… but its tobacco industry aims to conquer the rest of Europe

Date: 07/07/05

The EU banned smokeless tobacco, including snus (moist snuff), in 1992, claiming health risks. It was an uncontroversial decision as snus made up a minimal part of the tobacco market and was unknown to most continental European tobacconists.

Then Sweden, with over a million snus users, started negotiating for EU membership in 1993. Unexpectedly, the wad of moist tobacco became a strong anti-EU symbol, with a ban suggesting Brussels bureaucrats interfering with ordinary people's lives. The slogan "EU? Not without my wad!" was seen on T-shirts and on the windscreens of Swedish cars during the EU membership debate.

The Swedish government got nervous about the EU membership referendum. It managed to get a permanent exemption from the snus ban written into the Swedish accession treaty, claiming that snus was an indispensable part of the Swedish cultural heritage.

But the Swedish tobacco companies, supported by the national government, are fighting for an end to the ban in the rest of the EU. They say it is discriminating since the EU allows chewing tobacco and sniffing snuff. In December last year the European Court of Justice ruled - again - that it was necessary for public health to keep the ban on snus.

During spring, Thomas ...stros, the Swedish minister for industry and trade, began a fierce exchange with Markos Kyprianou, the European commissioner for health and consumer protection, demanding that the EU investigate whether snus was less harmful than cigarettes. If the study proves the Swedes right, ...stros wants snus to be allowed across the EU. The snus battle goes on.

Article looks at the background of the dispute between Sweden and the EU on the EU-wide ban on snus, the moist snuff which is widely consumed in Sweden. With its accession to the EU in 1995 Sweden had been granted a permanent exemption from the EU-wide ban on this kind of smokeless tobacco, introduced in 1992.