Tag: European Union

  • Tracking questions

    Tracking questions

    The Hungarian MEP Norbert Erdős has asked the EU Commission whether tobacco producers may continue to introduce their tobacco-products tracking and tracing systems.

    In a preamble to two questions, which are due to be answered by the Commission in writing, Erdős said that though the new Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) entered into force more than three years ago – on 18 May 2014 – the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) planned to adopt, ‘experimentally and only by the end of this year, the delegated and implementing acts intended to bring into effect Article 15 on traceability and Article 16 on security features’.

    ‘This means that the Commission has spent more than three and a half years drafting the outline of the legislation regulating the introduction to the technical specifications, which leaves only 18 months for member states, the industry and distributors to carry out the work needed for them to comply with the legislation,’ he said.

    ‘The Commission has previously declared that member states need not wait for the delegated and implementing acts and that member states and industry operators may start the work needed for them to comply with the requirements specified in the TPD.’

    Erdős asked:

    1. ‘Does that mean that tobacco producers may continue the introduction of their tracking and tracing systems?’ and
    2. ‘Can the Commission confirm one of the conclusions of the Commission’s communication of 6 June 2013 (COM (2013) 324 final) that “the measures implemented by the four big manufacturers under the co-operation agreements, such as tracking and tracing of tobacco products, due diligence in relation to customers and prevention of money laundering, have clearly led to a significant reduction in the presence of these companies’ products on the illicit market”?’
  • Tobacco under the radar

    Tobacco under the radar

    The European Commission has been asked what it is doing to fight ‘bulk tobacco inflows into the European Union’.

    In a preamble to their question, which the Commission will answer in writing, the Italian MEP, Fulvio Martusciello, and the Slovenian MEP, Patricija Šulin, said the fight against the illegal tobacco trade centered largely on manufactured cigarettes.

    However, according to a study carried out by the Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Transcrime in December 2016, the illegal trade in bulk tobacco, or the sale of unbranded cut tobacco outside legitimate channels, had been increasing.

    More than €870 million per year was lost in eight EU member states alone, a considerable proportion because of inflows from outside the EU, mainly from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    The illegal tobacco trade was in breach of the competition laws laid down in Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, but bulk tobacco had never been cited as a growing problem.

    ‘In the light of the above information, what is the Commission doing to fight bulk tobacco inflows into the European Union?’ they asked.

  • Smokers are citizens

    Smokers are citizens

    A smokers’ group is calling on the EU to stop treating adult smokers, who make up 26 of the EU’s population, like second-class citizens.

    Forest EU wants the EU to respect the right of smokers to make informed choices about smoking a legal product.

    These demands are contained in the group’s just-published 2017 manifesto, Smokers Are Citizens Too. The document, described as comprehensive and ‘independent’, looks at the policies affecting smokers and considers what alternative policies governments and EU institutions should pursue.

    The 10-page document, which is the size of a pack of cigarettes, tackles issues such as smoking bans, standardized packaging, excessive taxation and youth education.

    In launching the manifesto, Forest EU’s director, Guillaume Périgois, said that one in four, or 100 million, EU adult citizens smoked.

    “Yet, across the EU, smokers are being punished and ostracised for a habit they enjoy,” he said.

    “This has to stop: Adult smokers should be allowed to make the informed choice to consume a legal product without excessive regulations and oppressive taxation.

    “Forest EU calls national governments and EU institutions to stop treating Europe’s smokers like second-class citizens, cut tobacco taxes, focus on education programs in schools and conduct a review of the impact of the Tobacco Products Directive before any additional regulation is attempted.”

    Key elements of the manifesto are:

    • ‘Smokers represent 26 percent of the population in the European Union.
    • ‘Smokers contributed €81 billion to the public budgets in excise duties in 2015.
    • ‘In January 2017 an average of 79.6 percent of the price of a pack of cigarettes in the EU was duties and taxes.
    • ‘If all cigarettes sold on the black market were sold legally, the budget of the EU and its member states would receive above €10 billion annually.’

    Key conclusions of the manifesto are:

    • ‘Stop treating Europe’s adult smokers like second-class citizens and respect their right to make informed choices about smoking a legal product.
    • ‘Reduce the punitive tax on tobacco and stop encouraging illicit trade. Focus on targeted education programs in schools to make sure children are aware of the risks of smoking from a young age.
    • ‘Conduct an evidence-based review of the impact of the revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD2) and attempt no further legislation on tobacco before the directive has met its objectives.’
  • Holes under the spotlight

    Holes under the spotlight

    Questions have been raised in the EU parliament about the possible health risks associated with cigarettes whose filters have ventilation holes.

