Public Consultation Could Shape the Future of Vaping in Europe
According to reports today, the European Commission is conducting a public consultation on the legislative framework for tobacco products, which will accept responses until May 16. This consultation is the second part of a process that began in 2022 and was launched in late February.
While the consultation seeks opinions on all tobacco products, it is clearly aimed at implementing stricter regulations on e-cigarettes and other low-risk nicotine products. The feedback collected will be used to amend the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and possibly the tobacco advertising directive.
According to sources cited in Vejpkollen's report today, the consultation itself was deliberately written to provoke an anti-e-cigarette response. However, it is the only tool that European e-cigarette users and other nicotine product users can use to prevent the adoption of e-cigarette bans.
Without consumer input, the EU will move towards prohibition
The last update to the TPD by the EU was in 2014, during which e-cigarette advocates participated in a major effort to prevent e-cigarettes from being regulated as medical devices. Even if this fate was avoided, lawmakers still imposed some meaningless restrictions on e-cigarettes, such as limits on the size of cans and bottles, and a maximum nicotine strength of 20 mg/ml (2%).
Unless e-cigarette users and users of nicotine pouches, CBD, and heated tobacco products raise their voices now, they may face more unwanted regulations—including flavor and online sales bans, increased minimum age, and internet advertising bans.
These are recommendations in policy documents that the committee will use to justify changes to the TPD. The SCHEER report, the application report of the Tobacco Products Directive, and the European cancer prevention plan have ignored consumer opinions and the views of scientists and policy experts advocating for EU tobacco harm reduction, instead relying on selectively chosen science from hardline anti-nicotine sources.
Some of these policies have already been adopted by individual EU countries, including flavor bans and excessive taxation. If they become EU law, all member states will be forced to comply.
The committee is expected to finalize its proposal for TPD amendments next year. However, the direction of the EC will be determined before the final proposal is published and must take public opinion into account.
How to participate in the consultation
The European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA)—an umbrella group of consumer THR advocacy organizations—has provided a step-by-step guide for EU citizens to complete the consultation.
According to ETHRA, the current consultation is one of the most important to date. To have a significant impact on future EU tobacco policy, ETHRA states that public responses must reach or exceed the 24,000 responses received in last year's consultation part 1.
The good news is that there is still plenty of time. The consultation runs until May 16.
The bad news is that with only five weeks left in the 12-week response period, only a quarter of ETHRA's target has been achieved—5,882 responses. About half of these came from Germany and Italy. Some EU countries facing significant internal struggles over e-cigarette and nicotine product policies have barely participated in the consultation, with Estonia, the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, and Poland each having fewer than 25 participants.
The third part of the TPD amendment process will be stakeholder consultations, which will take place immediately after the public consultation by invitation. ETHRA hopes to participate, and selected representatives from the e-cigarette industry will also attend. However, these meetings are almost certain to be dominated by influential European public health and tobacco control agencies—organizations that oppose free e-cigarette and nicotine product laws—making a strong public response all the more important.
