Is plain packaging to be introduced 'by the back door'?

The DH will assess the impact of plain packs in Australia

As the issue of plain tobacco packaging continues to be kicked about by party leaders like a political football, the European Parliament has moved a step closer to introducing what corporate affairs experts warn is “plain packaging by the back door”.

While political debate in the UK rumbles on over the connection between the government’s use of a lobbying firm, and its decision to drop plain packaging proposals, opponents turned their attention to Brussels, where last week the highly controversial Tobacco Products Directive cleared another of its major hurdles on the way to becoming law.

The European Parliament’s environment and public health committee (ENVI) voted in favour of a string of measures that will lead to the most radical changes yet seen in the way tobacco is sold across the EU.

The ENVI committee rejected measures to make plain packaging mandatory, but it approved an amendment forcing tobacco companies to give over 75% of the front and back of their packs to pictorial health warnings - and 50% of each side to text warnings.

EU to classify e-cigs as medicines

The ENVI last week also voted down an amendment to the Tobacco Products Directive that would have seen electronic cigarettes regulated using beefed-up consumer protection rules rather than as medicines.

Liberal Democrat MEP for Yorkshire and Humber MEP Rebecca Taylor, who was backing the amendment, warned the move could lead to a lack of alternatives to tobacco in some areas.

“My nightmare scenario is that e-cigarette availability becomes so poor in some EU countries that ex-smokers get pushed back to tobacco,” she explained.

Last month, the UK revealed plans to adopt the medicines route.

Angela Harbutt from pro-tobacco group Forest, which ran the recent Hands off Our Packs campaign in the UK, called the proposals “plain packaging by the back door” and pledged to fight them.

The Tobacco Products Directive is expected to become law in 2016 and it now goes ahead to a full European Parliament vote, scheduled for 10 September.

The directive will also ban the sale of 10-packs of cigarettes, the most popular sizes of roll-your-own tobacco packs, slims and flavoured cigarettes, including menthols (The Grocer, 6 July).

Harbutt told The Grocer she expected plenty more debate before September, citing the EU committee on legal affairs, which warned ENVI that insisting on 75% warnings “failed to comply with the rights laid down in the EU charter and was likely to breach national and international laws”.

Last week, the DH confirmed it was shelving its plans to bring in plain packs to give it time to assess the impact of plain packs in Australia, introduced last December.

However, the decision was seized upon by the Labour party and anti-smoking groups, who accused the government of bowing to pressure from lobbyists. In particular, they questioned the influence of Conservative Party strategist Lynton Crosby, whose lobby firm Crosby Textor has carried out work for tobacco giant Philip Morris.