Revision of tobacco directive postponed

The European Commission plans to present its proposal for revision of the tobacco products directive (2001/37/EC) after the summer of 2012. This delay, confirmed on 23 February by the press service of Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner John Dalli, validates the concerns of Florence Berteletti, director of Partenariat sans fumée (Smokefree Partnership).

Last July, she apprehended such a delay, noting that the “Council and the European Parliament – whose current legislature will end in 2014 – will need more than a year to work out an agreement on such a complicated issue” (see Europolitics 4242). Revision of the directive, initially announced for the end of 2011 and then postponed to early 2012, aims to enhance public awareness of the dangers of smoking, to dissuade people from starting to smoke and to encourage smokers to quit.