Peter Liese: This Is a Pyrrhic Victory for the Enemies of E-cigarettes / Majority Accepts the Text, but Key Member States Declare They Will Not Comply

“I regret the voting outcome in the Health Council regarding the smoke-free environment topic, but I also believe it is a Pyrrhic victory for the opponents of e-cigarettes,” explained the health policy spokesperson of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP-Christian Democrats), Dr. Peter Liese.
“Although a majority was reached for the essentially unchanged Commission proposal, many Member States have recorded that they consider the proposal immature and do not intend to implement it, which is also not legally required. In future debates, it is clear that key Member States, and particularly the majority in the European Parliament, do not consider the equal treatment of tobacco and e-cigarettes appropriate. In Parliament, we adopted an amendment from my group, which clearly that children and adolescents must be protected from e-cigarettes because they lead to nicotine addiction. However, the majority of the European Parliament views this as an aid for heavy smokers to quitting smoking. People thereby reduce their harm by over 95%. This will be an important guideline in all future debates in the EU,” said the physician and Member of the European Parliament.