Not since the Santer Commission in 1999 has such a scandal involved the leaders of the European Union.Back then we talked about consultants, lovers and dentists, while today the question has much more substance. Maltese Health and Consumer Policy Officer John Dalli was forced last week a resign because of the accusations leveled against him by theOlaf (European Anti-Fraud Office) to have played a role in the attempted extortion carried out by a Maltese company against the Swedish company Swedish Match, manufacturer of Snus, traditional "juice" tobacco, considered by many – even in the medical environment - one valid alternative to cigarettes because free from the most dangerous carcinogenic factors related to combustion.
Apparently, But, the European Union does not think the same way e, since 1992, it has outlawed Snus because it is considered "highly carcinogenic" (while cigarettes are legal, sic!), prompting Sweden, during the EU accession negotiations, to have to ask for and obtain a derogation based on the local tradition and on the risk of seeing the referendum on membership fail, as happened in Norway (another country using Snus). But why can Snus be bought anywhere in the world, except in the EU? Not only that, in reality every European citizen can easily buy it via the internet, despite the fact that it is not a product for free sale in the individual countries of the Union.
The whole question arises from the current work in progress for the revision of the European directive on tobacco products initiated by DG Sanco. As anticipated in the last few weeks from the German newspaper Die Welt (without denials by the Commission), the main provisions of the Directive would be aimed at a quasi-prohibitionist stricture, which in any case would not provide for any exceptions to the current bans for snus. For this reason Swedish Match was approached by a Maltese entrepreneur –which according to Maltese media would be Silvio Zammit, Dalli's companion in the centre-right Nationalist Party (but the name has not been confirmed) - who, first by presenting a normal lobbying plan, and then asking for the payment of a "substantial sum", ensured that Commissioner Dalli would intervened to unblock the ban. Large sum that amounts a 60 million euros according to Swedish match, but still relative, given that the stakes for Sweden are huge. Indeed, the ban has cost the Nordic country at least 3 billion Swedish crowns (350 million euros) deriving from exports and lost every year according to the Swedish Retail Institute, which estimate a potential market between 1,5 and 1,8 billion euros within 10 years of the lifting of the ban.
However, Swedish Match rightly decided not to submit to the request and filed a complaint with Olaf, led by the former magistrate and PD deputy Giovanni Kessler. And it was precisely Olaf's final report that led Dalli to resign (or rather to the dismissal by the president of the Commission, the Portuguese Barroso). According to Kessler, the commissioner was aware of the Maltese fixer's actions and «he did nothing to avoid, stop or report the facts». But just when the situation seemed established, the spy-story kicked off. First Dalli and the anti-tobacco activists they went on the offensive, stating that the Commissioner is a victim of a conspiracy hatched by the tobacco industry, aimed at derailing the revision of the Tobacco Directive on which Dalli had been working for some time.
Shortly thereafter, Brussels police combed the offices of three major public health organizations for bedbugs following a break-in at a building on rue de Trèves in which laptops and documents relating to the battle against the tobacco industry, against which organizations they pointed the finger, linking the thefts to the Directive and taking advantage of the situation to ask the Commission to publish the Directive itself as soon as possible which, among other things, would provide for a ban on electronic cigarettes (another alternative to smoking) and the employment of 70% of package with health warnings and shock images (so-called pictorials) aimed at the visual description of the effects of smoking on health, on the model of what was decided in Australia in recent months. And yet from many quarters (see also a recent study by “The European House – Ambrosetti”) has been highlighted lack of proportionality between the expected results for public health with the adoption of the generic package and the economic and social consequences for the actors in the supply chain is, in Italy, see involved over 200 employees.
As for this theft from “Conspiracy Theory,” there are three options: the principal is Big Tobacco Really; or the theft was accidental, however bizarre given the coincidence; or – and here it would get interesting – there are those who hypothesize that it is all a staging of the NGOs to try to frame the industry or to get rid of burning documentation concerning Dalli or the NGOs themselves. Ong which – it should be noted – are strictly related to Big Pharma, the pharmaceutical lobby clearly interested in a Directive that aims at no smoking instead of harm reduction methods (such as Snus and the electronic cigarette). We will see.
Curious anyway how now someone tries to exploit a scandal denounced by the tobacco industry against this, in reality - for once - the "victim" of political choices made despite the results of an extensive consultation is, last year, received over 85.000 responses. From the consultation it is found that the majority of respondents are against the extension of the Directive in the absence of more scientific evidence regarding new tobacco and nicotine products. Another main point that emerged is that of freedom of choice, provided that this is supported by adequate information on the risks and, Last but not least, notable is the criticism of the Commission's tendency towards excessive regulation and prohibition in the sector. Exactly the opposite of what appear to be the intentions of the, at this point post-democratic, EU Commission, whose work on the Directive will resume in the next few days following of the fresh appointment of the Commissioner Tonio Borg, former head of Maltese diplomacy and vice-premier of Malta.
