The
Tobacco Products Directive or TPD of the European Union regulates the
manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products in the Member
states of the EU. In 2010 the EU held a public consultation on possible
revisions to the directive. Millions of people across Europe, and in the
UK, could be affected if it is adopted.
This
proposed directive includes measures such as a ban on menthol and slim
cigarettes, which seems unusual as thus far, there is not any record of
any EU member state attempting to ban either of them. Brussels
bureaucrats also want to ban packets of ten cigarettes.
Europol,
in their assessment of organised crime threats said, "Organised crime
groups based in the EU are increasingly active in cigarette smuggling,
seen as an attractive alternative to drug trafficking because of the
lower penalties and large profits".
There
are also moves within this directive to reclassify e-cigarettes as
medicinal products, and this issue has resulted in thousands of emails,
letters and phone calls to my office from dismayed constituents who are
worried that e-cigarettes could effectively be priced out of the market
as they will become subject to extensive, and highly expensive, testing.
Some fear that e-cigarettes may be pushed underground into a black
market.
One
of the aims of the Tobacco Products directive is to attempt to make
smoking less desirable to young people. I certainly do not want children
to start smoking or be tempted to start smoking. However, I do not
believe that the measures to protect young people, or indeed anybody who
may be tempted to start smoking, are something that needs to be
enforced by the European Union. If we are to stop children from smoking,
we need to do more in the UK, starting with further education to young
people about cigarettes. Greater punishments must be enforced on adults
who buy tobacco products for children.
Education, not legislation is what is needed.
Last
week, a meeting, called the Conference of Presidents, saw debate on the
Tobacco Products directive pushed Strasbourg this week to October, when
MEPs are due to vote on it. This will alarm those who want the TPD to
be adopted as they wanted the directive to be introduced before January
as Lithuania, who are the current Presidents of the Council of Europe,
are in favour of new and greater legislation. On January 1st 2014, the
EU Presidency will be passed to Greece, who are opposed to greater
tobacco control.
If
measures are necessary at all, then it is surely only right that it is
our elected Politicians in Westminster that decide on those measures
rather than unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.
I
will consistently vote against any future attempt to reclassify
e-cigarettes as medicinal products and I will continue to fight for a
binding referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.