The European Commission is publishing its first report on the Tobacco Products Directive. Five years after it became applicable, the Directive contributed to a steady decrease in smoking rates and tobacco use, the report finds. It also points out two main areas where we need to see improvements: enforcement at national level and better consideration of new market developments. Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: “With Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan we are proposing bold and ambitious actions to reduce the use of tobacco. We have set a very clear objective – to create a tobacco-free generation in Europe, where less than 5% of people use tobacco by 2040. This means enforcing EU tobacco legislation more strictly and helping it keep pace with new developments. EU legislation on tobacco has clearly had a positive impact on smoking rates in the EU, but to meet our target, we must set our sights higher. The upcoming reviewing of the Tobacco Products Directive will be an important part of this work.” Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan – a key pillar of the European Health Union – aims at creating a ‘Tobacco-free Generation’ by 2040. To reach this highly ambitious goal we need timely mobilisation of the complete available arsenal of tobacco control tools at all levels. The Directive has put in place comprehensive EU tobacco control policy rules, notably through enlarged combined health warnings, a track and trace system, a ban on characterising flavours, the creation of an ingredients database and the regulation of electronic cigarettes. However, due to market developments, there is scope for improvement in certain essential areas such as labelling, assessment of ingredients, cross-border distance sales and novel and emerging products. A press release is available here
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