    In a preamble to their questions, which will be answered in writing by the Commission, the Dutch MEP, Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, and the Belgian MEP, Frédérique Ries, said that, on May 29, the Dutch national newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’ had reported that ventilation holes in cigarettes contributed to an increasing risk of ‘adenocarcinoma’, the most common form of lung cancer.

    ‘Research from the National Cancer Institute in the US shows a connection between the perforated filter and an increase in this specific type of cancer,’ they said.

    ‘Based on the findings of the research institute, the ventilation holes in cigarettes could pose a new threat to public health.

    ‘Moreover, these ventilation holes mislead the measuring equipment that is developed to detect harmful substances in cigarettes.

    ‘Experts have therefore requested a strict ban on ventilation holes.’

    Gerbrandy and Ries went on to ask whether the Commission was aware of the potential health risk of ventilation holes in cigarettes and whether the Commission had taken any action or investigated the issue at an earlier stage?

    ‘Based on the research findings, does the Commission believe that the European standards for cigarette components and the measurement methods, which are developed to detect harmful substances in cigarettes, should be adapted?,’ they asked.

    ‘Has the Commission envisaged other steps to further investigate the issue and does the Commission intend to update the current Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) based on the findings of this research?’

    In May, an article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggested that the US Food and Drug Administration should consider regulating cigarette filter ventilation, up to and including a ban.

    It further suggested a research agenda to support such an effort.

    A short background to the article said that filter ventilation was adopted in the mid-1960s and was initially equated with making cigarettes safer. But since then, lung adenocarcinoma rates had paradoxically increased relative to other lung cancer subtypes.

    Filter ventilation was said to alter tobacco consumption in such a way as to increase smoke toxicants. It was said to allow for elasticity of use so that smokers inhaled more smoke to maintain their nicotine intake. And it was said to cause a false perception of lower health risk from ‘lighter’ smoke.

  • Snus: safe but banned

    Snus: safe but banned

    New data analysis presented on Friday at the annual Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) meeting demonstrates the potential of the low-risk tobacco product snus for reducing the impact of tobacco-related disease and death in Europe, according to a eurekalert.org story.

    The GFN was held at the Marriott Centrum Hotel, Warsaw, Poland, on June 15-17.

    The latest evidence, presented by Peter Lee, epidemiologist and medical statistician, indicates that the consumption of snus is at least 95 percent safer than is smoking. And analysis by Lars Ramström, a snus researcher in Sweden, showed that if snus were made available throughout the EU, where it is currently banned outside Sweden, and similar use levels to Sweden were adopted, up to 320,000 premature deaths could be avoided among men every year.

    Snus use is more popular than smoking in Sweden. Its availability has led to a reduction in smoking and smoking-related diseases with the 2017 EC EuroBarometer survey showing only five percent of Swedes being daily smokers, compared with the European average of 24 percent.

    Correspondingly, Swedish men have Europe’s lowest level of tobacco-related mortality, 152 per 100,000 compared with the European average of 373 per 100,000.

    While 46 percent of deaths due to smoking result from respiratory diseases such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia, there is no evidence that risk of these diseases is increased by using snus. Nor does snus appear to increase the risk of other smoking related diseases including heart disease, stroke and a range of cancers.

    In addition, the role of snus in both reducing initiation of smoking and increasing cessation of smoking is a key element in defeating the actual cause of tobacco-related ill-health caused by cigarette consumption.

    Due to strong evidence behind snus’ potentially life-saving benefits, the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA), a UK consumer group supporting access to safer nicotine products, is calling for its legalization and has joined legal action case against the banning of snus, which has now been referred to the European Courts of Justice.

    The Eurekalert piece is at: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-06/kac-nds061517.php

  • Pollution austerity-fed

    Pollution austerity-fed

    A suggestion that ‘harsh austerity measures’ could lie at the bottom of some negative health outcomes associated with pollution has been sidestepped by the EU Commission.

    Professor Kostas Chrysogonos, a Greek member of the European parliament recently asked three questions of the Commission under the heading of Child deaths due to pollution and an insanitary environment.

    In a written preamble to his questions, Chrysogonos said that, according to the World Health Organization, a quarter of the deaths of children under the age of five worldwide were due to pollution and passive smoking. ‘In particular, the WHO reports that insanitary environments lead to fatal cases of diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia, endangering the lives of 1.7 million children each year, since their developing organs and immune systems are unable to cope with the dangers,’ he said. ‘At the same time, the data show that the dangerous exposure of children starts with pregnancy, especially in areas where families use alternative sources of energy and heating, such as coal or unprocessed organic waste.’

    Chrysogonos said that, in view of these facts, would the Commission say:

    1. ‘What figures does it have about the deaths of children in Europe from the above factors, especially in regions of southern Europe where thousands of families are unable to cope with the harsh austerity measures and resort to the incineration of waste and timber of doubtful quality to warm up during the winter months?
    2. ‘What measures does it plan to take to reduce the risks faced by children?
    3. ‘Does it consider that the restrictions imposed on smoking in public places have had sufficient results?’

