Brussels, 03/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission will present its draft tobacco directive by the end of the year or in January at the latest. During a daily press briefing at the Commission on 3 December, European Commission spokesperson Pia Ahrenkilde promised that it would also bring a number of answers to questions raised by MEPs regarding management of this dossier. Frédéric Vincent, the spokesman for the recently appointed Commissioner for health, Tonio Borg, confirmed that inter-services consultation had begun on 29 November. Anxious about the smooth handover of the dossier since the resignation of John Dalli, MEPs addressed 154 written questions to the Commission. One of them involved the alleged interventions made by Commission secretary general, Catherine Day, which had led to a delay in the inter-services consultation. MEPs were baffled by the letter dated 25 July in which Day had criticised the ban on chewing tobacco “snus” (still legal in Sweden). The Commission spokesperson provided assurances that there was nothing strange about it. This involved internal discussions that preceded all inter-service consultations. The spokesperson went on to say that the secretary general is ensuring the effective preparation of the proposals submitted to the Commission. Frédéric Vincent refused to make any comment on maintaining the ban on chewing tobacco and the graphic advertisements on cigarette packets in the proposal. He indicated that he was unable to comment on the contents of what was said because the inter-services consultation was still going on. (IL/transl.fl)