SUU, Alm.del - 2010-11 (1. samling) - Bilag 211: Orientering vedr. en mulig revision af tobaksvaredirektivet

The Danish Government’s Contribution to the possible Revision ofthe Tobacco Products Directive 2001/37/ECGeneral remarksThe Danish Government welcomes the Commission’s efforts to take the regu-lation of tobacco products into a new decade, taking into account that the cur-rent Directive (2001/37/EC) has been in place for almost 10 years.In general, the Danish Government sees it as important, that the Directive up-holds the proper balance between protecting consumers from the negativehealth aspects of tobacco on the one hand and facilitating the free movementof goods in the Internal Market on the other.The Danish Government has within recent years increased its efforts with re-gards to tobacco consumption, balancing the freedom of choice and personalresponsibility of the individual and the aim to protect young people and poten-tial new smokers as well as the general public from the harmful effects ofsmoking,In 2007, the Danish Government introduced new comprehensive legislation onsmoke-free environments and in 2008, put forward legislation to prevent youngpeople from smoking by raising the minimum purchasing age for tobaccoproducts from 16 to 18 years.Furthermore, a national campaign in 2009/10 using the Australian concept“Every Cigarette is Doing You Damage” has contributed to the significant de-crease in the number of every day smokers in Denmark. In 2000, 33 percent ofthe adult population in Denmark smoked. Today this figure has decreased to24 percent. The campaign will be repeated in 2011.In 2011, the Danish Government introduces pictorial warnings on cigarettepackages.At European level, the Danish Government – in the meetings of the Council(Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs) in June and De-cember 2009 – advocated for regulatory measures on tobacco ingredients andexcessive flavourings to be taken in the framework of the revision of the To-bacco Products Directive.The Danish Government is concerned about the appearance of new tobaccoproducts on the European market that seem to have as their main purpose toattract new smokers. Potential new users are often young and may often not

be fully aware of the short term and long term harmful effects of smoking. Therevision of the Directive should focus especially on the regulation of productstargeting new users and on the use of ingredients in tobacco products in gen-eral.The Danish Government takes note of the fact that, pursuant to Article 13 ofthe existing Directive (2001/37), Member States may maintain or introducemore stringent rules concerning the manufacture, import, sale and consump-tion of tobacco products which they deem necessary in order to protect publichealth as long as the rules comply with the Treaty. Such rules may includemeasures concerning tobacco ingredients and new products such as ciga-rettes with excessive flavourings.However, taking into account the cross border aspects of tobacco productsand in order to protect in particular children and young people from the harmfuleffects of smoking, measures on tobacco ingredients and excessive flavour-ings should be taken at European level by way of a revision of the TobaccoProducts Directive.Thus, Denmark would welcome the inclusion of inter alia the following ele-ments in the upcoming Commission proposal for a revised Directive:A common European list of tobacco ingredientsA ban on cigarettes with excessive flavourings ie. so-called candycigarettes.

Specific remarks:(1) Scope of the DirectiveThe Danish Government is of the view that the scope of the Tobacco ProductsDirective should include products containingtobaccoand products that can besmokedand thus attract the same users as tobacco products, such as herbalcigarettes.Denmark would welcome European regulation of other nicotine products thatdo not contain tobacco, but considers that these products should not be dealtwith within the framework of the Tobacco Products Directive.As regards electronic nicotine delivery systems (’e-cigarettes’) that containnicotine, these products are regarded by the Danish authorities as pharmaceu-tical products and regulated as such. At this stage, no marketing authorisationfor e-cigarettes that contain nicotine has been granted and thus such productscannot be marketed legally in Denmark.(2) Smokeless tobacco productsThe Danish Government does not see a need to change the provisions of thecurrent Directive as regards tobacco products for oral use.The Danish Government takes note of the Swedish response to the Commis-sion consultation on this matter.

