A new Tobacco Taxation Directive

6.2.2023

Question for written answer  E-000355/2023
to the Commission
Rule 138
Anne-Sophie Pelletier (The Left)

Smoking is the world’s leading cause of preventable cancer, responsible for almost 700 000 deaths in Europe every year.

In order to achieve the EU’s objective of a ‘tobacco-free generation’, Directive 2011/64 on the taxation of tobacco products urgently needs to be revised. As Parliament stated in its BECA report, this revision is necessary if we want to achieve higher taxes and prices for tobacco products in the EU.

The tax increase should be coupled with tackling against parallel trade within the EU, which is mainly fuelled by cross-border purchases and by cigarette companies. The revision must also require implementation of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, published by the World Health Organisation and ratified by the European Union and 18 of its Member States.

Despite all this, the Commission has constantly pushed back the revision of Directive 2011/64.

Given the stakes involved, there are fears that these successive postponements are due to interference by the tobacco industry, which has never concealed its opposition to the text.

Does the Commission undertake to put forward the revision of Directive 2011/64 before the end of the current term?

Submitted: 6.2.2023