Postcards, coffee and lobbying tours: nicotine pouch campaign hits Brussels
Source: Euractiv
As pressure mounts on the European Commission to revise directives related to tobacco products, the nicotine pouch lobby is has intensified its offensive in Brussels to head off potential new rules.
At the end of September, a wave of postcards was sent directly to MEPs active on tobacco-related issues. The sender: an organisation called Considerate Pouchers, closely supported by the lobby group Snus & Nicotine Pouch Users Alliance. The goal was to present nicotine pouches as a smoke-free alternative to cigaretttes.
“I used to smoke, and today I use nicotine pouches and feel better. They are clean, discreet and don’t bother anyone around me. I’m grateful these products exist. Don’t overload pouches with taxes or restrictions like cigarettes. If prices rise too much or if the products disappear, many of us risk going back to tobacco,” reads the postcard sent to a Socialist MEP.
[Document obtained]
Behind the postcard campaign lies a wider push to brand nicotine pouches as part of the fight against smoking. “They are investing heavily in new products through the risk-reduction narrative,” confirmed a source from an NGO fighting against tobacco and nicotine products.
Lobbying tour
Since early September, Considerate Pouchers – registered in Florida and describing itself as a platform representing users of these products – has done much more than send postcards. The organisation also carried out a lobbying tour across European capitals after the summer.
The platform’s ambassadors stopped in Stockholm – the country of snus – Paris, Warsaw, and Berlin before reaching the doors of the European Parliament in Brussels on 23 September.
Inside the Parliament, the outreach took a more political turn. While the teams, wearing Considerate Pouchers sweatshirts, offered coffee on Place du Luxembourg in cups bearing the same logo, the organisation’s spokesperson, Juan Rafael Taborcía, held a series of meetings inside Parliament. And the list was indeed impressive.
Between 23 and 25 September, he met with EPP MEPs Alice Teodorescu Måwe (Sweden), Jörgen Warborn (Sweden), and Gabriel Mato (Spain), as well as far-right MEPs Alexander Jungbluth (Germany, ESN), Hermann Tertsch (Spain, PfE), Beatrice Timgren (Sweden, ECR), and non-attached Luxembourgish MEP Fernand Kartheiser.
The choice of these MEPs seems to confirm the view of Per Clausen (Denmark, The Left), who told Euractiv at the end of August that Considerate Pouchers was stepping up its activities, “especially among the right.”
He himself refused to meet them, as the platform is not registered in the EU Transparency Register.
The shadow of industry giants
In addition to these meetings, Taborcía also took advantage of his stay in Brussels to moderate, on 1 October, a debate at the Renaissance Brussels Hotel on “evidence-based regulation and consumer-centred solutions to accelerate the EU’s transition towards a smoke-free future.”
Alongside Taborcía were Greek ECR MEP Emmanouíl Frágkos and Anders Milton, chair of the Snus Commission, an entity tasked with drafting reports and studies funded by the Swedish Association of Snus Manufacturers.
Among its members are major players such as British American Tobacco Sweden and Philip Morris International, through Swedish Match, the snus manufacturer it acquired in 2022.
The cardiovascular plan in the crosshairs
Beyond the Tobacco Products Directive, Considerate Pouchers has also joined the battle over the European Commission’s upcoming cardiovascular health plan.
In a response dated 10 September to the Commission’s consultation on the subject, Taborcía, on behalf of Considerate Pouchers, asked the Commission not to classify nicotine pouches as cardiovascular risk factors.
“This would conflate them with combustible tobacco, ignoring both science and common sense,” the organisation argued. It also called for the implementation of “proportionate taxation policies to ensure that pouches remain a more affordable alternative to smoking.”
This issue is particularly important as the European Commission plans to fund part of the next long-term EU budget through a revision of the Tobacco Tax Directive.
Uncertain future for nicotine pouches
Pressure is also mounting as several member states consider banning these products – as France did on 6 September. The industry, however, can count on certain allies, with Sweden at the forefront, opposing the taxation of nicotine pouches.
Given the sensitivity of the issue, the Commission remains discreet and is counting on member states to take the lead. “If such bans take place in a number of member states, then this will have to be reflected at EU level,” a Commission source close to the file told Euractiv.
(bms, aw)
The original article: belongs to Euractiv .
