Ahead of the WHO summit on the tobacco convention, a heated EU battle is raging over the future of smokeless nicotine products. Sweden is at the forefront of a growing group of countries that see snus and e-cigarettes as tools to reduce smoking - in defiance of the European Commission's tougher line.
”It's important that the prohibitionists don't get an inch” says Peter Beckett, editor of Clearing the Air magazine.
Sweden, along with Greece and the Czech Republic, wants to combat smoking through snus and e-cigarettes. Belgium, the Netherlands and the European Commission, on the other hand, want to regulate the products so tightly that they effectively border on a ban - almost as strict as cigarettes.
Ahead of the EU's common position at the WHO meeting on the tobacco convention, the battle over smokeless nicotine products has reached breaking point, according to Vejpkollen sources.
“The European Commission certainly didn't expect the opposition to their hardline ban to be this strong,” notes Peter Beckett, journalist and editor of media platforms Clearing the Air which reviews and comments on harm reduction policies in the EU.
Disagreement on the way out of cigarettes
The debate over the varying approaches to smoke-free nicotine products in EU countries has heated up in recent years. Since nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes especially single-use models - have begun to seriously compete with cigarette sales in mainstream tobacco shops, opposition to the products has grown, not least from the traditional anti-tobacco movement.
But this is not the first time that the regulation of these products has led to fierce battles at the highest EU level.
“I was there when powerful forces, led by interest groups with influence through the bureaucracy, wanted to ban all e-cigarettes and classify them as medicines. That was in 2013,” says Peter Beckett.
“In the end, a large group of vapers, led by UK consumers, went down to Brussels and stopped it all. Only then did enough politicians realise that the products were so popular that you couldn't just take e-cigarettes off the market.”
History repeats itself - now it's the nicotine pouches
Instead, e-cigarettes and related products were regulated under the new Tobacco Products Directive (TPD2) - which led, among other things, to restrictions on nicotine strength (maximum 20 mg/ml), the size of tanks and bottles (maximum 10 ml) and product registration requirements in each Member State.
Twelve years on, Peter Beckett sees the debate on nicotine pouches following the same pattern - and how those lobbying for a total ban are once again gaining ground.
Using the WHO Convention as a tool
“Now, as then, prohibitionists are using the WHO Tobacco Convention to push their line. They say the EU common position means nothing for future EU regulation. This is pure nonsense,” says Beckett.
According to some information that come out in the media the European Commission has backtracked somewhat from the hard line it previously argued in favour of. But Peter Becket is not convinced that the message to the delegates of the Tobacco Convention would be softer now than before.
“In the leaked drafts we have seen, terms such as ‘ban’ and ‘regulation’ are used in the same way as before. They want to get this language into the Tobacco Convention - which opens the door, for example in a future revision of the Tobacco Products Directive, to impose severe restrictions or even bans on both flavours in e-liquid and outright bans on nicotine pouches. Using the Convention a beating stick.”
Pragmatic Sweden puts a spanner in the works
Today, countries like Sweden, Italy and the Czech Republic - which Beckett describes as more pragmatic in its stance on smoke-free nicotine - which puts a spanner in the works of the European Commission's policy.
Sweden in particular, where nicotine pouches have been an export success and contributed to record low smoking rates, has publicly called the Commission's position “unsustainable”.
However, Mr Beckett warns that the Commission's tactic could be to sneak in “banning language” via a compromise.
“If the Commission has its way and the countries that support safer nicotine products accept a text that opens the door to a ban on nicotine pouches, for example, it is likely to be used as a basis for pushing through an EU-wide ban in the next tobacco policy directive.
To deny it is to ignore history - this is what they tried to do last time too.”
Meeting behind closed doors
WHO's upcoming meeting on the tobacco convention to be held behind closed doors on 17-22 November. Only selected media and interest groups will be admitted, while delegations from different countries' health ministries will represent their respective governments.
The decision-making process within the Tobacco Convention has repeatedly criticised for lack of transparency and democratic accountability. The independence and funding of the secretariat has also been questioned, as less than half of the budget is based on ”known” economic sources. However, this criticism is consistently dismissed by the Convention administration as “pandering to the tobacco industry”.
