect young people’s health.

    The Dutch also want the EU to establish a legal framework for cross-border distance sales of new tobacco products, arguing that these allow consumers to bypass national restrictions. According to European news website Euractiv, the Dutch health ministry is urging Brussels to impose “comprehensive restrictions on flavors, maximum nicotine levels, and plain packaging” on e-cigarettes and other nicotine products

    In 2023, Dutch MPs voted in favor of a motion by the Democrats 66 party to introduce a tax on e-cigarettes and vapes, although officials say this is unlikely to happen before 2029. Flavored vaping liquids have already been banned in the Netherlands, yet the country is still struggling with a surge in vaping among teenagers, who, health ministers say, are attracted to the flavors.

  • France Extends Ban to Nicotine Pouches

    France Extends Ban to Nicotine Pouches

    Two weeks after banning disposable e-cigarettes, France notified the European Commission it would ban the sale of nicotine pouches as well, joining countries that include Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg.

    “The French decree follows in the footsteps of the decision on 13 February to ban disposable e-cigarettes,” a tobacco industry source told Euractiv. “French regulators have been monitoring developments in the new tobacco products sector. Health authorities became alarmed, and the government decided to activate the legislative levers available to it.”

    With an expected annual growth rate of 6.2%, the European nicotine pouch market could reach €1.06 billion by 2030. Europe’s 2014 Tobacco Products Directive covered all traditional tobacco-containing products and included provisions for new tobacco products, however, nicotine pouches contain no tobacco, and thus remain unregulated at the EU level.

    Tobacco and nicotine products are not on the EU’s agenda for 2025, however, the Polish Presidency Council (which sits atop the Commission along with Denmark and Cyprus until June) is looking to move forward with discussions for taxing alternative tobacco products and possibly revising the Tobacco Products Directive.

  • EU Commission to Talk Alternative Tobacco Taxes

    EU Commission to Talk Alternative Tobacco Taxes

    Tobacco tax reform is not on the EU’s agenda for 2025, however, the Polish Presidency Council (which sits atop the Commission along with Denmark and Cyprus until June) is looking to move forward with discussions for taxing alternative tobacco products, according to a non-paper seen by Euractiv.

    Unlike cigarettes, alternative products do not fall under the EU-wide excise framework. The non-paper notes that the tobacco market has undergone “dramatic changes” in recent years, with novel products like e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, and nicotine pouches rapidly gaining popularity.

    EU diplomats are scheduled to discuss the matter today as part of the working party on Indirect Taxation. Euractiv reported that sources close to the discussion confirmed that some industry players are mounting pressure on the Commission to tax new products to avoid an outright ban as their regulatory limbo drags on.

    Each country is free to make its own rules in terms of handling tobacco products. For example, France recently banned disposable e-cigarettes and this week reportedly will do the same for nicotine pouches, joining countries such as Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg that have already done so. Other countries are looking to take it even further.

    “We don’t just need a smoke-free generation, we need a nicotine-free generation,” Estonian Health Minister Riina Sikkut said. “Many health ministers support this idea. After the pharmaceutical package, tobacco legislation should be next.”

  • France Bans Disposable E-Cigarettes

    France Bans Disposable E-Cigarettes

    With a final vote in the Senate’s upper house, the French parliament today banned single-use electronic cigarettes, accusing them of being gateways to tobacco addiction for teenagers and harmful to the environment. France is the second EU country to enact such a ban, joining Belgium which did it in December.

    “It is a great victory in a two-pronged battle that we were fighting: an environmental battle against the polluting lithium batteries in these ‘puffs’, and a health battle for our schoolchildren,” lawmaker Francesca Pasquini, the author of the bill, said.

    “A fine piece of cross-party work!” lawmaker Michel Lauzzana said on X. “We are now awaiting the promulgation of this law and its application throughout the country.”

    The legislation was earlier approved by the National Assembly lower house.

