A4-0341/97

Resolution on the Commission communication to the Council and the European Parliament on the present and proposed Community role in combating tobacco consumption (COM(96)0609 - C4-0014/97)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission communication, COM(96)0609 - C4-0014/97,

- having regard to Article 3(o) of the EC Treaty,

- having regard to Article 129 of the EC Treaty,

- having regard to Article 100a of the EC Treaty,

- having regard to the report from the Commission to the Council on the common organization of the market in raw tobacco, COM(96)0554 - C4-0057/97,

- having regard to the amended Commission proposal for a Council Directive on advertising for tobacco products, COM(92)0196 - SYN0194 ((OJ C 129, 21.5.1992, p. 5.)),

- having regard to the Europe Against Cancer programme,

- having regard to the Council resolution on banning smoking in places open to the public ((OJ C 189, 26.7.1989, p. 1.)),

- having regard to the Council resolution on the reduction of smoking in the European Community ((OJ C 374, 11.12.1994, p. 4.)),

- having regard to Council Directive 90/239/EEC on the approximation of the laws concerning the maximum tar yield of cigarettes ((OJ L 137, 30.5.1990, p. 36.)),

- having regard to the report from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the response to the resolution of the Council on banning smoking in places open to the public (COM(96)0573),

- having regard to Council Directives 89/622/EEC ((OJ L 359, 8.12.1989, p. 1.)) and 92/41/EEC ((OJ L 158, 11.6.1992, p. 30.)) on the approximation of the laws relating to the labelling of tobacco products,

- having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the Commission communication (CES 772/97),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection and the opinion of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media (A4-0341/97),

A. whereas half a million people die each year of the effects of smoking, making smoking the biggest avoidable cause of death in the Union;

B. whereas the purpose of the Commission's communication is to contribute to a review of existing and possible future anti-smoking strategies - both at Community and Member State level - aimed at reducing the public health impact of smoking on European citizens,

C. whereas the Commission will consider proposing further specific measures and actions in the light of the response to the Communication,

D. whereas scientific studies in a number of European countries, some of them financed by the Union, confirm that smoking during pregnancy and in the presence of infants significantly increases the risk of cot death (SIDS);

E. whereas the Community and the Member States have complementary roles to play in combating the use of tobacco in the Union and whereas their respective measures in this field must therefore be coordinated,

F. whereas the Community can act as a catalyst for anti-smoking measures taken at Member State level,

1. Notes to its dismay that the decline in the number of smokers in the Union is slowing down, with the numbers of women smokers clearly rising and young people beginning to smoke at an increasingly early age;

2. Reaffirms its resolute advocacy of an EU Directive governing the direct or indirect advertising of tobacco products;

3. Urges the Commission to assess to what extent the use of tobacco is promoted via new communications tools, such as the Internet and product placement;

4. Is aware of the momentum that the proposed US tobacco settlement can bring to combating tobacco consumption;

5. Notes the consistent scientific evidence on dangers related to passive smoking;

6. States that everyone has the right to breathe clean air and that this right must always prevail over the right to smoke;

7. Points out that tobacco consumption in public and at the workplace imposes enormous costs on society in terms of deteriorating public and private facilities, higher expenditure on maintaining cleanliness at the workplace, in our cities and on our beaches, and as a cause of forest fires;

8. Supports measures aimed at banning smoking in the working environment in order to improve workers' health and safety;

9. Notes that if children and adolescents can be successfully prevented from taking up smoking and becoming addicted, they are unlikely to acquire the habit later in life;

10. Supports concrete measures aimed at reducing children's and adolescents' exposure and access to tobacco products, such as:

- a ban on tobacco vending machines and self-service displays, making it possible only to sell tobacco products over the counter;

- a ban on cigarette package sizes primarily aimed at young consumers;

- the introduction of a Community-wide age limit of 18 years for the purchase of tobacco products;

- increases in the price of tobacco in real terms;

