The Smoke Free Partnership, the European Chronic Disease Alliance (ECDA) and public health organisations across Europe are urging the European Commission to deliver an ambitious revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and Tobacco Advertising Directive (TAD).

In an open letter to Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi, the organisations express their support for a recent initiative by EU Member States calling for stronger, future-proof tobacco and nicotine legislation.

As the European Commission prepares its proposal for the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and Tobacco Advertising Directive (TAD), expected in December 2026, tobacco and nicotine industry engagement with EU policymakers is intensifying.

This makes it particularly important to examine the extent of this engagement, its implications for EU tobacco control policymaking, and the safeguards needed to protect public health interests.

European health organisations are backing the German Medical Association’s call for the German government to maintain the ban on the sale of nicotine pouches, warning that legalising these highly addictive products would undermine public health and run counter to the direction of nicotine regulation across Europe.

A new editorial in Tobacco Control marks the 20th anniversary of the Tobacco Control Scale (TCS), a tool that has helped track and compare tobacco control policy implementation across Europe since 2006. Over two decades, the TCS has become a key resource for researchers, advocates and policymakers, highlighting policy gaps and encouraging countries to strengthen tobacco control measures.

This analysis examines the 2025 KPMG report on illicit tobacco trade in Europe, commissioned by Philip Morris International, and assesses its findings in light of independent public evidence. It unpacks the report's methodology and underlying assumptions, compares its conclusions with data from French and European public authorities, and sheds light on the structural drivers of parallel tobacco markets that the industry's narrative tends to overlook.

The Smoke Free Partnership (SFP) acknowledges the outcome of today’s Strasbourg plenary vote, in which the European Parliament failed to adopt an opinion on the revision of the Tobacco Taxation Directive (TTD). While the vote leaves the Parliament without a formal position on the file, it carries significant political weight and keeps the debate on EU tobacco taxation open.