    The Commission, in its written reply to question one, said it estimated EU-wide ambient particulate matter levels in 2010 caused more than 1,800 cases of infant (up to one year) mortality. In addition, annual estimates pointed to more than six million cases of bronchitis in children aged 6 to 12 years.

    In answer to question two, the Commission said that EU policy measures pursued safeguarding the public and sensitive groups, including children, from significant negative health impacts due to ambient air pollution. ‘This is achieved by enforcing the EU ambient air quality standards as well as pursuing emission reductions at source, both for individual source categories and overall national emission reductions,’ it said. ‘The Commission will also incentivise and promote better implementation of current policy measures through regular Clean Air Fora and Clean Air Dialogues with member states as well as through projects under the LIFE program, such as the Clean Heat project that aims at reducing the particulate matter emissions from domestic heating.’

    And in answer to question three the Commission said the Council recommendation on smoke-free environments called on member states to develop measures to reduce children’s and adolescents’ exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. ‘A report from 2013 indicates that all member states have now introduced smoke-free legislation,’ it said. ‘Recent surveys confirm that exposure to smoke in public places continues to decline. This illustrates that the recommendation has had a positive impact, although more has still to be done, particularly as the enforcement differs considerably across member states. Moreover, other tobacco control measures taken by the EU and its member states, including product regulation, advertising restrictions, tax measures and anti-smoking campaigns, aim at further reducing tobacco consumption.’

  • OLAF tackling illegal trade

    OLAF tackling illegal trade

    In the executive summary of its 2016 report, the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, said that it had co-organised or supported 12 successful Joint Customs Operations (JCOs) and had made significant progress in its efforts to fight the illicit trade in tobacco products.

    During the year, it had helped national authorities seize 469 million cigarettes.

    And under a section of the report headed, The changing nature of cigarette smuggling, OLAF said that the prevalence of contraband on the EU tobacco market had decreased significantly during the past decade.

    ‘A Commission Staff Working Paper published in 2016 showed, for example, that contraband in genuine Phillips Morris products on the illicit EU tobacco market dropped by around 85 percent from 2006 to 2014,’ it said.

    ‘This, however, did not lead to an overall reduction of illicit products on the EU market as smugglers turned their attention to traffic with “cheap whites,” which are non-branded cigarettes.’

    Later in the report, OLAF said it had a crucial role in co-ordinating large-scale JCOs involving EU and international operational partners. ‘JCOs are targeted actions of a limited duration that aim to combat fraud and the smuggling of sensitive goods in specific areas at risk and/or identified trade routes,’ it said.

    ‘In 2016, OLAF co-organised or supported 12 such successful operations. Four of the JCOs organised in co-operation with Member States (Estonia, Finland, Greece and the Netherlands) were financed by OLAF.’

    One of these operations, JCO Magnum, was organized at regional level and targeted the smuggling of tobacco products by road into the EU from third countries such as Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. The operation was said to have been co-ordinated by the Estonian Customs Administration and OLAF with the involvement of five member states, and led to the seizure of around 11 million cigarettes.

    Meanwhile, OLAF reported that investigators would now be able to access a new Container Status Messages directory that gathered messages reporting the movements of containers transported on maritime vessels. ‘The messages are directly provided by maritime carriers,’ the report said.

    ‘Similarly, an Import, Export and Transit directory has also been developed, containing data on goods entering, transiting and leaving the EU.

    ‘Data relating to exports which will be gathered is limited to sensitive products, such as tobacco, alcohol and fuels.

    ‘As of next year, customs officials as well as OLAF officials will also be able to cross-check the information from both databases to detect potential fraud patterns.

    ‘These new tools will strengthen the analytical capabilities of national customs authorities and OLAF in detecting fraudulent operations.’

  • EU tobacco control poor

    EU tobacco control poor

    EU countries are not doing enough to implement tobacco control policies, according to the Irish MEP Nessa Childers.

    Writing in The Parliament magazine, Childers said the latest available results of the tobacco control scale for 2016, in which Luk Joossens and Martin Raw had ranked 35 European countries on the basis of tobacco-control-policy implementation, had shown that the majority had received a negative mark. This was also the case in respect of EU member states only, ‘albeit by a narrower margin’.

    In the face of ‘scandal-prone lobby onslaughts and court challenges to tobacco advertising legislation and the tobacco products directive’, policy and implementation of measures on the ground remained inadequate, as the tobacco control scale rankings indicated.

    ‘In general terms, inadequacies in implementation of the provisions that survived the tobacco industry’s lobby onslaught, at national and European level, stem from paltry budget allocations to tobacco control policy,’ Childers said. ‘These jar with the overall costs and burden of this epidemic to society.

