Health ministers step up campaign for plain tobacco packaging

Health ministers from 10 countries, including 5 member states of the European Union, met for the first time in Paris to discuss plain tobacco packaging. This group was also formed to promote the popular measure and counter the influence of tobacco industry.

Adopted in April 2014, the European Tobacco Products Directive stopped short of imposing neutral tobacco packaging as a legal requirement in the European Union. That has not stopped tobacco multinationals from challenging the Directive at the European Court of Justice.