  • Belgium First in EU to Ban Disposable Vapes

    Belgium First in EU to Ban Disposable Vapes

    Belgium will ban the sale of disposable electronic cigarettes as of Jan. 1 on health and environmental grounds in a groundbreaking move for European Union nations.

    Health minister Frank Vandenbroucke said the inexpensive e-cigarettes had turned into a health threat since they are an easy way for teenagers to be drawn into smoking and get hooked on nicotine.

    “Disposable e-cigarettes is a new product simply designed to attract new consumers,” he said in an interview, according to NPR.

    Because they are disposable, the plastic, battery and circuits are a burden on the environment. On top of that, “they create hazardous waste chemicals still present in what people throw away,” Vandenbroucke said, adding that he wants tougher tobacco measures in the 27-nation bloc.

    “We are really calling on the European Commission to come forward now with new initiatives to update, to modernize, the tobacco legislation,” he said.

    There is an understanding of Belgium’s decision, even in some shops selling electronic cigarettes, and especially on the environmental issue.

    Once the cigarette is empty, “the battery is still working. That’s what is terrible, is that you could recharge it, but you have no way of recharging it,” said Steven Pomeranc, owner of the Brussels Vapotheque shop. “So you can imagine the level of pollution it creates.”

    A ban usually means a financial loss to the industry, but Pomeranc thinks it will not hurt too much.

    “We have a lot of alternative solutions which are also very easy to use,” he said. “Like this pod system, which are pre-filled with liquid, which can just be clipped into the rechargeable e-cigarette. So we will simply have a shift of clients towards this new system.”

  • The Long Road to Zero

    The Long Road to Zero

    Photo: monticellllo

    Efficiency will be the key to decarbonizing the EU transportation sector by 2050.

    By Stefanie Rossel

    To achieve its Green Deal goal and make the European Union climate-neutral by 2050, the European Commission aims to decarbonize transportation in the common market by that same date. It’s a mammoth task because the transportation sector is the EU’s biggest source of greenhouse gas (GHG), currently accounting for more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually, which is equivalent to the total emissions of Germany and the Netherlands combined.

    Not only is transportation responsible for more than a quarter of the EU’s total GHG emissions, but it is also the only major economic sector in Europe where GHGs have increased since the 1990s. Demand for transportation continues to grow steadily in the EU. According to the Alliance for Logistics Innovation through Collaboration in Europe (ALICE), demand for transportation in Europe increased by more than 20 percent between 2000 and 2019, with freight transportation growing 22 percent. Although the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted this trend, leading to a drop in GHG emissions from transportation of 13.5 percent between 2019 and 2020, according to the European Environment Agency, emissions quickly resumed their upward trend, growing by 2.7 percent in 2022. International transportation emissions, such as those from ships and airplanes, are also projected to continue increasing.

    Complicating matters, a recent analysis by Transportation and Environment (T&E), a European advocacy group for clean transportation and energy, shows that transportation has been decarbonizing more than three times slower than the rest of the EU economy since peaking in 2007. Under current climate policies, the group says, its share could reach 44 percent of all GHG emissions in the common market by 2030, up from 29 percent today.

    According to the evaluation, the EU’s current climate regulations will reduce transportation emissions by just 25 percent compared to 1990 levels in 2040 and by 62 percent in 2050 as the new CO2 standards fall short on several measures, according to the organization. For starters, T&E argues, the rules lack a 100 percent zero-emission target. Furthermore, they leave 13 percent of heavy-duty vehicle sales unregulated and define trucks running partially on diesel as “zero-emission.” Cars, vans and trucks with combustion engines bought between now and the mid-2030s, the group argues, will still be driving on European roads while shipping operators have little incentive to increase their operational efficiency. Meanwhile, demand for air travel, spurred by increasing airport capacity, will offset any gains from green fuel this decade.

