End of EU-Japan Tobacco International cooperation agreement
22.3.2023
Priority question for written answer P-000969/2023
to the Commission
Rule 138
Michèle Rivasi (Verts/ALE)
The EU Member States and the Commission concluded ‘cooperation agreements’ with the tobacco manufacturers Philip Morris International (PMI) in 2004, Japan Tobacco International (JTI) in 2007, and British American Tobacco (BAT) and Imperial Tobacco in 2010.
As noted in Les Echos, the EU-PMI agreement, to which Parliament expressed its opposition in March 2016, ‘saw an end to the EU’s legal disputes over the tax revenue it had lost because of contraband cigarettes in exchange for a sum of USD 1.25 billion and a commitment by the company to tackle illicit sales of its products’[1].
The agreements with the other three big tobacco firms brought the total compensation to USD 2.5 billion, including USD 400 million for JTI. In all, 90% of the revenue from those agreements went to the Member States and the remaining 10% to the EU budget as own resources.
The 15-year agreement signed with JTI in December 2007 expired at the end of 2022.
- 1.Can the Commission confirm that the EU-JTI cooperation agreement has not been renewed?
- 2.Which Member States were in favour of maintaining these cooperation agreements in 2018?[2]
Submitted: 22.3.2023