{"id":24343,"date":"2025-05-12T08:59:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T08:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=24343"},"modified":"2025-05-12T08:59:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T08:59:29","slug":"no-more-lobbying-budgets-tobacco-control-ngos-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/no-more-lobbying-budgets-tobacco-control-ngos-told\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cNo more lobbying budgets\u201d, tobacco control NGOs told"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dozens of public health NGOs – including some lobbying hard against safer nicotine products – have been told they can no longer use EU funds to lobby Europe\u2019s institutions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearing the Air understands that the European Network for Smoking Prevention (ENSP) – which, despite the name, has been lobbying hard for vape bans at the EU level – were told in no uncertain terms that they can no longer use taxpayer funding provided by the EU to lobby for their preferred policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ENSP is a key part of the EU consortium responsible for drafting new restrictions for safer nicotine products. Its involvement in the project has been roundly criticised by the EU Ombudsman, who said that the Commission had failed to properly monitor conflicts of interest. ENSP was shown to have been lobbying the Commission\u2019s health directorate on nicotine policy <\/a>while taking part in the evaluation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in April, NGOs received letters from the Commission\u2019s Health and Digital Executive Agency – which is responsible for doling out the money – saying that their advocacy work is no longer eligible for funding because it \u201cmay entail a reputational risk\u201d for the EU. From 2021-2023, the Agency disbursed \u20ac377 million to NGOs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the EU\u2019s Transparency Register, ENSP received around \u20ac440.000 in operating grants for the current financial year, making up over two thirds of its total budget. The Smoke Free Partnership, whose CEO took part in a policy event riddled with misinformation that was covered on Clearing the Air<\/a>, got \u20ac278.000, over half its budget, last year. This year, it is slated to get over \u20ac400.000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sending letters, organizing meetings and providing advocacy material to specific EU institutions or officials \u2014 previously considered acceptable \u2014 can no longer be funded by the EU\u2019s operating grants. \u201cIdentifying specific members or officials of an institution to evaluate or describe their positions, or to discuss specific political content or outcome,\u201d has also been banned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to note that the Commission isn\u2019t banning NGOs from lobbying full stop: but it is preventing them from using EU funds to do so. Those that raise money for advocacy elsewhere can still lobby against safer nicotine products with that money while using EU cash for other activities.<\/p>\n

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Dozens of public health NGOs – including some lobbying hard against safer nicotine products – have been told they can no longer use EU funds to lobby Europe\u2019s institutions. Clearing the Air understands that the European Network for Smoking Prevention (ENSP) –…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990003,"featured_media":24344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257,258],"tags":[186],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-24343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-legislation","tag-nicotine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24350,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24343\/revisions\/24350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24343"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=24343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}