{"id":471113,"date":"2026-11-12T18:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T17:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/11\/12\/leurocamera-approva-il-piano-contro-il-cancro-ma-la-riforma-europea-del-tabacco-si-ferma-al-vaglio-tecnico\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T19:05:55","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T18:05:55","slug":"the-european-parliament-approves-the-cancer-plan-but-the-european-tobacco-reform-has-stalled-at-the-technical-review-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/11\/12\/the-european-parliament-approves-the-cancer-plan-but-the-european-tobacco-reform-has-stalled-at-the-technical-review-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"The European Parliament approves the Cancer Plan, but the European tobacco reform has stalled at the technical review stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 While the European Parliament reaffirms the EU\u2019s stance on the fight against cancer<\/a>, the European Commission has suffered a setback on its proposed reform of tobacco regulations. On Thursday 12 November, the European Parliament, sitting in plenary session in Brussels, has approved the report on the implementation of the European Plan against Cancer (BECA)<\/a>, with 447 votes in favour, 66 against, and 91 abstentions<\/strong>. But just as MEPs were voting on prevention policies, the EU Commission suffered a setback: the Regulatory Scrutiny Board<\/a> (RSB), the independent body that assesses the quality of impact assessments for EU initiatives, issued a negative opinion on the proposed revision of the Tobacco Products Directive<\/a><\/strong>. This rejection could delay the presentation of the new legislation until 2027, although it was originally expected by the end of this year. <\/p>\n

The news concerns the opinion adopted on 9 November on the impact assessment for the future Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and the Tobacco Advertising Directive (TAD). The negative opinion obliges the European Commission to review and resubmit the document to the Board<\/strong>. The Commission has stated that it is working to present the proposal \u201cas soon as possible,\u201d without, however, setting out a new timetable. <\/p>\n

According to various sources familiar with the dossier, the Board\u2019s assessment is said to question the overall soundness of the analysis, which is deemed not sufficiently “robust.”<\/strong> Among the critical issues raised are the proportionality of the measures, the absence of a specific impact assessment on the taxation of the products, and the lack of an adequate analysis of the socio-economic consequences. The soundness of the evidence used to support the so-called “gateway effect” is also reportedly being questioned; this theory suggests that the use of e-cigarettes and other alternative products encourages a subsequent switch to traditional cigarettes. Questions also remain regarding the legal basis for introducing bans at the European level in the name of public health protection, an area in which competences remain largely national. <\/p>\n

This setback comes at a time when the process is already proving complicated: the assessment of the directive currently in force (TPD2) is also reported to have received a negative opinion from the Regulatory Scrutiny Board. In this case, there are two separate assessments: the first concerning the analysis of existing legislation, the second concerning the impact assessment of the future reform<\/strong> promoted by the Commissioner for Health, Oliv\u00e9r V\u00e1rhelyi. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the parliamentary front, the vote on the BECA confirmed the report\u2019s initial approach. MEPs rejected all the amendments tabled,<\/strong> without altering the sections on food, alcohol, and tobacco. The text thus retains the calls for an urgent update to European tobacco legislation, extending the rules to e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches, as well as restrictions on flavourings and more detailed product information. The report also calls for measures to tackle harmful alcohol consumption and for harmonised nutritional labelling across the EU. <\/p>\n

The rapporteur for the report, Vlad Voiculescu (Renew), expressed his satisfaction and highlighted the responsibility of the European institutions in prevention: \u201cWith the European Cancer Plan, the EU has made a promise to its citizens. Today we are holding them to account for that promise<\/strong>. We can spend billions treating cancers that could have been prevented, or we can find the political courage to prevent them. Cancer waits for no one.\u201d <\/p>\n

The vote should be viewed in the light of the nature of the document: it is an own-initiative report (INI), a non-legislative and non-binding text<\/strong>, which sets out the Parliament\u2019s political stance but does not determine the future decisions of the European Commission. This point was emphasised by Tomas Zdechovsk\u00fd, a Member of the European Parliament for the European People\u2019s Party, who stated that the vote \u201cshould not be interpreted as a preview of Parliament\u2019s position on future legislative initiatives.\u201d \u201cThe European Commission should not draw any such conclusions from the vote,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Zdechovsk\u00fd also highlighted the divisions that have emerged within the EPP<\/a>, with several members and delegations reportedly calling for a more balanced approach, in line with that adopted in the report on cardiovascular disease (CVD). \u201cThe current text of the BECA reflects too many left-wing priorities and too little of the balance that the EPP should uphold<\/strong>,\u201d he said. Looking ahead to future health initiatives, he reiterated that the EPP must support evidence-based prevention policies capable of distinguishing between different levels of risk and also taking into account the consequences for employment and competitiveness.<\/p>\n

MEP Alessandra Moretti (PD-S&D), on the other hand, expressed her satisfaction: “This report represents a step forward in keeping prevention, social justice, and patients\u2019 needs at the heart of European cancer policies, even though we will continue to fight for more ambitious targets<\/strong>. Prevention saves lives: we will continue to call for decisive action on tobacco, alcohol, environmental risk factors, and unhealthy diets. Public health must come first,\u201d she stated, reiterating that \u201cthe chances of surviving cancer should not depend on income or where one lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB), the independent body responsible for assessing the quality of impact assessments for EU initiatives, has issued a negative opinion on the proposed revision of the Tobacco Products Directive. This rejection could delay the presentation of the new legislation until 2027, although it was originally expected by the end of this year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7896,"featured_media":471096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","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"},"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],"tags":[32683,30453,36649,26339,25755,35744,36650,36651],"class_list":["post-471113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-salute-en","tag-alessandra-moretti","tag-beca-en","tag-direttiva-sui-prodotti-del-tabacco","tag-eurocamera-en","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-piano-europeo-contro-il-cancro","tag-vlad-voiculescu","tag-zdechovsky"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471113","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=471113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":471114,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471113\/revisions\/471114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}