    More Measures Needed

    T&E therefore calls for additional efforts complementing Green Deal policies to fully decarbonize transportation. Next to halting new airport and motorways capacity expansion and introducing binding electric vehicle sales targets for companies owning large fleets, the organization stresses the importance of direct electrification of road transportation, which, the group says, is two times more efficient than hydrogen power and four times more efficient than using e-fuels. Trucks are responsible for 25 percent of climate emissions from road transportation in Europe while accounting for less than 2 percent of the vehicles on the road, the group says.

    A study T&E commissioned in 2022 concluded that it was possible to transition all new freight trucks to zero emission cost-effectively and in time to meet Europe’s climate targets. Long-haul trucks, the study suggested, would initially have a slower increase in uptake potential but grow quickly to 80 percent by 2026 and to 99.5 percent by 2030. Held against the reality of zero-emission truck sales in the EU, this might be wishful thinking: Of the 11,000 new zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles sold in the EU-27 in 2023, only 0.9 percent were heavy trucks and 5 percent light and medium trucks, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation. In the fourth quarter of 2023, the sales share of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in the heavy truck segment exceeded 1 percent for the first time.

    Reducing CO2 emissions by 50 percent will require a minimum of 465,000 ZEVs, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association estimates. These vehicles will need to be supported by 53,000 and 65,000 charging points as well as around 2,900 H2 fueling stations.

    Increasing Logistics Efficiency

    Logistics account for 11 percent to 12 percent of Europe’s total CO2 emissions, according to ALICE vice chair Sergio Barbarino. “The problem is that while most industry sectors since the 1980s or 1990s have managed to decrease their carbon footprint, transportation has been completely unbound,” he says. “Transportation has a huge struggle to decarbonize.”

    While thorough electrification of vehicles or use of sustainable aviation fuels are important factors in the journey toward zero emission, ALICE prefers a more holistic approach, leveraging opportunities for increased logistics efficiency.

    ALICE was set up to develop an industry-led strategy for research, innovation and market deployment of logistics and supply chain management, and to provide an overarching view on logistics and supply chain planning and control.

    The not-for-profit association has more than 180 members and represents all logistics key stakeholders as well as retail companies, information and communication technology providers and research and technology centers. ALICE supports, assists and advises the European Commission in the implementation of the EU Programs for research, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe.

    The alliance’s defining rationale is the Physical Internet (PI), an open-method approach that maximizes the use of existing data in infrastructure. The PI involves sharing resources with business partners, for instance, transportation means or storing space, which reduces costs, increases efficiency and contributes directly to reducing traffic and therefore emissions. The PI aims to seamlessly connect organizations by means of an overarching network system to external sources and capabilities so that they can collaborate and share transportation routes as well as logistics nodes, such as distribution centers, inland terminals or airports and ports.

    For the future, ALICE has identified several pillars. The first deals with how freight demand growth is managed, focusing on the question of how much stuff really needs to be moved and whether it would be more efficient to manufacture closer to the point of consumption.

    The second pillar stresses that all modes of transportation should be used as efficiently as possible. “Our problem today is that traditionally shaped supply chains are highly individual and diverse,” Barbarino said. “This lack of standardization makes the supply chain inefficient.” Choosing the most efficient energy mix between diesel-powered trucks with 100 g GHG per ton-kilometer, ZEVs (which still emit around 80 g GHG per ton-kilometer), trains (25 g GHG per ton-kilometer) or ships (10 g GHG per ton-kilometer) can make a huge difference.

    Pillar No. 3 calls for managing fleets and assets as efficiently as possible. In Europe, a truck is on average used with 50 percent of capacity. “As long as you only ship single-type products, you can never fill a truck efficiently. To achieve this, you will need combined products of different companies.”

    If enhanced efficiency is achieved in pillars one through three, Barbarino emphasized, this would lead to a 50 percent to 60 percent reduction in emissions. In addition, ALICE expects a $100 million to $300 million cost relief for the European industry.

