From Brussels with love
Friday, January 11, 2013 at 11:23 On Wednesday, in a corner of the Place du Luxembourg opposite the European Parliament in Brussels, I found a rather nice cafe.
The coffee was great, the pastries and other food were equally tempting, and I could have sat there, morning and afternoon, with my iPhone and laptop and done a day's work with no-one being any the wiser.
Instead, I had a meeting to attend.
I've been to Brussels many times but this was my first visit to the European Parliament building and I couldn't help notice that above the Place du Luxembourg entrance was the most enormous pink neon heart. I don't know if this was a leftover Christmas decoration or a subliminal message but it was impossible to miss.
As for the meeting I can't say much because it was held under Chatham House rules so I can't quote anyone (without their permission) nor, in all fairness, can I name anyone who was there.
Anyway, the subject was tobacco and there were two issues, Dalli-gate and harm reduction. Other guests included MEPs, journalists, lobbyists, industry representatives (pharma and tobacco) and tobacco control campaigners.
The presence of the latter would have surprised me had I not been tipped off in advance. In Brussels anti-smoking activists generally refuse to breathe the same air as anyone associated with the tobacco industry but on this occasion curiosity must have got the better of them.
Either that or they were hoping for some unguarded comment. Instead it was a tobacco control campaigner who let slip the most revealing and ridiculous remark. (Cue snorts of derision from this quarter at least.)
In truth I learned very little about Dalli-gate I didn't already know from reading the news reports but it was good to hear from someone in the thick of it. (Sadly it wasn't the comedy Maltese restaurateur – or "entrepreneur" – who is at the centre of the allegations.)
Likewise the arguments in favour of legalising snus are well known in tobacco circles. Nevertheless it was interesting to hear from MEPs (Swedish, naturally) who use snus and find it incomprehensible that bureaucrats and anti-smoking campaigners won't even discuss the EU-wide legalisation of a product that is said to be 90 per cent less harmful than cigarettes.
Seen in those terms one has to conclude that anti-tobacco campaigners are either stupid or are so consumed by their ideological hatred of the tobacco industry that they have collectively lost their marbles. (For the record I don't believe they are stupid.)
Unfortunately the bureaucrats of Brussels continue to side with them because prohibition is so much easier than the messier and more liberal alternative – freedom of choice.
PS. A lot has been written about Dalli-gate already (see, for example, Europe’s top health official quits, and the bloc has a mystery on its hands and How Barroso and OLAF messed up Dalli's exit).
More light may be shed on the matter if and when John Dalli's defamation case against Swedish Match comes to court.
My fear, with all this talk of corruption and defamation, is that the prohibitive measures that feature in the EC's draft Tobacco Products Directive will be overlooked and forgotten.
Our job is to make sure that does not happen. See also EU draft Tobacco Products Directive: who to write to and what to say (a short guide). (H/T Dick Puddlecote)
Reader Comments (2)
What is there to say except that I hope you went into the meeting armed with a cross and garlic.
Unfortunately the bureaucrats of Brussels continue to side with them because prohibition is so much easier than the messier and more liberal alternative – freedom of choice.
Come on, Simon - there is more to the story than that. They "side with them" because the other side, i.e. the tobacco industry have shown themselves as people who do not engange in political corruption. After all Swedish Match blew the whistle on Dalli & his hometown friend, Silvio Zammit:
http://www.tinyurl.dk/36678
At the same time the pharmaceutical industry pours grants into every EU-ngo and health expert in order to have snus and E-cigarettes banned. This is verifiable information. The big pharma industry has a lot of "loose money" available for any expert or bureaucrat who will recommend the banning of snus & E-cigs.
No wonder - they want to uphold their monopoly! A liberation of snus and E-cigarettes would crush the Nicorette & Champix sales in the EU. This has nothing to do with health or politics - it's all about the money.