{"id":452884,"date":"2026-05-11T13:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/05\/11\/varhelyi-messo-allangolo-dai-deputati-sul-bilancio-europeo-e-sui-prodotti-del-tabacco\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:01:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T12:01:40","slug":"varhelyi-cornered-by-meps-on-eu-budget-and-tobacco-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/11\/varhelyi-cornered-by-meps-on-eu-budget-and-tobacco-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"V\u00e1rhelyi cornered by MEPs on EU budget and tobacco rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The strategic dialogue with MEPs did not leave the European Commissioner for Health, Oliv\u00e9r V\u00e1rhelyi<\/strong>, in a stronger position \u2014 quite the opposite. Among the concerns raised in the chamber, the most prominent were the role of Health in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028\u20132034 and the regulation of tobacco products (TPD)<\/strong>. In both cases, the commissioner had to face a chamber that was sceptical of his performance, even though he described himself as \u201cmore seasoned\u201d on budget matters \u2014 this being his second term in the European Commission \u2014 and \u201cfully focused on citizens\u2019 well\u2011being\u201d when it comes to the tobacco dossier. All this within a completely new political landscape, in which V\u00e1rhelyi\u2019s own future is also being called into question: P\u00e9ter Magyar’s election victory in Hungary could, in fact, lead to a call for the Commissioner\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n

For the next European budget<\/a>, the European Commission has proposed allocating \u20ac121.1 billion to health and social cohesion<\/strong>. However, out of a total of \u20ac2 trillion, many MEPs consider the fund earmarked for healthcare to be \u201ctoo low.\u201d Bringing this to the floor was the MEP from the European Left, Catarina Martins<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, who said: \u201cWe are faced with an EU Commission that does not care about health. Does it believe that healthcare is not important for the Union?\u201d In response, V\u00e1rhelyi admits: \u201cDo I agree with the European Commission\u2019s proposal on the MFF? Of course I do, it is a collective decision,\u201d but he assures that \u201cwe will continue with all health programmes,\u201d starting with EU4Health<\/span><\/span><\/a>, the European financial plan with an initial budget of \u20ac5.3 billion adopted to respond to the COVID-19<\/span><\/span> pandemic. \u201cThe EU budget is a huge and complex beast; I don\u2019t decide alone,\u201d the Commissioner reiterated. \u201cEach of us contributes to the proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n

V\u00e1rhelyi then reiterated his position on alternative products<\/a> compared to traditional cigarettes: \u201cThey must be considered to pose the same level of risk as normal tobacco. It is clear that we want identical taxation.\u201d A stance that raised concerns among several MEPs, including the Swedish EPP MEP Jessica Polfj\u00e4rd<\/span><\/span><\/strong>, who pointed out that \u201csnus is a culturally important part of Sweden<\/strong> and a key tool in our effective fight against smoking, as its harmful effects are significantly lower.\u201d According to Polfj\u00e4rd, \u201ccommon European standards would be positive, but they must be based on scientific data and the relevant harmful effects, without interfering with the successful Swedish model for reducing smoking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue continues to deeply divide even industry experts. According to Smoke Free Partnership<\/a><\/strong>, \u201cno product is harmless<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cthe growing popularity of e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and heated tobacco products among young people demonstrates the clear knock-on effect these products can have.\u201d Hence the call for \u201cequal taxation and regulation\u201d, deemed essential \u201cto prevent the tobacco industry from simply shifting consumers \u2014 especially young people \u2014 from one form of addiction to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heino St\u00f6ver<\/strong><\/a>, a lecturer in Applied Sciences at the University of Frankfurt, takes a completely different view, arguing that \u201cthere has been a complete misunderstanding on the part of the Commission<\/strong>\u201d regarding alternative products. \u201cThe new products contain only nicotine and flavourings,\u201d he maintains. \u201cWhen it comes to risk comparison, I would strongly disagree with the European Commission\u2019s position: products such as e-cigarettes, vapes, white snus, and other alternative nicotine delivery systems are far less harmful than any traditional cigarette.\u201d For this reason, the professor concludes, \u201cwe need differentiation\u201d in the taxation of tobacco products.<\/p>\n

Commissioner V\u00e1rhelyi has therefore had to weather more than one blow to his work. This criticism comes at a particularly delicate time, with Magyar’s electoral victory<\/a> in Hungary raising questions about the political future of the European Commissioner nominated by Budapest. The Hungarian leader, in fact, made the replacement of senior officials<\/a> linked to Fidesz,<\/span><\/span> one of the cornerstones of his campaign, promising to free the country from all \u201cpuppets\u201d who helped Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/span><\/span> consolidate control over Hungary\u2019s key institutions. It now remains to be seen whether, in Magyar\u2019s eyes, V\u00e1rhelyi also falls into this category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orb\u00e1n\u2019s man in the Commission also faces an uncertain future: P\u00e9ter Magyar\u2019s election victory in Hungary could well lead to calls for the Commissioner to resign<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7896,"featured_media":452868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30961,25681],"tags":[26025,29011,26516],"class_list":["post-452884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-salute-en","category-politics","tag-tabacco-en","tag-varhelyi-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":452885,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452884\/revisions\/452885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}