Tobacco: even Montecitorio rejects Borg’s directive

The EU Policy Committee contests the non-conformity of the subsidiarity principle

Even the Italian Chamber of Deputies rejects the directive on tobacco regulation from the European Commissioner for Health, Tonio Borg. After the Italian EU Senate Committee on Health and Policies said no, the EU Policy Committee at Montecitorio (Italian Chamber) also dismisses the directive proposal, confirming the judgment already given on the other side of Parliament: the Borg directive is meritorious but not its method. Its value will be examined by the Social Affairs Committee while the EU Chamber Policy Committee is responsible for expressing itself only on conformity of the proposal directive to the subsidiarity principle. The outcome of the exam is a rejection of the Borg directive. The Italian Parliamentary organism – which voted for the text prepared by Sandro Gozi (Pd) – maintains that “from a strictly legal perspective, the directive proposal does not completely conform to the subsidiarity principle.” Even the directive proposal seems “to be critically sketchy” in respect to Article 114 of the Lisbon Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (Tfue) relative to the rapprochement of the national norms which regard the institution and functioning of the internal market.

The bill reminds us that that EU Treaties allow adopting measures which have an impact on human health as long as the legislative act is directed primarily and effectively at eliminating obstacles to free circulation of merchandise or the elimination of falsifications susceptible to competition. The case in question, however, the directive proposal “seems directed first of all at safeguarding health and therefore does not seem to completely satisfy the conditions set by Court for the appeal to Article 114.”

The directive proposal to be signed by Borg envisions, among other things, discretion to the states regarding emission of nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide. Member countries would be free to execute further tests to measure ingredients, determine qualifications to prohibit products containing specific additives, and introduce an authorization system for new products. So for the Montecitorio Committee, “it creates a premise for significant differences between member states and consequently limitations on free market circulation for products.

We are dealing with a new rejection for the directive proposal on Tobacco regulation. Beyond the fact that both the Senate and Chamber of Italian Parliament rejected the proposal, the bill was also rejected in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Renato Giannetti