    Removing Regulatory Barriers

    Several EU directives currently in preparation are expected to significantly facilitate the realization of more sustainable transportation solutions, according to Barbarino. The revised Weights and Dimension Directive will remove barriers for the uptake of ZEVs and energy-saving technologies and harmonize the rules on maximum weight and dimension of heavy-duty vehicles in cross-border operations. Among other things, it will allow for the extra weight of the batteries for ZEVs, enable a European modular system between member states with trucks heavier than 40 tons and will streamline procedures and requirements for indivisible loads.

    The new Combined Transportation Directive will support the shift from road freight to lower emission transportation modes such as inland waterways, maritime transportation and rail. It will entail the obligation on terminals to publish information about available services and facilities.

    Apart from policies, automation could be a revolution for freight transportation, Barbarino pointed out, and also for sustainability. He reported about an experiment in which companies had tried out “silent delivery,” i.e., delivery before six a.m. and thus outside the usual morning rush hour. This way, the companies could save 30 percent of fuel.

    “To decarbonize transportation, it is important to push the boundaries of technology and regulation,” Barbarino concluded. “Often, the most complex part of a project is not the technology or the innovation but the permitting.”

    Stefanie Rossel is Tobacco Reporter’s editorial contributor. An experienced trade journalist, she combines sharp reporting skills with in-depth knowledge of the tobacco and vapor industries. Prior to joining Tobacco Reporter, Stefanie was editor-in-chief at Tobacco Journal International, where she worked for a decade. Fluent in English, German and French, Stefanie covers tobacco news around the world. She is based in Germany.
  • Rewriting the Rules

    Rewriting the Rules

    Will the next EU Tobacco Products Directive embrace harm reduction?

    By Stefanie Rossel

    Things may take a bit longer in Brussels. The European Commission (EC) started preparations in 2021 to revise its Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), but the process remains in its evaluation phase, with an impact assessment expected in 2025.

    The commission’s draft proposal is anticipated in late 2025. By 2027 or 2028, member states are expected to implement the new legislation. Shaping the new policy will be the job of the next commission. In June 2024, the common market elected a new European Parliament for the next five years.

    The TPD currently under evaluation was issued in 2014. While already covering vape and heated-tobacco products in addition to traditional cigarettes, it does not include products that emerged after the legislation was adopted, such as nicotine pouches. How these and other novel nicotine products will be regulated in TPD3 remains the subject of speculation.

    “We know only that the evaluation phase should have long been concluded,” says Jan Muecke, managing director of the German Association of the Tobacco Industry and New Products. One reason for the delay, he suggests, could be the EU ombudsman’s investigation of the commissioning of the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP), which advises the EU Commission in the evaluation process. As a network of anti-tobacco nongovernmental organizations, the ENSP can’t be objective, according to Muecke.

    Muecke expects the new commission, which will take up its official duties this autumn, to close the evaluation and push for far-reaching changes to the directive. The question, he says, is whether these changes will include a recognition of tobacco harm reduction (THR). While proponents claim novel nicotine products are significantly less harmful than combustible cigarettes and should therefore be treated differently, the EU, which has ratified the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, insists that “less harmful” means “still harmful” and worries about yet-unknown long-term health effects and the protection of youth.

    Jan Muecke | Photo: German Association of the Tobacco Industry and Novel Products

    Missing Its Target

    However, critics contend that continuing the existing approach or adopting an even more hostile stance toward novel nicotine products may prevent the EU from achieving its goal of a “‘tobacco-free generation” (defined as a smoking prevalence of less than 5 percent) by 2040.

    According to the most recent Eurobarometer survey, the EU smoking rate decreased by only 1 percent between 2020 and 2023. At 24 percent, nearly a quarter of EU adults still smoke cigarettes. Since the TPD took force in 2016, EU smoking prevalence has fallen 3 percent. At this pace, the advocacy group Clearing the Air calculated, the EU will reach its tobacco-free goal 70 years after the target date.

