Update on the EU negotiations here ...
State of negotiations. The most recent leaked negotiating text I have seen is available here. But there has been significant discussion on Friday 13th on the Council side and a technical meeting of the trilogue. The process is opaque and insular and the documentation is secret. We rely on leaks and unofficial briefings to find out what is going on – so this assessment has to be taken in that light.
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In summary – its a messy half-baked muddle, but not as bad as it was. It is however, far from the public health or consumer optimum. That would involve finding a balance between managing the minor and implausible risks that the public health community have fetishised and enabling the products to compete effectively with cigarettes, which is where the huge public health dividend will actually be achieved.
Remember for snus in Sweden, amazingly positive health results were obtained with minimal regulation. Of course, the people negotiating this negligently want snus to remain banned, so we can discard the idea that doing the right thing for health is their primary concern.
Where next? On Monday 16th December starting at 18.30 in Brussels, there will be the fifth ‘trilogue’ negotiation between representatives of the European Parliament and Presidency of the European Council – this meeting is aiming to secure agreement on a text for the revised Tobacco Products Directive, and in practice that means agreeing the text for Article 18 on e-cigarettes. Each side in the negotiations then has to take it back to their institution (Parliament plenary and full European Council) and win support. If both agree with the text, it becomes law. But that agreement won’t be reached until the Parliament has voted on it at its official ‘first reading’.
Process continues into 2014. The Parliament has not yet completed its first reading – the vote and plenary on 8 October kept it open referring it back to the rapporteur and ENVI committee to pursue negotiation with the Council. If trilogue agreement is reached, it then goes back to the European Parliament plenary sometime in early 2014. The Parliament will vote on a single amendment which captures all elements of the trilogue agreement and then passes a “legislative resolution”. If passed, this would complete the Parliament’s first reading. Once that’s done, the Council can formally adopt the directive (using exactly the same text as EP legislative resolution – that was have pre-agreed with the Presidency in the trilogue). If all that happens, the deal is done and the text becomes law. This process could be completed in the first few months of next year – but the key political agreement may be struck in the trilogue on 16th December. At least that’s what most involved seem to want. That doesn’t mean it will pass though: the European Parliament plenary has already rebelled once, and agreement in the Council can never be taken for granted – given domestic politics.
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So it's not too late to write to MPs and MEPs by a long way yet.
There is another Twitter Bomb tonight, 8-10pm full details here
There is also a Thunderclap due to go at 8.30pm here - you can add your name via twitter, fb, tumblr or all three.