Commission proposes EU joins international agreement fighting tobacco smuggling

04/05/2015

The European Commission has today proposed that the EU join an innovative, international agreement set to one day become the key multilateral instrument to fight illicit tobacco trade.

The proposal is that the Council concludes the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products under the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC Protocol) on behalf of the European Union. Today's decision should be adopted by the Council with the consent of the European Parliament for the Protocol to be ratified at EU level. Then, all Member States should either ratify or accede to the Protocol to become parties. Once this process is over, the Protocol will have a total of 29 EU parties. It needs a total of 40 parties to enter into force.

So far, the Protocol, which was agreed in 2012, has 7 parties (Austria, Gabon, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Spain, Turkmenistan and Uruguay). The EU signed the FCTC Protocol on 20 December 2013, which is the first step towards the EU becoming a party to the agreement.

More about the FCTC Protocol is available on the WHO website.

(For more information: Alexander Winterstein - Tel.: +32 229 93265; Andreana Stankova – Tel.: +32 229 57857)

• Proposal for a COUNCIL DECISION on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, in so far as the provisions of the Protocol which fall under Title V of Part III of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union are concerned
• Proposal for a COUNCIL DECISION on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, in so far as the provisions of the Protocol which do not fall under Title V of Part III of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union are concerned