MEPs set to vote on larger pictorial warnings on cigarette packs

MEPs from the environment committee yesterday backed the Tobacco Products Directive's stronger use of pictorial warnings on cigarette packaging, to make 75% of all cigarette packs carrying a warning against smoking.

The anti-smoking law - notorious for having cost Maltese commissioner John Dalli his job after being implicated in a bribery allegation - will now proceed to the European Parliament's plenary to be voted upon by all MEPs.

Yesterday's vote saw the leading committee on the law endorse the increase of pictorial warnings covering 75% of the pack, front and back; ban on the use of cigarette flavours including menthol; and the removal of slim cigarettes from the market.

The ENVI Committee has also supported the classification of e-cigarettes as medical products, which means they will have to standardised and certified by medicinal authorities before going on sale.

The vote was welcomed by the European Public Health Association. "MEPs have set a solid stepping stone in the journey to better safeguard the health of millions crudely exposed to the marketing tricks of the toxic tobacco industry. Putting it plainly, today is a happy day for people concerned with others' health," the EPHA said yesterday.

Irish MEP Nessa Childers from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) said she was pleased with the result of the vote after "massive" industry lobbying against the law. MEPs complained that they had been 'bombarded' by the tobacco industry, which employs over 100 full-time lobbyists in Brussels, and received dozens of e-mails, letters and brochures.

Mike Ridgway, spokesman for seven UK packaging manufacturers, said the ENVI vote was "a victory for the criminal fraternity across Europe and the supporters of the counterfeiter who will find it easier to replicate standardised and simple packaging compared to the specifications currently being used."

"At risk also across Europe are the many thousands of jobs employed by the packaging manufacturers, together with the future investment plans in an industry which has been a barrier over the years to those that desire to market illegal and unregulated product to the young and vulnerable sections of society," Ridgway stated.

Tobacco smoking kills 1 in every 2 of its long-term users. The EU has one of the world's highest proportions of deaths attributed to tobacco use: 16% of all deaths of Europeans age 30 and above are because of tobacco. Tobacco is also one of the leading causes of several types of noncommunicable diseases, like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

The ball is now in the court of the September Plenary of the European Parliament, which will vote on the revised TPD endorsed by the ENVI committee. Following this decisive vote, the EP will have to reach an agreement with the EU Health Ministers. If the approval of the tobacco legislation does not occur by the end of the year, it would put its adoption too close to the next European Parliament's elections.