Simon Clark - Taking Liberties

Breaking news from Brussels courtesy DeHavilland.

The European Parliament today decided to postpone its orientation vote on the Tobacco Products Directive, originally scheduled to take place at the Plenary Session in Strasbourg on 10 September.

The decision, supported by the EPP, ALDE and ECR Groups – which together command a majority in the Parliament – has infuriated Rapporteur Linda McAvan (S&D, UK). She has claimed that the postponement was orchestrated at the behest of tobacco companies seeking more time to lobby MEPs.

Thank EU!

Update on Wednesday, September 4, 2013 at 16:50 by

Simon Clark

Whoops! Let's hope DeHavilland haven't tweeted too soon.

From another source, a slightly different interpretation of events:

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) will support the centre right EPP request to postpone the TPD plenary vote from next week to October. However the final decision will be made tomorrow (Thursday) at a meeting of the political group leaders. The Socialist Group (along with the Commission) is fiercely opposing postponement. This means it could be overturned ...

You couldn't make it up.

Update: AIM Healthcare tweets:

RT@EU_COPD: #tobacco products directive vote due to take place next Tuesday in the European Parliament is postponed till October #TPD