So, I thought I'd put a post together about what's happening in Europe and what we can do about it ...
Where we're at now: Last week, the EU voted in favour of adopting the Tobacco Products Directive, including Article 18a (now renamed Article 20) which concerns ecigs. You can read the full text of Article 20 here. This legislation is likely to come into force in May of this year and member states will have up to 30 months to comply (but they don't have to wait that long!)
- No device on the market today could comply with this legislation except cig-alikes with disposable cartridges - the sort produced by big tobacco and big pharma.
- No e-liquid over 20mg/ml will be legal (18mg/ml in practice to allow for a margin of error) - an estimated one quarter of vapers use liquid above this strength and are likely to return to smoking if they cannot get it.
- The requirement for all new devices to be approved six months before coming to market will kill innovation in the EU. Currently it is usual to see new versions of products released every few weeks.
- The notification regime will be too expensive for small companies to comply with. 98% of the market is made up of SMEs. Meanwhile, big tobacco and pharma will have no problem absorbing the costs.
- Restrictions on sponsorship will mean it becomes very difficult for forums, youtube channels and other sources of information to survive.
What we can do: A European Citizen's Initiative has been launched by European Free Vaping Initiative. 'The European citizens' initiative allows one million EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies, by calling on the European Commission to make a legislative proposal.'
This is not just another petition. Numerous hurdles have already been cleared to set it up and secure the necessary representatives in countries across the EU. The initiative now needs 1 million 'statements of support' (basically signatures) by 25th November and for at least 7 member states to meet their 'quota' - a set number of signatures based on population.
If the required number of signatures is reached, it means that vapers themselves will have the opportunity to present their case to the EU and propose sensible legislation for ecigs to replace article 20 of the TPD.
Who should sign:
- vapers
- smokers, because you might want to try switching one day
- friends and family of vapers
- friends and family of smokers
- people who don't like being around smokers or who worry about SHS
- people who care about harm reduction and saving lives
How to sign:
- Go here - www.efvi.eu/
- Scroll down to the big green rectangle and click it
- Fill in your info on the EU site
You will be asked to provide your full name, address and DOB. This is because this is not just another petition, it's an official EU process - they need to check you are a genuine EU citizen.
Please also ask your families, friends, colleagues etc. to sign and share on FB, Twitter or whatever else you do online.