With Commissioner Varhelyi promising to publish an updated Tobacco Products Directive before year end, critical stakeholders impacted by these very rules have been shut out from sharing their expertise, data and real-world experience.
Tobacco Europe regrets DG SANTE’s decision not to conduct a targeted technical consultation with manufacturers and importers as part of the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and Tobacco Advertising Directive (TAD).
"It’s both regrettable and surprising to receive a letter from DG SANTE rebuffing the opportunity to have a targeted and transparent consultation with us and properly examining detailed technical, operational and market evidence” says Nathalie Darge, Tobacco Europe Secretary General "The evidence gaps acknowledged by the Commission make the decision against targeted consultation difficult to understand".
In September, Tobacco Europe sent a formal letter to the Director General of DG Sante Sandra Gallina. The letter asked the Commission to confirm a timeline for the launch of a targeted stakeholders' consultation on the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and the Tobacco Advertising Directive (TAD).
In its recent response to Tobacco Europe, DG SANTE states that “the volume and quality of data already obtained are proportionate and adequate to answer the analytical questions set out in the impact assessment” and confirms that no targeted consultation with manufacturers and importers would be conducted.
The Commission’s Factual Summary Report nevertheless acknowledges that the number of responses is “too small to support a quantitative estimate of adjustment costs” for several measures under consideration. These include plain packaging where 85.8% of all respondents do not agree it would strengthen the functioning of the internal market.[1]Tobacco Europe and its members participated fully in both the Call for Evidence and the Public Consultation.
[1] Factual summary report of the public consultation on the revision of EU rules on tobacco products and tobacco advertising, Ares(2026)9595105, 12 October 2026, p. 6.
