Tobacco lobby steps up Brussels push as EU rewrites rules

European lawmakers have held four times as many meetings with tobacco and nicotine lobbyists in the past two years compared with the entire previous parliamentary term, according to data analyzed by POLITICO. Since this Parliament took office in the summer of 2024, more than 400 meetings have been declared, compared with about 100 in the 2019-2024 term, according to data collected by the Smoke Free Partnership, a coalition of NGOs, from the Transparency Register. European lawmakers are required to publicly disclose their meetings on the register. Meanwhile, most meetings this term were with right-leaning MEPs. Some 75% were with lawmakers from the center-right European People’s Party, the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists and the far-right Patriots for Europe groups. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Meetings with tobacco and nicotine groups have ramped up this term as the EU seeks to overhaul several key pieces of tobacco and nicotine legislation. The EU has also proposed measures this session to curb heart disease and cancer, plans that also affect the sector. Some MEPs have called out the tobacco industry’s access to lawmakers as they negotiate measures to prevent addiction and disease caused by the sector’s products, such as in a cardiovascular disease strategy report and cancer plan. “I find it scandalous and shocking that there are more meetings with the tobacco industry than the NGOs and the associations that advocate for stop smoking,” Tilly Metz, a lawmaker with the Greens/European Free Alliance, said. “When you are working on health files, it is completely incompatible to regularly meet with the tobacco industry,” she said. Metz referenced the World Health Organization’s tobacco control treaty, which says policymakers should meet with tobacco lobbyists only when strictly necessary to discuss the sector’s regulation. The tobacco industry and MEPs who regularly meet with industry say they have done nothing wrong. British American Tobacco’s head of fiscal affairs, Simon Trussler, said that like any other business in Europe, it had legitimate experiences and arguments to put forward “because we see what’s going on on the ground.” Marlboro manufacturer Philip Morris International, whose meetings accounted for the most of any tobacco company, pointed out its contribution to the European economy and that the firm is “undergoing a deep transformation towards a smoke-free future.” “We are proud to contribute to the democratic dialogue and to engage with any MEP, from any political group, who is open to discuss on the basis of science and facts and our determination to be part of the solution,” said the company, which also sells nicotine pouches, vapes and heated tobacco products. Global treaty debate One concern raised by Metz and other MEPs is whether World Health Organization tobacco control rules are being followed correctly. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control stipulates that public health policies need to be protected against industry’s commercial interests. It doesn’t ban lobbying, but guidelines to implement the treaty say that policymakers should limit interactions with the sector to what is strictly necessary for the purposes of regulating it, and ensure transparency of those meetings. Industry maintains it operates within the rules and presents its perspective transparently. The sector also points to a 2022 European Court of Justice judgment stating that the treaty doesn’t prohibit industry participation in implementing tobacco control; it is “intended solely to prevent the tobacco control policies of the parties to the convention from being influenced by that industry’s interests.” In addition, the sector argues that the WHO framework doesn’t cover tobacco-free nicotine products. These products a