The Smoke Free Partnership presents this position paper to provide evidence-based recommendations for updating the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) in alignment with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The paper emphasizes the need to strengthen the directive to address the rising use of alternative tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, and to counter the tobacco industry's evolving strategies.

With a new European Parliament and a new college of Commissioners, the process of renewal of the European Union Tobacco Tax Directive should resume without further delay. Research in the Economics for Health (formerly Tobacconomics) series evaluated the European Commission’s likely lines of reform, as per an unofficial draft that has circulated since late 2022, identifying areas where reasonable enhancements could boost its public health impact. This brief discusses these enhancements and illustrates their effects vis-à-vis the Directive currently in force and the Commission’s Draft. While the delay in the policy process is unfortunate, there is a window of opportunity to push for the enhancements presented herein, so that the next Directive becomes a pillar of Europe’s Beating Cancer plan.

Busan, December 2^nd, 2024 - The fifth and final Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC5) tasked with drawing up a legally binding international treaty to put an end to plastic pollution ended on 1 December 2024 in Busan, South Korea, and failed to produce an agreement to finish drafting the first international treaty on plastics. There is general agreement to resume the session later.

Smoke Free Partnership (SFP) fully supports the adoption of strengthened Council Recommendation on smoke- and aerosol-free environments during the EPSCO meeting on the 3rd of December 2024. The evidence is irrefutable, public support is unwavering, and the time to act is now.

Brussels, 3 December 2024 – Smoke Free Partnership warmly congratulates the new European Commissioner for Health, Olivér Várhelyi. Additionally, we commend the Council of the European Union and the Hungarian Presidency for their leadership in adopting the evidence-based Recommendation on smoke- and aerosol-free protection. This forward-thinking initiative will help prevent one in four cancers caused by tobacco use and reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases