INTERNATIONAL - Today as yesterday, the lobbying of the tobacco industry with the European institutions must be considered the scandal of the century. Why? As a Member of the European Parliament, I witnessed the undermining work carried out by tobacco industry lobbyists during the negotiations around the tobacco directive adopted, despite everything, in 2014.
Lobbying in this industry is not an activity to be put on the same level as other influencing practices even if it borrows the same codes: we are dealing with death dealers!
That is why, with other European parliamentarians of all sensibilities, we have decided to lead this fight against the interference of the tobacco industry in our policies and our actions.
Recently traveling through many European capitals like Lisbon, Vienna, Athens, Paris, Rome, London, Madrid and Berlin, I met NGOs, representatives of the Ministries of Health, Finance and Customs to not only take stock of the transposition of the tobacco directive which must be done by May 2016 at the latest, but also to discuss the fight against contraband and the black market of cigarettes which undermines our health policies.
Some Member States are prevented from implementing ambitious measures. Others like the United Kingdom and France, however, manage to resist this deadly lobbying by choosing the neutral package or by no longer making cigarettes visible in store displays! In the case of France, it is also the 12th country to have ratified the World Health Organization (WHO) protocol against the illicit tobacco trade. This protocol therefore provides for independent traceability to counter contraband or the black market of cigarettes.
However, there is growing evidence of the tobacco industry's involvement in illicit trafficking. Manufacturers would produce too many cigarettes (which in some countries would represent Present in several = 240% market demand) to be disposed of only legally. These products would then find their way to the black market. Manufacturers would be responsible for 25% of contraband cigarettes. The Tobacco Control and Research Group at the University of Bath in the UK pointed to the evidence in a recent report after 13 years of research.
Let's not hesitate to say it: illicit trade is part of the tobacco industry's business strategy. Independent traceability is therefore more necessary than ever. Why? These are tax losses estimated at 12 billion per year for the European Union. Cigarette smuggling fuels international flows that contribute to the financing of terrorism. Certain terrorist organizations are financed by this trafficking. The London customs services have confirmed it to me. An investigation within OLAF was opened in 2012 against a tobacco manufacturer for violating the Syrian embargo, the conclusions of which we are still awaiting.
It is urgent that the European Union ratifies the WHO protocol and that we implement independent traceability which excludes CODENTIFY, a system internal to the tobacco industry.
We also call for the non-renewal of cooperation agreements between the European Union and the tobacco industry. These agreements, since 2004, have shown their ineffectiveness. On the one hand, Member States have a shortfall of 12 billion euros per year, on the other hand, depending on the year, the cumulative payments of the tobacco industry can amount to 50 to 150 million euros. But who are we laughing at? These payments do not even represent 1% of estimated annual losses. The lobbying of the tobacco industry and these cooperation agreements with the European Union must challenge us.
Finally what do we see? Illegality or even organized crime via smuggling or the black market of cigarettes, ineffectiveness against the illicit trade in tobacco products, tax avoidance strategies updated by the European Parliament's special committee on tax evasion - this is the observation that we must to ensure that these practices stop.
This fight is the fight for health, for life, but also against the financing of terrorism! These are the challenges we intend to take up for 2016.
Source : huffingtonpost.fr
