European Commissioner for Health Vytenis Andriukaitis has justified the classification of e-cigarettes as tobacco-related products under the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) on the basis of their nicotine content.
His statement came in response to a written question from Irish MEP Luke Ming Flanagan about why vaping products were considered as tobacco products even though they contain no tobacco. Andriukaitis said the TPD “adopts a careful approach to their regulation”.
Meanwhile, in France, MP Guillaume Vuilletet of President Emmanuel Macron’s party En Marche has submitted a written question to health minister Agnès Buzyn about the bans on smoking and vaping in public places.
Vuilletet believes the decree published in 2017 still allows vaping in the workplace if company rules do not ban it and asked the minister if it wouldn’t make more sense in a “spirit of equalisation [with tobacco] and prevention” to include a full ban on vaping in public spaces.
In Germany, federal drugs commissioner Marlene Mortler told German press she would continue to pursue a total ban on outdoor advertising of tobacco and e-cigarettes.
These – along with notification of regulatory developments in 24 European countries and at EU level – were among 81 stories published last month by ECigIntelligence to subscribers through our daily Live Alerts.
All the stories from June’s European regulatory Live Alerts can now be found here, on one page, ordered alphabetically by country.