{"id":31729,"date":"2025-12-01T15:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T15:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=31729"},"modified":"2025-12-01T15:54:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T15:54:23","slug":"document-eu-health-ministers-to-discuss-new-curbs-on-safer-nicotine-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/document-eu-health-ministers-to-discuss-new-curbs-on-safer-nicotine-products\/","title":{"rendered":"DOCUMENT: EU Health Ministers to discuss new curbs on safer nicotine products"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EU Health Ministers will tomorrow discuss new restrictions on \u201cnovel tobacco and nicotine products\u201d at a closed door lunch, according to a briefing document seen by Clearing the Air and published here<\/a> (email signup required).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The working lunch \u201cwill allow Member States to identify priority areas for this evaluation \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

specifically, measures to protect children and adolescents from novel and emerging tobacco and nicotine products and consideration of how a revision of the Tobacco Products Directive<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(2014\/40\/EU) could enhance Europe\u2019s ability to prevent nicotine addiction amongst children and adolescents\u201d according to the briefing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lunch is being seen by insiders as an attempt by the Commission and prohibition-minded Member States to regain the initiative after they failed to include language encouraging bans on safer nicotine products in the conclusions to the WHO\u2019s Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of Member States including those who have seen the public health benefits of harm reduction (such as Sweden, Greece and Czechia) or where tobacco companies have made significant investments in production, blocked the move in Geneva last week despite intense pressure from the Commission and the Danish Government<\/a>, which holds the EU\u2019s rotating Presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross border online sales in focus<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Member States that want bans want the EU to copy policies like the Belgian ban on disposables or its upcoming flavour ban<\/a>. This, they say, is why flavoured products remain available on their markets. The EU Commission would love to help, but is finding it increasingly difficult to find a majority in favour of prohibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, online sales will be a particular focus of the Ministerial debate. \u201cSeveral Member States have already implemented national measures to curb rising nicotine addiction among young people\u201d the document reads, \u201cintroducing rules to make nicotine products less attractive and less accessible for young people. However, national initiatives are less effective as the sale of tobacco and nicotine is not restricted by borders. These products are readily available online, undermining national efforts to limit children\u2019s exposure to nicotine\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Member States already have the power to ban online sales of vaping products in their territory, and many have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EU law to be revised<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The lunch marks another early flashpoint in the long road to revising the EU\u2019s tobacco control legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Commission recently announced that an evaluation of the legislation on tobacco control will be published in the second quarter of 2026\u201d, the document notes. \u201cThe working lunch will allow Member States to identify priority areas for this evaluation \u2013 specifically, measures to protect children and adolescents from novel and emerging tobacco and nicotine products and consideration of how a revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (2014\/40\/EU) could enhance Europe\u2019s ability to prevent nicotine addiction amongst children and adolescents\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EU Health Ministers will tomorrow discuss new restrictions on \u201cnovel tobacco and nicotine products\u201d at a closed door lunch, according to a briefing document seen by Clearing the Air and published here (email signup required). The working lunch \u201cwill allow Member States…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990003,"featured_media":31730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257,258],"tags":[355,186,333],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-31729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-legislation","tag-czechia","tag-nicotine","tag-sweden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31729","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=31729"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31770,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31729\/revisions\/31770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31729"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=31729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}