Probe to examine tobacco lobbying in EU
The European Ombudsman’s office has opened in inquiry into how the European Commission’s trade department (DG Trade) has handled its dealings with tobacco lobbyists.
The move follows a complaint from an organisation campaigning against tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.
It has argued that DG Trade engaged in “regular, non-necessary, and non-transparent interactions” with the tobacco industry that risked “undermining tobacco-control efforts and public-health policies in non-EU countries”.
The complainant believes that such interactions would be in breach of the EU’s obligations under the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
Documents to be inspected
As a signatory to the FCTC, the EU is obliged to limit its interactions with the tobacco industry and to make those interactions transparent.
Ombudswoman Teresa Anjinho has now asked to inspect various European Commission documents on its contacts with the tobacco industry.
In 2023, the Ombudsman’s office found maladministration in the commission’s failure to ensure transparency across all its departments on meetings with tobacco lobbyists, as well as a failure to make sure that all departments systematically assessed whether specific meetings with tobacco-industry representatives were needed in the first place.
The commission subsequently carried out a risk assessment of its departments’ exposure to tobacco-industry lobbying and adopted a series of measures to better deal with such lobbying.