Tobacco regime under fire from health bodies

Date: 04/04/1996

By Michael Mann

HEALTH campaigners have renewed their attack on the EU's controversial tobacco regime, claiming money is being wasted subsidising an uneconomic crop while far too little attention is paid to the prevention of smoking.

The International Union Against Cancer (UICC) and the British Medical Association (BMA) claim just 6,000 ecu was spent on research and information campaigns on the dangers of smoking last year out of an 11-million-ecu budget for such projects, while tobacco producers continue to receive about a billion ecu a year in EU subsidies.

They believe the Union's lack of commitment to combating smoking is further highlighted by low spending on programmes such as “Europe Against Cancer” and the closure last July of the Bureau for Action on Smoking Prevention.

As DGVI, the Directorate-General for agriculture, prepares a review of the 1992 reforms in the tobacco sector, the UICC and BMA have repeated their claim that tobacco subsidies are “complete economic nonsense and thus indefensible”.

Although the 1992 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy put new limits on production and ended export subsidies and intervention buying, UICC and the BMA argue the only sensible option is to end support for EU tobacco production and pay farmers in the affected regions direct income support.

But the DGVI review is expected to conclude that the running of the regime has improved, reserving firm proposals for change until later as new rules do not have to be in place until the 1998 harvest.

Officials at EU farmers' umbrella body COPA dispute that there are viable alternatives for farmers in the tobacco-producing regions of the Union. “A premium for conversion is not realistic. It's also important to remember that people won't stop smoking just because we stop producing tobacco in the EU,” said one.