Wopke Hoekstra, the European Commissioner responsible for tax policy, has told a closed door meeting of Members of the European Parliament that the Commission is aiming to propose higher taxes on safer nicotine products by the summer, according to sources who discussed the meeting with Clearing the Air.
The discussion is supposed to have taken place between the Commissioner and senior members of the Parliament’s Tax Committee over breakfast in Strasbourg. Clearing the Air understands that the proposal being circulated at the Commission is largely unchanged from the one leaked to the Financial TImes in 2022.
That proposal would increase the price of nicotine pouches by over 50%, according to calculations from SnusBolaget. It would also add as much as €3 to the price of a 10ml bottle of eliquid for vaping, almost doubling the price for vapers.
But the Commission faces an uphill struggle to get its tax plans approved. At least three Member States – rumoured to be Greece, Romania and Italy – are known to approve the idea of the Commission tabling further proposals.
“Hoekstra is now contacting high-level national officials advocating for a revision of nicotine taxes” one source close to the debate told Clearing the Air. “He is focusing on countries that are not big supporters for immediate TED revision despite signing a letter calling for it, like Croatia, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Czechia. He’s also focusing on those who have yet to show their hand like Malta”.
Many in the Commission itself are also skeptical about artificially increasing costs for citizens – even those partaking in activities it disapproves of, like switching from smoking to safer products – in the middle of an era of extreme economic uncertainty.
But Hoekstra himself is know to be a staunch opponent of safer nicotine products. In February, he told a European Parliament Committee that vapes kill “just like cigarettes”, a patently false claim that even the most die-hard prohibitionist would not dare to make in public.
One person close to the discussion seemed unimpressed. “If the Commission wants something, they should propose something”, they told Clearing the Air.
Another felt that Hoekstra was likely to be strong arming resistant Member States at the behest of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose team are known to be skeptical of raising tax.
“If he’s saying that he needs to convince these three before proposing anything, it’s probably because mummy told him he had to”, said the source.
As well as tax policy, Hoekstra is in charge of the Commission’s climate change policy. One environmental activist who spoke to Clearing the Air was despairing. “It tells you everything you need to know about Europe’s climate priorities that the Commissioner in charge is burning political capital on taxing vapes”, they said.
