The European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), a European NGO advocating better health, has expressed disappointment that the European Parliament (EP) has postponed a debate and vote on the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD).
The debate and vote in the EP was supposed to start yesterday, but was delayed until 10 October. This significantly endangers the chance of the directive passing through Parliament before the last EP plenary session in April 2014 prior to the Europe-wide elections.
The EPHA claims that it is all part of continuous attempts to undermine public health interests.
“This has not been the first attempt to delay the adoption of the TPD. In October 2012, Health Commissioner John Dalli resigned because of some allegations concerning links with tobacco lobbyists. Some 24 hours later a number of offices of organisations working on tobacco control - including EPHA - were broken into and items stolen,” the EPHA said in a statement.
‘Potential impact of Dalligate on TPD not yet clear’
“Furthermore, the Supervisory Committee of the European Parliament had examined the consequences of the Dalligate. Recent MEP questions show that its potential impact on the adoption of a strong TPD is not clear, yet,” the Alliance said.
The Smoke Free Partnership (SFP), an anti-tobacco lobby, expressed concern over the decision taken by the heads of political groups in the European Parliament to postpone the debate and vote on the TPD.
“This is outrageous. Ever since John Dalli ceased to be Health Commissioner last year, we have repeatedly expressed concern over the delay tactics of the tobacco industry and what a delay of the directive would mean for public health in Europe. We suspect that tobacco industry interference is now once again at play – this time by overturning a longstanding commitment of the European Parliament to secure a swift resolution of this directive,” Florence Berteletti, the director of the SFP said in a statement.
Lobbyists claimed €1.5 million in expenses for MEP meetings
On Sunday, The Guardian revealed that in the year to June 2012, lobbyists working for Philip Morris International (PMI), a tobacco group, claimed over £1.25 million (€1.5 million) in expenses for their meetings with MEPs.
A confidential document obtained by the paper allegedly shows how PMI employed some 161 people in order to combat the Tobacco Products Directive. The directive aims to ban all types of flavoured tobacco, as well as include large pictorial warnings on all tobacco products covering 75% of the front and back of the packs.
The document is said to show that PMI debated internally whether to either “push” the directive, by aiming to remove certain elements from it, or “delay” it outright.
The Guardian reports that a company spreadsheet shows that 31% of the MEPs in the European Parliament were met by PMI “at least once.” Another spreadsheet lists several MEPs as having been met “four or five times.”
PMI also reportedly targeted farmers' organisations, retail bodies and trade and business associations to reach high-level decision makers in the European Parliament and the European Commission.