In a letter published on Monday 9 December, the Finance Ministries of the Netherlands and fifteen other EU Member States - Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain - call on the European Commission to modernise tobacco taxation legislation.
They are also calling for this proposed revision to be “a key priority of its next term of office”, and for it to be presented “by spring 2025 at the latest”. The ministries explain that since the last update of the Tobacco Taxation Directive in 2011, the European tobacco market has undergone significant changes. “New products have emerged which are in competition with, and are comparable to, traditional tobacco products, particularly in terms of use and health risks”, they said.
Under the current directive, most of these products cannot be taxed in the same way as traditional tobacco products. Its provisions are “insufficient or too narrow to meet the challenges faced by the administrations of Member States given the ever-evolving offerings of the tobacco industry”, they added.
Given the gaps in Community legislation, the Member States have taken measures at national level. “This has led to fragmentation, an uneven playing field and, ultimately, to the distortion of our internal market”, the ministries noted.
As well as harmonising excise taxation, the Tobacco Taxation Directive 2011/64/EU makes it possible to tackle the harmful effects of tobacco products on health (see EUROPE 13202/9). The Member States had already called for this review in 2020 and 2017 (see EUROPE 12492/24).
Read the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/epx (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)