The latest compromise text on the EU’s Tobacco Taxation Directive (TTD), tabled by the Cypriot Council Presidency, confirms a troubling shift away from the Directive’s original public-health ambition, replacing evidence-based reform with a lowest-common-denominator approach aimed at securing unanimity among Member States.

The direction of travel is perhaps best illustrated by the reaction of the tobacco and nicotine industry itself. As reported by Euractiv, industry representatives have welcomed the Cypriot proposal as a “return to reality”, a clear signal that the revised text aligns more closely with commercial interests rather than with the EU’s health objectives.

“When the tobacco industry applauds a tax reform, it should raise immediate red flags for policymakers,” said Erin Roman, Director of the Smoke Free Partnership. “By ignoring the power of pricing, this compromise text hands the industry a free pass to recruit a new generation of young Europeans into lifetime nicotine addiction.”

Read the full press release below: