Cigarettes – Photo © doomu – Fotolia
(BRUSSELS) – The EU Commission published a first report on the Tobacco Products Directive Thursday, underlining its goal of a tobacco-free generation in Europe, with less than 5% of people using tobacco by 2040.
The EU has witnessed steady decreases in smoking rates and tobacco use since the directive became applicable in 2016.
More efforts are needed, however, says the EU executive. The report points out two main areas where we need to see improvements: enforcement at national level and better consideration of new market developments, such as novel tobacco products.
The EU is proposing “bold and ambitious actions to reduce the use of tobacco”, said the EU’s Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides. She added that the EU’s clear objective means “enforcing EU tobacco legislation more strictly and helping it keep pace with new developments. EU legislation on tobacco has clearly had a positive impact on smoking rates in the EU, but to meet our target, we must set our sights higher.”
The Commission’s upcoming review of the Tobacco Products Directive is expected to be an important part of this work.
With 27% of all cancers attributed to its use, tobacco is the single largest avoidable health risk in the EU. Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, a key pillar of the European Health Union aims at creating a ‘Tobacco-free Generation’ by 2040. To reach this highly ambitious goal we need timely mobilisation of the whole available arsenal of tobacco control tools at all levels.
Today’s report is an important step in this direction. It identifies progress made and where there is still room for improvement. It finds that the EU legislation has enhanced tobacco control, contributed to protecting the health of EU citizens by providing Member States with strong rules to address the use of tobacco products in the EU.
The Directive has put in place comprehensive EU tobacco control policy rules, notably through enlarged combined health warnings, a track and trace system, a ban on characterising flavours, the creation of an ingredients database and the regulation of electronic cigarettes. It has also contributed to the improvement of public health through a decrease in tobacco consumption. The report also concludes that, due to market developments, there is scope for improvement in certain essential areas such as labelling, assessment of ingredients, cross-border distance sales and novel and emerging products.
Overview | Public Health (europa.eu)
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