2020 has been a busy year for tobacco harm reduction in Europe. Here we give you some of the news from December and look ahead to what is expected in 2021. Most importantly, there are 3 calls to action: 1) give your feedback to the EU tax roadmap, 2) respond to the NL consultation and 3) share our big consumer survey.
Tobacco Harm Reduction needs YOU!
Please take these 3 actions over the holidays:
1. EU tax roadmap
The EU Tax Directive is being revised and the Commission are considering the inclusion of vaping and “novel tobacco products” in the Directive.
You can give your feedback to the roadmap consultation for tax (link) before 5 January.
All the feedback submitted so far is here (link), including ETHRA’s (link).
See Vapolitique’s article for more information (link).
2. Netherlands flavour ban consultation
Please respond to the public consultation on banning most e-liquid flavours, ends 16 January (CONSULTATION LINK).
ETHRA wrote this letter to protest against the ban in July (link)
Dr Farsalinos and colleagues also wrote, their letter is here (link)
The translation for the NET factsheet used to justify the ban (link), and the original (link)
Follow Acvoda (link) and ETHRA (link) on Twitter for updates.
3. ETHRA survey
Thank you to everyone who has helped to make our EU Nicotine Users survey so successful. 34,000 consumers have already participated, which is fantastic. Please help to get even more impressive numbers by sharing the survey far and wide. Survey ends on 31st December.
https://euronicotinesurvey.urlweb.pro/s/index.php?a=JTk2cSU5QWolOTglQUU=&id=JTk3ciU5N2glOUQlQUQ=
News updates
Denmark
On 15 December the Danish Parliament voted to adopt the Bill which will ban most e-liquid flavours, mandate plain packaging for vaping products and ban displays and advertising.
For updates please follow DADAFO on Facebook, here .
We will also be adding news as it comes in to our If you tolerate this then YOUR flavours will be next article.
Estonia
Very good news from Estonia where the Parliament has voted to suspend collection taxes on eliquids, in order to reduce illicit trade. See NNA Smokefree Estonia’s press release for the full story (link).
Italy
A tax on eliquids and heated tobacco products has just been voted in. The taxes could increase by 300%, see this table from ANPVU:
See Sigmagazine for more information (link).
Netherlands
Vapers are now cut off from their supplies as vape shops are closed under the current COVID-19 lockdown and online sales are banned. Austrian vapers will soon be in the same position when their 3rd lockdown begins after Christmas, as online sales are also banned there.
Spain
As we reported recently (link) the Spanish government recently released a biased and inaccurate report into vaping. ANESVAP warns that the report is paving the way for harsh restrictions, expected to be introduced early next year.
UK
The UK is leaving the EU on 1st January. A public consultation into the domestic legislation for the TPD, the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations (link) is now overdue. The review should be held in May 2021. The APPG on vaping has recently launched “COP INQUIRY” a consultation relating to FCTC’s COP (link).
What is coming up in 2021?
Relax as much as you can over the holidays because 2021 will be even busier than 2020.
The SCHEER final opinion is now overdue with SCHEER planning to adopt the final opinion at the next SCHEER plenary meeting on 3-4 March 2021 (link). We hope that the delay is due to the report getting a drastic rewrite, after the widespread condemnation of the preliminary opinion.
The report for Europe’s Beating Cancer plan is also overdue, so we can expect to see that in the New Year too.
There will be a public consultation into the tax directive, as mentioned on the current roadmap consultation page (link).
The TPD review (link) will be published in May 2021. Everyone who supports tobacco harm reduction will need to be ready to fight for it when this review is published.
The FCTC’s COP9 (link) is due to be held in the Netherlands in October. Expect the outcome of the TPD review to have a big influence on COP.
Finally, we would like to thank you all for your support and wish you a very Happy Christmas!
Original image Krisjanis Mezulis on Unsplash