(3) Consumer informationThe Danish Government finds it very important to strengthen consumer infor-mation and would suggest a revision of the existing provisions of the Directivein this regard. Denmark would agree that information on packages should fo-cus on general information on health consequences and harmful substances intobacco products rather than the content of specific substances, such as tar,nicotine and carbon monoxide. In this regard, the Danish Government wouldnot consider the provision of very detailed information on ingredients, for in-stance in the form of inserts in packages, as an efficient instrument in commu-nicating the health risks of tobacco consumption to consumers.The Danish Government sees the use of pictorial warnings as an importantstep forward in the ongoing process of preventing children and young peoplefrom taking up smoking and getting more people to quit.The Danish Government has therefore decided as of February 2011 to intro-duce pictorial warnings on tobacco products sold in Denmark in accordancewith the existing Directive. Pictorial warnings are to be added to tobacco pack-ages by mid 2012 at the latest. Danish Government supports that the use ofpictorial warnings becomes mandatory in all Member States.Given that pictorial warnings would become mandatory for all Member States,the Danish Government sees no need for introducing generic packaging, tak-ing into account the very limited space left on the individual package for brand-ing purposes. In addition, important legal constraints in relation to trademarksand intellectual property rights may need to be taken into account.(4) Reporting and registration of ingredientsThe Danish Government supports the establishment of a common compulsoryreporting format at European level. The tobacco industry should as a result ofa revised Directive in the future be obliged to use one harmonised reportingformat, ideally combined with the electronic submission of data. This could bebased on the voluntary reporting format developed by the Commission in May2007 on how industry could report to Member States (EMTOC).The Danish Government encourages the Commission to consider a reportingsystem, where the tobacco industry would report directly to the Commission inorder to enable the further development of European legislation in this field.It is important to stress however, that Denmark would not consider an im-proved registration mechanism to be a sufficient measure at this stage. In ourview, there is an urgent need to introduce legislation on the use of ingredientsin tobacco products at European level, focussing on substances that enhancethe addictiveness and attractiveness of tobacco products in general – andcigarettes with excessive flavourings in particular.The Danish Government furthermore invites the Commission to consider a to-bacco manufacturer-financed mechanism to provide for independent researchon the toxicity and addictiveness of tobacco ingredients.(5) Regulation of ingredientsThe Danish Government strongly supports European regulation of ingredients

added in tobacco products and favours the establishment of a common list oftobacco ingredients. The future regulation in this field should allow for the con-tinuous up-dating of such a list in order to improve as far as possible consumerprotection as well as to ensure fair conditions for the manufacturers of tobaccoproducts.The aim of a common European list should be to regulate the use of ingredi-ents in tobacco products and to introduce a European ban on cigarettes withexcessive flavourings. The Danish Government encourages the Commissionto take the experiences from other EU countries as well as the United States’“Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act” of June 22 2009 (H.R.1256) into consideration on this point. A similar EU initiative would constitutean important supplement to other measures at European and national levelaimed at reducing smoking prevalence, especially among young people.In this context, the Danish Government would invite the Commission to con-sider how best to achieve these objectives, including the ban of and/or settingof maximum levels for the use of certain ingredients, such as sweeteners andvanilla to be added to tobacco products.Furthermore, the Danish Government is open to consider regulation of waterpipe tobacco, since water pipe tobacco contains excessive flavourings that at-tract new and often young consumers, who are often unaware of the short andlong term harmful effects of tobacco consumption.(6) Access to tobacco productsDue mainly to the lack of cross border aspects the Danish Government is ofthe opinion that the competence to regulate access to tobacco products, suchas measures relating to vending machines and the display of tobacco productsat sales venues, should remain at the level of the Member StatesIn Denmark, the Act on the ban of Tobacco Advertising of 2001 (Act 492/2001)as amended in 2008 (Act 536/2008) introduces a comprehensive ban on to-bacco advertising and sets out regulation of the display and visibility of to-bacco products at the point of sale.As for sales of tobacco products via the internet, the Danish Government doesnot see a need to introduce new regulation, considering that advertising as-pects of internet sales are already covered by the Tobacco Advertising Direc-tive (2003/33) whereas decisions to regulate or ban internet sales of tobaccoproducts as such should be taken at the national level.