WRITTEN QUESTION E-1239/03

by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission

(2 April 2003)

Subject: Health warnings on cigarette packs

By what date does the Commission expect to be in a position to provide Member States with rules and internal market guidance for the use of colour photographs or other illustrations on cigarette packs to explain the health consequences of smoking?

Will the Commission explain what preparatory work has now been completed, what work must still be undertaken, and why this is necessary given that a photograph of a diseased lung (for example) looks the same in every Member State?

Does the Commission recognise that the lengthy delay in producing these guidelines will appear to confirm in the minds of many citizens the very worst impressions of bureaucracy gone mad?

Answer given by Mr Byrne on behalf of the Commission

(2 May 2003)

The Commission expects to adopt a Decision establishing rules for the use of colour photographs or other illustrations to depict the health consequences of smoking, as required by Article 5.3 of Directive 2001/37/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2001 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products(1), by May 2003.

While the above Directive calls upon the Commission to adopt such rules not later than 31 December 2002, it should be noted that the Commission made the following declaration when the Directive was adopted: The Commission draws the attention of the European Parliament and the Council to the difficulty it envisages in respecting the deadline imposed in Article 5(3) of this text in which to obtain an opinion from the Committee established in Article 10 and subsequently to adopt rules on the use of colour photographs.

Preparatory work for this Decision involved the consultation of experts and the evaluation of research carried out in recent years, as well as analysing the experience of countries where the use of colour photos is already required, like Canada. The draft Decision is currently being submitted for opinion to the Committee established by article 10 of Directive 2001/37/EC, and is expected to be ready for adoption by the Commission in May 2003.

The experts consulted, supported by the Regulatory Committee, recommended that the choice of the photographs to accompany each of the fourteen additional health warnings foreseen in annex I to Directive 2001/37/EC be made at a European level. This implies establishing a centralised library giving a choice of photographs for each of the additional health warnings, so that each Member State can choose the photograph which best suits its cultural realities.

Immediately after the adoption of the Decision, the Commission will therefore launch a call for tender concerning the production of suitable photographs. These will be subject to large-scale pre-testing with different target groups across Europe, in order to take cultural, social and age-related differences into account.

As a consequence of the implementation of Directive 2001/37/EC, new and larger health warnings on cigarette packets throughout the Member States have started appearing since the end of 2002, and this new layout is mandatory without any further derogation as of 30 September 2003. In order to take full advantage of the impact of this new design on the consumer, it is advisable to introduce additional new elements, such as colour photographs, only after the new health warnings have been in operation for a certain length of time. In this way, the inevitable wear-out phenomenon can be delayed, and the consumer's attention can be caught over a longer stretch of time. For this reason, the draft Decision stipulates that, where Member States decide to require the use of colour photographs, the relative provisions should not enter into force before 1 July 2004.

(1) OJ L 194, 18.7.2001.