4 days ago
EU Commission faces rising pressure to tax vapes and nicotine pouches
The EU is under growing pressure to tax vapes and nicotine pouches, with 15 finance and economy ministers writing last week to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about the issue.
The letter was part of a wider push for the Commission to publish the long-awaited Tobacco Taxation Directive (TTD). Citing health concerns, the ministers said the existing legislative framework is outdated.
Since the rules were last updated in 2011, new nicotine products have flooded the market.
A revision to include new tobacco and nicotine products like e-cigarettes and heated tobacco was introduced as part of Europe's Beating Cancer Plan in 2022.
However, the proposal has still not been published, much to the concern of health experts.
"We see that because these products are not taxed properly in the EU — some countries are not taxing them or barely imposing taxes — they became very accessible and not just to adults, but to children. And that's the reason why revision of the directive is urgent now," said Lilia Olefir, Director of the Smoke Free Partnership.
The latest European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD), published at the end of May, reports a rise in overall daily rates of smoking and vaping among 15-year-olds and 16-year-olds from 7.9% in 2019 to 14% in 2024.
Studies have found children and adolescents' exposure to nicotine in vaping solutions can lead to long-term negative impacts on brain development, as well as addiction.
Momentum for action is growing. In March 2025, a letter from 12 health ministers urged the Commission to re-visit all tobacco-related legislation, including taxation.
Last week, 15 finance and economy ministers wrote to von der Leyen, calling on the EU Commission president to "take the necessary steps to update the directive".
In response, Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, who is responsible for taxation, expressed hope that the rules would soon be changed.
The new directive would substantially raise taxes on cigarettes, roll your own cigarettes and cigars.
It would also for the first time introduce minimum excise tax on new products including heated tobacco, e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches.
"These taxes are fundamental because they result in higher prices, which means that the products are less affordable and less accessible," said Olefir. "Right now, people can buy disposable vape for around eight euros, and nicotine pouches are also quite accessible."
Some EU countries have in the meantime taken their own measures to target these products. Belgium, for example, became the first in Europe to ban the sale of disposable vapes in 2025.
The country's Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke described cheap vapes as a health threat, which can draw teenagers into smoking and get them hooked on nicotine.
Hoekstra told MEPs that he hoped the new tax proposal would be adopted by the summer.
However, the proposal requires unanimity, which seems a long way off.
The plan has large support in wealthier countries, where excise taxes on tobacco and nicotine products are already relatively high. Because of differences in these rates, they are suffering from rising smuggling and cross-border trade.
Meanwhile, countries like Italy, Greece and Romania, which have lower tax levels, are against any changes to the current rules. They have also made significant investments in the tobacco sector.
Organisations representing industries that would be affected by the revised directive have also criticised the current proposal.
Dustin Dahlmann, the chair of the Independent European Vape Alliance, claimed that introducing taxes would not help protect young people. Instead, he argued that fines should be increased for people selling to minors.
"The tax will make the products more attractive for black market dealers and these kinds of people and businesses don't care about protecting the minors," he said.
"In the member states where high taxes are in place, it's fuelling the black market. Minors are not better protected here than in other countries," he added.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday that the UK will build 12 new attack submarines and six new ammunition factories as part of a Strategic Defence Review.
The externally-led review outlines 62 recommendations, which the government endorsed in full, including moving the Armed Forces into a state of "warfighting readiness".
"When we are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, the most effective way to deter them is to be ready, and frankly, to show them that we're ready to deliver peace through strength," Starmer said in Glasgow on Monday.
The review, he added, is "a blueprint to make Britain safer and stronger, a battle-ready, bomber-clad nation with the strongest alliances and the most advanced capabilities, equipped for the decades to come".
The 12 new conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines will be built as part of the AUKUS programme concluded in 2021 between Australia, the UK, and the US and should all be online by the late 2030s with one built every 18 months, per Starmer.
The programme will be accompanied by a £15 billion (€17.8 billion) investment in nuclear warheads.
Another key plank of the review is the procurement of up to 7,000 UK-built long-range weapons, along with a £1.5 billion (€1.8 billion) investment to build at least six munitions and energetics factories.
One of these production capacities is expected to be "always on" to allow for production to be ramped up quickly to meet the demand of high-tempo warfare, if necessary.
"The hard-fought lessons from Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine show a military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind them," Defence Secretary John Healey said in a statement.
"We are strengthening the UK's industrial base to better deter our adversaries and make the UK secure at home and strong abroad," he added.
The government will also put forward £1 billion (€1.2 billion) in a new CyberEM Command to boost cyber operations and digital capability, as well as £1.5 billion of additional funding to repair and renew armed forces housing.
The investments should make some way into Britain's goal, unveiled earlier this year, to boost defence spending to 2.5% of Gross Domestic Product by 2027 and to 3% in the next parliament.
Britain, a NATO member, will on Wednesday co-chair a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, which aims to coordinate military support to Ukraine in response to Russia's full-scale invasion involving 56 countries.
Defence ministers from the alliance will meet on Thursday to continue talks on increasing the defence spending target from its current 2% of GDP level.
Allies appear to have landed on a 5% of GDP target, a number repeatedly called for by Trump, although it would be split in two: 3.5% of GDP for hard military spending, and a further 1.5% on defence-related spending including, for instance, infrastructure and cybersecurity.
The new target will be endorsed by NATO at a summit in The Hague later this month.
Starmer defended his aim to bring defence spending to 3% in the next parliament, therefore below the 3.5% by 2032 that NATO is set to agree on.
"Everything we do will add to the strength of NATO," he said. "The NATO alliance means something profound, that we will never fight alone. It is a fundamental source of our strategic strength".
The transformation we're driving in our defence must add up to Britain's biggest contribution to NATO since its creation," he added.
