Poland to appeal against EU ban on flavoured tobacco

Poland is the second greatest producer of tobacco in the EU. Photograph: Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Photos

Poland is to appeal to the European court of justice above an EU ban on flavoured tobacco products, saying it will be unfairly affected.

The ban is a component of EU-wide anti-smoking legislation, due to be implemented in 2016, which also consists of tougher rules on packaging and advertising and marketing.

The appeal is becoming manufactured in spite of help for the ban from the country’s health minister, Bartosz Arłukowicz. However, financial arguments prevailed, with Janusz Piechocinski, the deputy prime minister, saying menthol-flavoured cigarettes should be considered a conventional merchandise, like the Swedish snus – powdered tobacco positioned under the lip – and be exempt from the directive.

In accordance to the World Lung Basis, Poland is a single of the EU’s biggest buyers of cigarettes, with yearly consumption of 1,586 per capita, twice the degree in Britain.

Practically 1 in 5 cigarettes sold is menthol-flavoured, in contrast with 1 in 10 in Sweden and significantly less than one particular in a hundred in Spain, Austria and Slovakia.

“Menthol cigarettes were introduced to Poland in 1953 and Polish smokers have designed a unique taste for them,” said Magdalena Włodarczyk, representing British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco Worldwide, which together have a 99% share of the Polish market. “There is no purpose why they need to get hit so tough more than this.”

Poland is also the 2nd biggest producer of tobacco in the EU, with Polish tobacco farms using a lot more than 60,000 people. It is the seventh biggest producer of cigarettes in the planet, with five processing internet sites and six factories.

Lech Ostrowski, head of the National Union of Tobacco Farmers, representing seven,000 producers, mentioned burley, the tobacco utilised in the manufacturing of menthol cigarettes simply because of its flavour-absorbing properties, accounted for nearly 40% of Poland’s production.

“We can’t all switch to expanding Virginia, since the market will simply not accommodate it and rates will fall,” he stated.

A report commissioned by Poland’s tobacco market explained the new legislation would ruin 30,000 jobs in production, manufacturing and distribution. It would price the nation up to 9bn zloty (£1.75bn) in misplaced tax income every yr, simply because menthol smokers would swap to cigarettes smuggled in from Belarus and Ukraine.

Poland to appeal against EU ban on flavoured tobacco