11. Believes that the Commission should propose the harmonization of tobacco tax with a view to establishing a minimum level, the aim being to reduce consumption;

12. Recommends careful monitoring of developments in the display of nicotine levels on packets throughout the Community;

13. Regrets that hand-rolling tobacco is not subject to any standards for maximum permitted tar content; calls urgently on the Commission to make hand-rolling tobacco subject to the same standards for tar content as cigarettes;

14. Supports the review of existing test methods for determining tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide yields;

15. Recommends that any substance added to tobacco should be indicated on the label and should be proven not to have any harmful effects on health in burnt or unburnt form;

16. Recommends that, in accordance with the comprehensive existing legislation in the European Union and the Member States, any substances added to tobacco should be non-toxic and have been demonstrated to be free of effects damaging to health;

17. Considers that the relationship between excise duties levied on cigarettes and those on hand-rolling tobacco must be reviewed, and calls on the Commission to draw up as speedily as possible a proposal under which excise duty on hand- rolling tobacco would progressively be increased to the level of that on cigarettes;

18. Urges the Commission to set up an Inter-Institutional Committee (Council, Commission and Parliament) to investigate, with the assistance of scientific committees, whether tobacco companies are incorporating additives into tobacco in order to intensify addiction to nicotine;

19. Recognizes that price can greatly influence tobacco consumption, and can therefore serve as an important instrument of anti-tobacco policy; urges the Commission consequently to submit proposals for coordinated upward adjustments to excise duty on cigarettes;

20. Requests the Commission to evaluate the effectiveness of the health warning on packages before proposing possible modifications of the above-mentioned Directives 89/622/EEC and 92/41/EEC;

21. Proposes including a toll-free telephone number on the label of tobacco products, where callers can be given objective information on tobacco use and information on smoking cessation programmes;

22. Calls for more complete information on the connection between cot death (SIDS) and smoking;

23. Stresses the need for information and awareness campaigns to change the behaviour of tobacco smokers in public, with a view to ensuring social courtesy and respect for non-smokers;

24. Recommends the implementation of effective smoking cessation programmes which provide for smoking cessation counselling and advice by health professionals, and make available nicotine replacement therapy;

25. Asks for a substantial increase in the funding devoted to anti-tobacco projects within the framework of the 'Europe against cancer' programme;

26. Proposes the establishment of a yearly European Prize for the best anti- tobacco project in the Union;

27. Supports the proposal that the Union should devote part of its development aid to programmes aimed at combating tobacco use in developing countries and that the Union should refuse development aid to tobacco-related projects;

28. Condemns the Union's export of tobacco of poor quality - not meeting European standards - to third countries, thereby contributing to health problems in countries which already have a low level of public health;

29. Considers that there can be no conflict between the objectives of health protection and the other policies, since the EU Treaty states that the health dimension must form part of all policies, including the common agricultural policy;

30. Supports international efforts to secure the adoption of a convention (under United Nations auspices) on combating tobacco use;

31. Considers that the Commission must urgently launch a legislative initiative seeking to have nicotine declared an addiction-inducing substance throughout the Union, in terms similar to those secured by the US Food and Drug Administration;

32. Recommends that smoking cessation programmes be made available to all at low cost (or no cost), and that all persons wishing to stop smoking be enabled to benefit from effective help;

33. Calls for the current review on the harmonisation of excise duties (1995/96) to include specific proposals to ensure:

- an effective, upward convergence of excises on tobacco products,

- equality of excise duties on both manufactured and hand-rolling (RYO) tobacco;

34. Recommends the distribution of nicotine-substitute products;

35. Calls for specific action to be taken, in close cooperation with the Member States, in the form for example of treatment programmes in the armed forces or government administrative departments;

36. Calls on the Commission to coordinate and support, at Community and national level, the establishment of a platform of governmental and non-governmental organizations to require tobacco companies in the European Union to pay compensation for the damage done to smokers' health on a basis similar to the proceedings currently being brought against tobacco companies in the USA;

37. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission.