EU MEPs Raise Tobacco Lobbying Concerns… but are Their Voices Going Unheard?

In April, the Informal European Parliamentary Working Group for preparing the revision of the EU Tobacco Products Directive (IPWG TPD) held a workshop with civil society organisations, to address the lobbying efforts and ‘soft power’ of the tobacco industry to influence EU policies.

Hosted by French MEPs Michèle Rivasi and Anne-Sophie Pelletier, the event, entitled ‘Tobacco Lobby Influence Strategies within European Institutions,’ featured representatives from leading tobacco control NGO coalitions as well as researchers from the University of Bath’s renowned Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG). The International Tax Stamp Association (ITSA) was also represented at the workshop, as were several solution providers.

In particular, the MEPs raised what they called ‘the latest scandal to date’ in the form of ‘the revolving door affair’ of a former senior official at the EU’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG Health). The official had left DG Health to take up a position as Head of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance at the company appointed by the European Commission to manage the secondary data repository under the TPD. The official moved into this new role during his ‘cooling-off’ period.