SMOKE FREE PARTNERSHIP UPDATES

With 2019 almost behind us, we are sharing our last newsletter for the year, in its special, holiday edition, with highlights of the year, as well as key materials and events. 

Brussels, 17 December: the latest, 2019 edition, of the SFP infographic on tobacco industry presence in the EU policy-making environment is out.

Image: Peggy and Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

The purpose of this section, hosted in the Facts area of the SFP website, is to provide information, resources and evidence on illicit tobacco trade to partners and policy-makers, and to address tobacco industry narratives on illicit trade. 

Brussels, 13 December 2019: Read the latest policy updates of the Smoke Free Partnership and the Coalition partners.

SFP contributed to the FIAN Beet the System magazine, focusing on providing an overview on the role of FCTC Art. 5.3.

15 November 2019, Brussels: Experts and advocates from 23 countries discussed the importance of tobacco taxation for a healthier Europe at Smoke Free Partnership (SFP) annual policy conference

Discover SFP's work throughout 2018 in our latest Annual Report.

The Smoke Free Partnership will hold its annual policy conference on 15 November 2019 in Brussels, Belgium. The focus of this year's session will be on the role of tobacco taxation for a healthier Europe.

Brussels, 22 August: SFP, together with a number of its Coalition partners expressed concern regarding the aggressive lobbying of the tobacco industry against plain packaging in the Czech Republic.

SFP, together with other CSOs, co-signed an ECL letter to Politico. The letter presents a complaint by the public health community following tobacco industry's sponsorship of Politico's PRO Morning Health Care newsletter. The full later can be found here.

Brussels, 24 July 2019:  Read the latest policy updates of the Smoke Free Partnership and the Coalition partners here.

Plain packaging for cigarettes and rolling tobacco will be a reality in Belgium as of 1 January 2020. The Belgian Alliance for a Smoke Free Society congratulated the Minister of Health De Block and her administration as this measure is crucial for allowing children to grow up smoke free and to protect them from tobacco addiction.

Brussels, 22 July: SFP expresses its support for the letter sent on behalf of Action on Smoking & Health (ASH US), Framework Convention Alliance, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and STOP (Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products) to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Brussels, 15 July 2019: The Smoke Free Partnership (SFP) stands firmly behind SEATCA in its fight to defend its Smoke-Free Index against the actions of the Phillip-Morris International-funded Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW). The actions of FSFW serve to further the commercial interests of the tobacco industry and to endanger the reliable, trustworthy resources developed in support of the WHO FCTC by SEATCA.

Brussels, 11 June 2019 – More efforts are needed at European and national level to reinforce tobacco control policies and help reduce its disease and death toll, participants heard at an event marking WHO’s World No Tobacco Day in Brussels today. In 2019, the World No Tobacco Day focuses on tobacco and lung diseases to raise awareness of the impact of tobacco use on lung health. Tobacco smoking is responsible for two-thirds of lung cancer deaths globally, but also brings with itself a plethora of other issues such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tuberculosis or reduced lung function.

Brussels, 22 May: SFP supported a letter co-signed by over 125 organisations calling on social media companies to end tobacco advertising, especially via paid influencers.

The European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP), the European Respiratory Society (ERS) and the Smoke Free Partnership (SFP) invite you to the celebration of World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) 2019, a high level event and award ceremony, jointly organized with the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe on 11 June 2019 from 15:00-18:00. The session is supported by the European Cancer Leagues (ECL), the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC) and the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA).

Brussels, 20 May 2019 – The Smoke Free Partnership welcomes the entry into force of the EU system for the tracking and tracing of tobacco products, a revolutionary tool to curb illicit tobacco trade at the regional level. The EU tracking and tracing system, introduced in the EU tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU (1) and developed through secondary legislation (2) aims to control the supply chain of products legally manufactured or imported on the EU’s  internal market.

SFP Director Anca Toma Friedlaender wrote a blog for ASH Finland, examining in further detail what needs to be done to continuously boost tobacco control in Europe. You can read the full blog here.

Brussels, 25 March 2019 - Read the latest policy updates of the Smoke Free Partnership and the Coalition partners here.

22 mars 2019 – Tous les grands partis politiques soutiennent le principe de l’initiative Générations Sans Tabac, qui veut que tout enfant né à partir de 2019 puisse grandir sans tabac et ne se mette pas à fumer. Il existe en outre un soutien massif de la part des milieux politiques, qui désirent prendre les mesures nécessaires afin que la première génération sans tabac devienne une réalité d’ici 2037. Telles sont les conclusions du débat politique organisé ce matin à Bruxelles par l’Alliance pour une Société sans Tabac. L’Alliance souhaite que le principe défendu par l’initiative Générations Sans Tabac soit intégré aux accords de gouvernement fédéral et régionaux et que les prochains gouvernements élaborent un plan antitabac ambitieux et cohérent.

21 March 2019: The sesssion, titled “Responsible Lobbying: Aligning Profit for Public Good” should not include a tobacco industry representative: one cannot speak of integrity and responsibility when it comes to tobacco industry interference.

8th March 2019: The International Network of Women against Tobacco (INWAT) calls out the Phillip Morris International (PMI) “Week of Women,” – a so called celebration of International Women’s Day a hoax.

SFP's latest Mythbuster is offering argumentation, key facts and figures that disprove six misconceptions on tobacco taxation.