The European Commission recently launched part 2 of its Evaluation of the Legislative Framework for Tobacco Control. This is a public consultation in the form of a questionnaire. The objective is to collect stakeholders’ perceptions on the current legislative framework for Tobacco Control, including the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and Tobacco Advertising Directive (TAD). The consultation ends on 16 May.
The goal of the evaluation is to assess if current tobacco control legislation has achieved its objectives and how it can support future commitments, namely a “Tobacco-Free Generation” by 2040, as set out in Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.
This is one of the most important public consultations to date and it is essential that a large number of consumers and consumer associations take part.
At the end of this article we have listed links to other THR consumer articles on this consultation, which are in various languages.
Part 1 of the Evaluation was a call for evidence which received over 24,000 responses. We need to match or better this number. ETHRA’s submission to the call for evidence can be found here. All submissions to the call for evidence are here. Well done to everyone who got their comments in.
The given purpose of the Evaluation is the need for legislation to keep up with the “rapid rise” in emerging products which have entered the EU market since TPD 2 was agreed. Examples given are nicotine-free vaping products, nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products. Other areas of concern they identify are online sales and social media. We know that some member states have already banned online sales and there have been growing calls to ban the advertising and promotion of vaping products on social media.
A targeted stakeholder consultation will make up the final part of the Evaluation. We are confident that ETHRA will receive an invitation to participate as we have for previous consultations.
The Commission will also consider various reports for the Evaluation. These include the SCHEER report, the Report on the Application of the Tobacco Products Directive, and the Beating Cancer Plan, to name a few. These documents recommend harsh restrictions on safer nicotine products (SNPs), including flavour bans and adding SNPs to smoke-free environment legislation. These recommendations should be of great concern to consumers of tobacco harm reduction products.
The Public Consultation will run until 16 May. It is open to EU citizens, consumer associations, academics and scientific experts, to name a few. Here is our guide to help you with submitting to the consultation.
GUIDE TO SUBMITTING TO THE CONSULTATION
Good to know…
- There are actually 5 different questionnaires. The questions you get will be determined by the information you give at the first section (see 6 below)
- Our guide is based on you answering the questions as ‘EU Citizen’
- Those answering as consumer association, scientist, non- EU citizen etc will see a different set of questions
- For the ‘EU Citizen’ questionnaire, there are 20 questions and it should take you around 30 - 45 minutes to complete it
- The questionnaire is available in all 24 official EU languages
1. Go to: ‘Evaluation of the legislative framework for tobacco control'
2. Scroll down the page until you come to the Public consultation section, and click on ‘Go to consultation.’
3. After clicking ' ‘Go to consultation’’ you will be taken to a page giving information about the consultation. Scroll down this page and click on ‘Respond to the questionnaire’.
4. After clicking ‘Respond to the questionnaire’ you will have to either sign in or create an account.
5. Once signed in you will be taken to the questionnaire.
6. The first section to fill out is your personal information. Please note that if you are taking part as an EU citizen/consumer you must identify yourself as an EU citizen in the ‘I am giving my contribution as’ section. This is important because the questions are tailored to how you answer here.
7. Before beginning the questionnaire you will have the option to submit your contribution anonymously or publicly. We recommend that submissions are public.
8. You can then proceed to fill out the questionnaire. There are 20 questions for the ‘EU Citizens’ questionnaire. It should take you around 30 - 45 minutes to complete.
Example of questions
9. The final section of the questionnaire is one of the most important. Here you can add comments in support of your answers. The text box provided is limited as it only allows for a maximum of 500 characters. However, you can also upload a file. In this section we recommend adding your testimonial, in your own words, on how safer nicotine products help you quit smoking. Some things to consider including:
- The number of years you smoked
- If you successfully quit smoking with an SNP, which product you used
- Whether or not flavours played a role in you successfully quitting smoking
- Your preferred flavour, or flavours
- How long you have been smoke free
10. FInally, click submit and your contribution will be published.
An email will be sent to you to verify your response. Don’t forget to click on the link in the email, then your response will be displayed.
THANK YOU FOR RESPONDING TO THE PUBLIC CONSULTATION - LET’S DO ALL WE CAN TO KEEP SAFER ALTERNATIVES TO SMOKING ACCESSIBLE AND AFFORDABLE
THE CONSULTATION CLOSES ON 16 MAY BUT WE RECOMMEND YOU RESPOND ASAP. DON'T HESITATE TO REACH OUT TO US OR YOUR CONSUMER ASSOCIATION IF YOU NEED HELP
HELP BY SPREADING THE WORD - AS MANY CONSUMERS AS POSSIBLE NEED TO ACT ON THIS
Consultation articles:
Sovape (French): TPD : participez à la consultation publique sur les produits de réduction des risques
VapYou (French): Consultation publique de l’Europe sur le « cadre législatif de la lutte anti-tabac » : mes réponses
Ch-lippmann (German): EU-Kommission – Konsultation zur TPD3 – Teil 2
Planet of the Vapes (English): ETHRA: It's Time To Act
Vaping Today (Spanish): ¿Tienes algo que decir sobre la lucha contra el tabaco en Europa? La Comisión Europea quiere saberlo