Islanders loath to kick lucrative snus habit

By Rein F Deer

Date: 01/12/05

Aland Islands is an autonomous duty-free heaven between Finland and Sweden. In the 1920s these Swedish-speaking islanders wanted to join Sweden; the League of Nations in Geneva decided otherwise.

The robust fishermen had to stay under the Finnish flag because this part of the Baltic archipelago geographically most definitely belongs to Finland. If they had a referendum now, Finland would win because Alanders have since become Finland's pet minority.

They enjoy the highest standard of living and lowest taxation in Finland. They have their own flag and a kind of self-rule. They print their own stamps and exploit the tourists from Sweden and Finland. Many European celebrities have their hideaways in this archipelago, second in beauty only to the Greek one.

This Nordic version of Jersey does not formally belong to the EU. Thanks to this status they can still sell snus - chewing-style tobacco - on board the ferries that port in Mariehamn, the capital of Aland Islands, on their way between Helsinki and Stockholm.

Sweden negotiated an exception for snus when it joined the EU in 1995, snus for the Swedes being like whisky for the Scots - not enjoyed by everybody, but hotly defended by all. The snus opt-out makes snus legal in Sweden but illegal in Finland. But the stuff has been produced and enjoyed for more than 200 years in the archipelago and coastal areas of Finland, too. Thanks to the EU it has become a popular smuggler's item.

Denmark, too, continues to allow sales of snus, which it considers to be a traditional product.

Snus was originally banned within the Community by a 1992 directive, the argument being to prevent a new (!) tobacco product from entering the EC market. In 2001, in view of subsequent scientific studies, the EU replaced the Swedish warning label from "causes cancer" to a more general suggestion that "this product may damage your health and is addictive".

The Swedes - and the Alanders - now argue that snus has "the potential to reduce harm". In practice, they say, it works like nicotine products designed to wean smokers off cigarettes. The Swedish health service has decided it wants the EU snus ban lifted altogether. Known snus-using Swedish and Finnish ice-hockey players are to become role models for young people trying to stop smoking.

The Commission evidently does not approve of this turn of events, and wants to take Finland to the European Court of Justice for letting Aland-registered ferries still sell the stuff, setting itself on a collision course with the barely-surviving shipping industry; snus is a significant part of duty-free sales, worth €8 million a year. If the Commission wins, there will be a new trade barrier between Sweden and Finland. Perhaps Margot Wallström should wade in and fight this kind of stupidity as part of her "Smile - you are in the EU" campaign.

Comment feature on the issue of chewing-style tobacco 'snus', which is banned EU-wide with the exception of Sweden. Article focuses on the Finnish Åland islands which are a part of Finland with a high degree of self-rule but do not formally belong to the EU.