    “So far, EU tobacco policy has been focusing on paternalism against consumers, manufacturers and retailers,” says Muecke. “As this approach has not led to any relevant results, a real strategy change is needed. Instead of plain packaging and high taxes, politics should actively promote smokers’ switching to less hazardous products such as vapes, THPs [tobacco-heating products] or pouches. By having chosen such an approach, Sweden will soon have reached the status of a smoke-free nation. For such a reorientation of politics, however, a lot of persuasive efforts in Brussels will be required. But recently, there were very few signals from the EC that it might dare turn away from its regulatory approach of ‘quit or die.’ The civil servants in Brussels still consider e-cigarettes and the likes as a problem and not as part of the solution.”

    “The big takeaway point from Eurobarometer is that there isn’t a hope of the EU achieving its smoke-free or tobacco-free targets, particularly when they continue to demonize safer nicotine products, which actually help people quit smoking,” echoes Damian Sweeney, a partner in the European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA), a consumer advocacy group. “It’s important to keep in mind that policymakers may not be aware of the detail in reports like Eurobarometer and certainly not success stories like Sweden and the U.K. This is why advocacy is so vital to educate policymakers and make them aware of what can and does work in reducing the burden on health from smoking.”

    Nevertheless, Sweeney is cautiously optimistic about TPD3 as there seems to be a growing number of Members of Parliament (MEPs) that understand the concept of tobacco harm reduction. In a February 2022 report, for example, the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA) acknowledged the concept of harm reduction.

    “Of course, the BECA report and the more recent report from the subcommittee on noncommunicable diseases, which adopted the same language as BECA in relation to safer nicotine products, is a positive in that respect,” says Sweeney. “Both reports are useful tools that advocates can utilize when speaking to MEPs about the role of SNPs in reducing smoking. It is important to note that we do not see these positive signs replicated in the European Commission.”

    At this pace, the advocacy group Clearing the Air calculated, the EU will reach its tobacco-free goal 70 years after the target date.

    More Stringent Rules Anticipated

    If common sense does not prevail, the EC’s draft proposal will likely contain considerably stricter regulations for all product categories, according to Muecke. “Brussels could try to introduce standardized rules that completely ignore product-specific characteristics,” he says. “The regulation of nicotine products according to their harm potential, as it was partly introduced for e-cigarettes in the current TPD, is also likely to be put to the test. Furthermore, the EC will try to anticipate the development of new products in their regulations. Tobacco-free nicotine pouches don’t fall into the scope of the TPD, which is why many member states in recent years felt obliged to pass their own regulations. The EC will try to prevent such a development for future innovations. This is something we must pay particular attention to because innovation should always be possible.”

    With vape flavors increasingly under scrutiny, Sweeney thinks it’s possible that the commission will propose a flavor ban. “This is where advocacy and building relationships with members of the European Parliament will be key, as proposals will have to be debated and voted on in committee and in the European Parliament as a whole,” he says.

    In June, EU health ministers discussed proposals by Latvia and Denmark to restrict flavors in vapes and nicotine pouches. The current TPD allows member states to set their own rules for flavors. Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Slovenia already ban vape flavors. Spain recently completed a public consultation on the topic; Latvia reportedly is in the process of introducing flavor restrictions.

    “It’s very concerning that member states would attempt to pressurize the commission to bypass the ongoing review of the TPD, but I don’t expect to see any actions at an EU level before the TPD,” says Sweeney. “Ahead of the June meeting, ETHRA wrote to all EU health ministers to highlight the serious unintended consequences of banning flavors: increase in smoking through reduced adult switching and increased relapse from vaping to smoking, a growing black market for flavored products, and potentially dangerous consumer workarounds, such as DIY [do-it-yourself] mixing, which can carry some risks.”  

    “Tobacco harm reduction shouldn’t be a right/left issue—it’s a people issue.”

