McAvan: "The aim is to stop tobacco companies recruiting a new generation of smokers"
Young people are less likely to take up smoking under new rules for tobacco products adopted by the Parliament on 8 October. Linda McAvan, a British member of the S&D group, will now be in charge of leading negotiations with the Council on a final version of the legislation. We talked to her about how the new rules could prevent young people from taking up the deadly habit and how it will affect people using e-cigarettes as an alternative.
Ms McAvan called the adopted proposals a good compromise: "The key aim of the new law is to stop tobacco companies recruiting a new generation of smokers by launching gimmicky products aimed at young people. Some of those products will disappear from the market: flavoured cigarettes, perfume-style packages, which are particularly designed to attract young girls into smoking, and we will get big picture warnings on cigarettes and 'roll your own' tobacco."
Electronic cigarettes will not be banned, but will be regulated as medicinal products if firms claim they can cure or prevent diseases. Ms McAvan said: "The question is, how do you make sure that e-cigarettes that are on the market are a good quality and not marketed to young people as gateway products."
She also stressed that people would be able to buy electronic cigarettes the same way as before: "There never was a suggestion that e-cigarettes should only be sold in pharmacies. This is a national law issue. The EU law is simply about how to regulate the e-cigarettes."
MEPs will meet with ministers from the member states in the next few weeks to try to reach an agreement, which would then be voted on in the Parliament. Ms McAvan said she hoped to reach an agreement by Christmas.