    ‘EU countries spend less than one euro per capita annually on tobacco control, with some countries even making cuts.’

    Later in her piece, Childers said that the EU Commission deserved praise for its role in securing EU ratification of the protocol to eliminate the illegal trade in tobacco products.

    ‘Indeed, and in line with the tobacco products directive, the fight against smuggling and counterfeiting is a serious matter,’ she said. ‘It must remain in the hands of adequately resourced public bodies, in control of tracking and tracing. It should not subcontract poachers for game-keeping.

    ‘We need to devote greater resources to enforcing tobacco control, expanding the use of plain packaging, steeper taxation, display bans, and proper respect for article 5.3 of the framework convention on tobacco control to shut big tobacco out of public health policymaking.’

    Childers’ piece is at: https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/opinion/tobacco-epidemic-weighing-heavily-europe?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Parliament%20Magazine%20Round-Up&utm_content=Daily%20Parliament%20Magazine%20Round-Up+CID_41fa2833e488946457e60f5ec3d5bb77&utm_source=Email%20newsletters&utm_term=Tobacco%20epidemic%20weighing%20heavily%20on%20Europe

  • Meeting rules

    Meeting rules

    The European [EU] ombudsman, Emily O’Reilly, has published practical advice for EU officials interacting with interest representatives.

    In the first of 10 ‘dos’, officials are urged to check whether interest representatives have to be registered in the EU Transparency Register before meeting them or accepting an invitation to an event.

    They are urged, also, to prepare well and conduct basic research to check what interests they represent and who is funding them.

    And they are advised to ensure that they disclose, in advance, the purpose of the meeting and the issues for discussion, the names of participants and the organizations and/or clients on whose behalf they act; as well as any other relevant information.

    Other advice refers to avoiding conflicts of interest, decisions on whether meetings should go ahead, where meetings take place, record keeping, disclosure requirements and unacceptable lobbying practices.

    Additionally, officials are advised to familiarise themselves with the specific rules that apply to their own organizations, and that where these specific rules diverge from the ombudsman’s practical recommendations the former should normally take precedence.

    The 10 ‘don’ts’ to some extent are the mirror image of the ‘dos’; so officials are advised not to meet interest representatives who are not registered in the EU Transparency Register if their own rules disallow or discourage this.

    But officials are urged not to interact with an interest representative without considering offering other groups a similar opportunity.

    And they are urged not to accept any invitations to meetings or events that could put their organizations in a compromising situation.

  • Calling for accountability

    Calling for accountability

    Japan Tobacco International has described the EU’s revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD2) as ‘a raft of draconian rules that will impact consumers and businesses across the Union without meeting its intended goals’.

    The comment comes on the eve of the May 20 deadline for all tobacco products on the markets of EU countries to comply with the provisions of the TPD2.

    “This is yet another example of Brussels-led over-regulation,” said Ben Townsend, JTI’s EU affairs vice-president in a note posted on the company’s website.

    “TPD2 will not achieve its public health goals. It will, however, stifle consumer choice and have huge consequences for local economies, jeopardizing thousands of legitimate businesses and employees, from farmers to packaging manufacturers, and tobacco producers to retailers.”

    The press note said that TPD2 mandated a wide-reaching set of measures for products and packaging, including large pictorial health warnings that took up most of the pack surface – dramatically reducing the space available for product information to consumers and brand designs.

    Many pack formats had been banned under the false pretext that this would drive smoking levels lower. This included the prohibition of smaller cigarette packs and fine-cut pouches, which was likely to backfire badly by forcing consumers to buy larger formats and therefore spend more money.

    The Directive would outlaw also menthol cigarettes from 2020.

    “TPD2 is a hugely complex, burdensome and restrictive piece of legislation,” said Townsend. “To top it off, some EU countries were encouraged to go above and beyond TPD2 requirements by introducing even more outlandish measures such as plain packaging. As a result, consumers will come across different regulations for the same product in different countries, which makes a mockery of the European Commission’s original aim to improve the functioning of the internal market”.

    In a statement echoing one from Forest EU, JTI said the Commission’s initial Impact Assessment stated that TPD2 would create a two percent drop in consumption over five years to 2021, but that it had had to acknowledge that this figure was just ‘a best effort estimation’.

    “TPD2 is an attack on legitimate businesses and adult consumers’ freedom of choice,” said Townsend.

    “Even the President of the Commission recently said that they are wrong in over-regulating and that one of the reasons citizens are stepping away from the European project is that EU law-makers are interfering in too many domains of their private lives.

    “It’s time for Brussels bureaucrats to listen; they must be held accountable when the review of the Directive is published in 2021.”