The European Union (EU) is preparing to hike taxes on vapes to the same level as cigarettes, as top commissioners draw direct comparisons between the two products – a move critics say ignores science.
Brussels targets vapes in new tax overhaul
At the European Health Forum Gastein in Austria, Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi said the EU would eventually raise taxes on vapes to match those on traditional tobacco products, warning that “the health impact is already there.”
He pointed to rising youth vaping rates – noting that in Czechia, more than a quarter of young people vape, a higher share than the EU average of adults who smoke.
“For whatever reason, in the public [vaping] is not presented as a danger – yet,” he told delegates. “We will raise the excess duties on these new products to the exact same level as it is for classic tobacco products and we will need to continue in that direction.”
The comments form part of a wider European Commission plan, unveiled exclusively by Clearing the Air earlier this year, to overhaul tobacco taxation. The proposal would increase taxes across the board, setting minimum rates on vapes and nicotine pouches for the first time.
While the highest levy would still hit traditional cigarettes – at least 63 percent of the average retail price – vapes would face new rates ranging from 20 to 40 percent.
Hoekstra’s ‘vaping kills’ claim
Várhelyi’s colleague Wopke Hoekstra has gone even further in his rhetoric. Speaking before the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Tax Matters in February, Hoekstra claimed: “700,000 Europeans die each year because of tobacco. Smoking kills. Vaping kills.”
The statement drew sharp criticism from public health experts and directly contradicted his own country’s scientific agencies. While Hoekstra’s figure on smoking deaths was accurate, vaping has not been scientifically linked to any deaths globally.
Now, Hoekstra has compared the message that vapes are less harmful than cigarettes to the tobacco industry’s efforts to market “light” cigarettes.
“They mislead policymakers about the risks of these new products, just as they did with light cigarettes in the past,” he said in a LinkedIn post. He went even further, claiming nicotine itself “damages blood vessels, impairs vascular function, and stimulates tumour growth.”
Claims of harm dismissed by scientists
Health experts say those statements are not supported by evidence. Nicotine, while addictive, is not classified as a carcinogen, and extensive research has shown that it does not cause cancer.
The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) – one of Europe’s most conservative regulators – clearly states that “e-cigarettes are less harmful than tobacco cigarettes.”
Even the European Parliament’s own report, ‘Novel tobacco and nicotine products and their effects on health’, found that “the presence of certain harmful substances in the emissions (vapour) of these products can be lower by around 90 to 95 per cent compared to tobacco cigarettes.”
Tax plan faces political and scientific backlash
Hoekstra has been leading the charge for higher excise duties on cigarettes, heated tobacco and vapes under the EU’s proposed Tobacco Excise Duty Own Resource (TEDOR). The plan could raise an estimated €11.2 billion a year for the bloc’s long-term budget from 2028 to 2034 by taking 15 percent of national tobacco tax revenues.
But the proposal faces resistance from several member states – including Italy, Greece, Austria, Sweden, Portugal and Romania – and growing criticism from harm reduction advocates who argue that equating vaping with smoking risks driving people back to deadly cigarettes.
