Once again comes from Germany, this time from Bild, the anticipation of the text of what will be the new European Directive on tobacco products, still being revised after the resignation of Commissioner Dalli, which will presumably be presented by the end of 2012. This directive and the process to arrive at a definitive text are closely connected with the scandal involving the former Commissioner Dalli and it does not seem accidental that much information comes from Germany, homeland of the head of the cabinet of the Directorate General concerned . There are many new measures which, if approved according to the co-decision procedure envisaged by European standards, risk completely changing the world of tobacco.
Among the main indications contained in the Directive is the ban on the production and marketing of cigarettes containing more than 10mg of tobacco residues and 1mg of nicotine. Not only that, the DGSANCO has also decided to enter into the merits of a series of aspects that can be quite bizarre from many quarters, such as the size of the cigarettes, whose diameter cannot be less than 7.5mm (returning to the legend that the The EU also establishes the measures of bananas and beans so that they are considered as such!).
Slim cigarettes, which are very popular among women, will also be banned. Curious how in the draft anticipated by Bild a certain sexism can be identified: women are targeted through the elimination from the market of slim cigarettes, banned precisely because they are considered attractive by female subjects. This choice is already the subject of heated discussion in Anglo-Saxon countries, more sensitive to these arguments. Returning to the bans, manufacturers will not be able to insert any type of ingredient, including substances such as vitamins, caffeine, taurine or dyes. No opening for alternative products such as Snus, a product permitted in Sweden which, according to the same health authorities, reduces the risk of oral cancer by 80%. And finally, even on the electronic cigarette, prohibitionist clouds are starting to gather, and this when snus and the electronic cigarette are among the strategies on which the industry focuses for risk reduction.
That's all? No, because the new European Directive doesn't even leave the packages unscathed. In the wake of what has already been decided by the Australian Government, which should soon be followed by the British and French ones, large text ads and shocking photographs will cover 75% of the total package and the space dedicated to the brand will be reduced to 20% of the total. Shocking images will also be provided for the shredded tobacco packs and the text will cover 50% of the surface. Beyond the sacrosanct principles that inspire these rules, such as the reduction in the number of smokers and the incidence of smoking-related cancers, objections have already been raised from many quarters with respect to the incoming indications. And after all, the EU conducted a broad consultation last year – completely ignored by the Commission itself – which received over 85.000 responses, in which the majority of respondents spoke out against the extension of the Directive in the absence of more scientific evidence regarding new tobacco and nicotine products.
First, the new rules risk putting tobacco-related tax revenues and jobs dangerously at risk by pushing the market into illegality. It is no coincidence that the Ministry of Economic Development, on the occasion of the consultations that preceded the draft Directive, expressed a negative opinion, confirmed by the MISE itself on the occasion of a conference organized in the Senate on Tuesday 11 December by the Senator's Health Observatory Cesare Curzi, president of the Industry Commission.
The Ministry of the Economy seems to have some doubts about the possible fiscal consequences: in fact, it seems a contradiction that while on the one hand the EU imposes austerity on many countries, on the other it attacks an important source of revenue with bans and regulations that show a clear lack of proportionality between the expected results for public health and the economic and social consequences for the players in the supply chain which, in Italy, involves over 200 workers (in this regard, a recent study by "The European House - Ambrosetti "). Finally, the latest news arriving from Brussels gives the president of the Commission, the Portuguese Barroso, completely focused on this Directive, to the point of having put the issue at the top of the agenda for the meeting on 19 December. The question that arises spontaneously at this point is why, among all the issues on the table in Europe, it seems that tobacco has become the most important issue.
Someone says that the pharmaceutical industry may be behind this acceleration, which spends about 40 million euros a year on lobbying activities in Brussels (according to official data, the unofficial ones speak of a figure that is around €90 million ) and that it has every interest that alternative products to tobacco such as snus and electronic cigarettes do not replace the remedies they propose, such as nicotine substitutes which, in 2011 alone, generated a turnover of £117 millions. Any influence that would be perfectly legitimate, only that a little more transparency instead of the "smoke" surrounding the Tobacco Directive would be welcome to European citizens.
