Tag: europe

Europe’s relationship with novel nicotine products has always been a mixed one. On the one hand, the more extreme forms of hysteria about youth vaping or supposed health risks have been relatively absent from the European scene; the U.K. in particular has been regarded as perhaps the most pro-vaping major economy in the world. And regulation—in most countries, heavily shaped by the European Union’s Tobacco Products Directive (TPD)—is in some respects light-touch.

Most notably, rather than following the U.S. model, which in theory requires marketing authorization by the Food and Drug Administration before products can be sold, the EU has eschewed the premarket approval approach and simply asks for products and businesses to be compliant with the TPD’s requirements.

But if Europe (which for the rest of this article mostly means the EU and its member states) has been looser in its regulatory approach than the U.S. in some ways, many of the requirements that it does make are quite onerous: the 20 mg per milliliter limit on nicotine strength, for example. It is also well known that the TPD as originally conceived was going to be far more restrictive and was only scaled back after pressure.

And there have been distinct signs lately of Europe becoming more cautious. Most flavors were banned EU-wide in heated-tobacco products; several countries have enacted, or will enact, disposable e-cigarette bans; the Netherlands, usually famed for its tolerance, is an example of a country that has started showing a lot of skepticism toward novel nicotine products; even in the U.K.—no longer an EU member—government support for tobacco harm reduction seems to be ebbing away a little, though it certainly hasn’t turned into outright opposition yet.

Set against this background, there is concern that the next version of the TPD may make major changes to the EU’s regulatory framework for novel tobacco products, reflecting conservative positions.

So far, nothing is known for sure about the actual content of the next TPD or about any updates to the lesser-known Tobacco Advertising Directive and Tobacco Excise Directive—though a European Commission spokesperson did confirm to Tamarind Intelligence, late last year, that vaping would be a focus of the TPD. The commission’s job with the TPD is essentially to formulate the legislation, which representatives from all the EU member states, in the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, then vote on.

However, looking at what is already happening across Europe gives some indicators of what’s possible—action against disposable vapes in France and Belgium, for example, or against flavored products in Finland and Hungary. Though it’s true that EU policy certainly does not derive directly from localized policy in member states, there are trends visible that are bound to be reflected in Brussels. It’s also worth noting that the much-anticipated swing to the populist right in the most recent European elections failed to fully materialize, which may well mean that the EU will continue to favor tight, precise regulation and not care too much whether it is seen as “business-friendly.”