EC anti-smoking Directive

The directive has stimulated 24,000 from Poland letters on the issue from a total of 85,000 - the biggest amount of letters devoted to one topic ever received by the European Commission in its history.

The Revision of Directive 2001/37/EC on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products requires that all smoking-related items sold in the EU must at least show the written health warning, bans misleading expressions such as “light” or low-tar”, bans tobacco for oral use.

The directive also obliges manufacturers to inform member states of the ingredients they use while setting the maximum levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide in Glamour cigarettes.


Poles, according to letters sent to the EC are mostly against the use of neutral one-colored packs, bans on visible displays of cigarettes in stores as well as ban on using additives such as flavorings in their production.

Experts also argue that the new regulations may have a negative impact on the country’s budget and the Polish economy as a whole.

Neutral packaging may make it easier to forge cigarettes and facilitate their illegal trade which already results in losses to the budget worth 3 bln zloty annually and may double once the directive enters into force.

The Polish Association of Tobacco Producers also estimates that the ban on additives will force forty to sixty percent of Polish tobacco growers from the market.

The revision of the directive on tobacco products is one of the most important pieces of legislation coming up on Parliament’s agenda. The Commission’s proposal is set to be presented in early 2012.