A new wave of tobacco lobby engulfs Brussels

2 December 2024

Since September, the tobacco industry has been lobbying in Brussels. The European Parliament’s transparency registers report contacts with 51 members of parliament since 1 September. Front organisation World Vapers’ Alliance was removed from the registers but continues to lobby.

On the day the World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA) was removed from the EU lobby registers, the tobacco lobby front organisation met twice with MEPs. In Strasbourg, the WVA spoke with Katarína Roth Neved’alová, a non-aligned MEP from the Slovak Social Democratic Party SMER. The topic of the discussion: ‘tobacco harm reduction’, the WVA’s main subject. In Strasbourg, the organisation also spoke with Spaniard Javier Moreno Sánchez of the Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) about European trade policy.

Follow The Money EU has indicated that the organisation continues to incite MEPs with lobbying messages even after its removal from the EU’s official lobby register. In the weeks that followed, the WVA had four more meetings in Brussels, twice with staff members of MEPs and twice with MEPs themselves: Margarita de la Pisa Carrión (Spain) and Silvia Sardone (Italy), both members of the far-right Patriots for Europe faction and both members of the committee responsible for health.

In 2021, research by The Investigative Desk, NRC and Le Monde revealed that the WVA, which presents itself as an advocacy group for e-cigarette users, is in fact supported in a roundabout way by British American Tobacco, Philip Morris International, Altria (the parent company of Philip Morris USA) and Japan Tobacco International.

Lobby tent in front of Parliament

On 21 November, one day after the WVA had met with Silvia Sardone, the organisation had a tent in front of the European Parliament in Brussels to present a petition for the retention of flavoured e-cigarettes as a ‘better’ alternative for cigarette smokers. The WVA had invited MEPs by email for a “short meeting […] to discuss the petition and its implications in the European Parliament”.

When Follow The Money (FTM) went to take a look, there were no parliamentarians to be seen at the WVA tent. According to FTM, a MEP from The Left (GUE/NGL) responded to the invitation with the words: “With your pattern of behaviour we consider that you do not live up to the spirit of the EU’s transparency and lobbying rules.” The parliamentarian was supported by Nick Aiossa, director of Transparency International EU, who said about continuing to lobby despite the suspension from the transparency register: “This type of shadow lobbying showcases why the lobbying rules should be stricter.” WVA director Michael Landl told FTM that the suspension was due to some documents getting mixed up.

Lobby wave in Brussels

In addition to WVA, the tobacco industry itself is also very active in the European Parliament, as can be seen from the overview of meetings in the EU’s transparency registers. Since 1 September, Philip Morris International (PMI) has met with 31 members of parliament or their staff. Topics of discussion included ‘Exchange of relevant topics for the new legislative period’, ‘Alignment of tobacco and other nicotine products’, ‘Overview of the nicotine market’, ‘Safer alternatives to smoking’ and ‘The future of the tobacco industry’.

PMI presented the latest KPMG report, which the consultancy firm draws up annually on behalf of PMI, on smuggling and illegal trade in Europe to MEP Bouke Beke (Belgium, EPP). These reports are known to be unverifiable and manipulated by PMI. In a disclaimer in the reports, KPMG therefore states that “anyone who reads this report and chooses to trust it does so at their own risk” and that the report is not intended for tobacco market regulators.

Two MEPs, Tomislav Sokol (Croatia, EPP) and Lukas Sieper (Germany, non-aligned; Partei des Forschritts), attended a PMI Welcome Back Cocktail Reception in Brussels on 11 September. Such corporate drinks at the start of the new parliamentary year are a well-known lobbying tool in Brussels.

One meeting deserves special mention: Philip Morris International spoke to staff members of Danish MEP Stine Bosse (Renew) to learn that Bosse has no interest in including the tobacco industry’s stance in her position.

Talks with 51 MEPs

British American Tobacco (BAT) has held eight meetings with MEPs since 1 September, can be learned from a search using the term ‘tobacco’. Furthermore, meetings were reported with the Nordic Nicotine Pouches Alliance, Swedish Match, Tobaksleverantörsföreningen, Manifatture Sigaro Toscano, Papastratos cigarettes manufacturing company, Tobacco Europe AISBL and the Federation of the Cigar Industry of Belgium and Luxembourg (FECIBEL). In the same list, only three meetings with anti-lobbyists.

In total, lobbyists have reached at least 51 parliamentarians with their stories about harm reduction through alternative tobacco products, the consequences of excise duty increases and other measures for illegal trade in nicotine products, the economic damage assumingly caused by this and the employment effects of too strict tobacco regulation. All disasters with which the tobacco lobby hopes to gain influence with parliamentarians who may have to make decisions in the foreseeable future on the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive and the Tobacco Excise Directive.

EP must ban all tobacco lobbyists

The European Union is a signatory to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). But despite Article 5.3 thereof, which states that partners in the treaty must prevent any influence of the tobacco industry on tobacco policy, the tobacco and nicotine lobby in Brussels and Strasbourg is gigantic. The European Parliament should ban not only the WVA, but all tobacco lobbyists from its buildings.

Brussels | Transparency Register | WVA | EU | FCTC | tobacco lobby