Counterfeit cigarettes: MEPs to question future of EU deals with tobacco firms
Should the EU’s anti-counterfeiting "tobacco agreements" with four major producers be killed off? Some MEPs say they were rendered obsolete by better tracing and tracking tools introduced by the EU’s new tobacco directive. MEPs will debate the issue after a Commission statement on Monday. The first tobacco agreement expires in July 2016.
The EU’s four tobacco cooperation agreements are with Philip Morris International (PMI), Japan Tobacco International (JTI), Imperial Tobacco Limited (ITL) and British American Tobacco (BAT).
Several MEPs say that the tobacco agreements, designed to fight counterfeit cigarette manufacturing and smuggling, should go because they have been rendered obsolete by the mandatory tracing and tracking tools included in the new EU tobacco directive and by the EU's signature of the WHO protocol against illicit tobacco trade.
Procedure: Commission statement
Debate: Monday, 18 May
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