    Damian Sweeney, partner in the European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates

    Pouches in Peril

    According to a commission spokesperson, snus will be part of the directive’s evaluation, but neither Muecke nor Sweeney expect the EU to legalize the product, which has been banned throughout the EU, except in Sweden, since 1992. “Sweden is on the verge of becoming smoke-free, 16 years ahead of the EU’s target, and snus has played a key role in that,” says Sweeney. “This success story could be emulated across the EU if the ban on snus was lifted; unfortunately, I can’t see that happening, and there’s a possibility the ban could be extended to nicotine pouches.”

    Prohibiting the latter would be difficult, however, according to Muecke, as nicotine pouches are already available in 16 member states.

    Despite increasing calls to ban disposable vapes, Sweeney expects single-use e-cigarettes to remain legal in the next TPD. However, the products are likely to disappear from the market anyway due to the EU Battery Directive, which will ban single-use batteries. “Manufacturers are already adapting and moving toward disposable-style devices that are rechargeable.”

    Whether the recent EU election, in which the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) gained seats, will impact TPD3 remains to be seen. “As far as tobacco harm reduction and the availability of safer nicotine products is concerned, this is a positive move as the EPP have been supportive of THR,” says Sweeney. “But I think it’s important to remember that THR isn’t and shouldn’t be a right/left issue—it’s a people issue. As advocates, we need to bring as many people as possible on board—no matter what their political leanings are.”

    Stefanie Rossel is Tobacco Reporter’s editorial contributor. An experienced trade journalist, she combines sharp reporting skills with in-depth knowledge of the tobacco and vapor industries. Prior to joining Tobacco Reporter, Stefanie was editor-in-chief at Tobacco Journal International, where she worked for a decade. Fluent in English, German and French, Stefanie covers tobacco news around the world. She is based in Germany.
  • EU Considering Ban on Tobacco-Free Snus

    EU Considering Ban on Tobacco-Free Snus

    Image: Andrii

    In a tweet from Member of Parliament Charlie Weimers, news of a potential ban on snus in the EU has come to light.

    “A secret report I shouldn’t have landed on my desk,” the tweet said. “In the report that will be presented to the EU member states this week, there are two notable writings: (1) praise for how successful the snus ban has been and (2) a recommendation that the EU should extend the snus ban to the tobacco-free white snus (nicotine portions).”

    “That the EU snus ban is a success is completely wrong,” he wrote. “It is actually snus that makes Sweden the only country in the EU that is on the way to reaching the U.N.’s goal of a smoke-free society (defined as less than 5 percent smokers), which has saved many lives. A ban on nicotine pouches would have been a hard blow to the attempt to eradicate smoking in the EU.

    “Unfortunately, the Swedish exception for tobacco snus does not apply to nicotine pouches. If the EU Commission and the member states accept the report’s recommendation, nicotine pouches will also be banned in Sweden. Men have largely opted out of smoking in favor of snus while women looking for less dangerous alternatives choose nicotine pouches more often. Therefore, such a ban would hit women extra hard.

    “The report has been written by consultants who work for DG SANTE (the EU’s health bureaucrats), and the writings probably would not have crept into the report if they did not have the support of the bureaucrats. Most likely, this is a test balloon from the bureaucracy. If the proposal falls to the ground at the meeting with the member states, the bureaucrats can blame the consultants, and if the proposal does not meet resistance, the bureaucrats can interpret it as a clear support and work on with a sharp proposal. This is how you often work in the EU’s bureaucracy.

    “The government must therefore already make it clear at the meeting this week that our country opposes a ban on white snus and work to ensure that citizens continue to have the opportunity to choose the least harmful way to use nicotine. Our negotiators are also welcome to raise the issue of the risks to public health of having too many do-gooding bureaucrats in DG SANTE.”

    The news has left many angry, with calls for “SWEXIT” if the proposal passes—meaning, those against the measure are calling for Sweden to leave the EU if the ban passes.