Denmark rejects Tobacco Products Directive

Via Klaus K, I hear that the Danish politician, Merete Riisager (pictured), has announced on Facebook that the government has rejected the Tobacco Products Directive.

This the part of the announcement she made last night...

I have never smoked, and I will probably never will, but it annoys me enormously when politicians from the municipal level to the EU dictate whether people smoke or not.

Our Committee has today sent back to the Commission a tobacco directive which would, amongst other things, prohibit snus, cigarette flavours, thin cigarettes and would mandate warnings on 70% of the packages. If enough other countries do the same, the Commission must start over.

...If the EU, state and local governments succeed in making people stop smoking (which they hardly do), we will become healthier, but it's a poor society that controls its citizens completely in the private sphere. A rich life is to have his personal integrity safeguarded, and even to choose, good, bad, funny, unhealthy, healthy or downright stupid.

The only thing that is certain in life is that we eventually die. What we do with life while we have it is for us to decide.

Good for her. Wouldn't it be nice to have politicians with a similar backbone in the UK?

Over to Klaus for more details...

Her words are more tough than your translation suggests: She says something like: "In your face, EU-commission"

The rejection is not the government line, but it is the majority line. The ruling parties formed in Oct. 2011 a minority red/green government with support from the far left party, Enhedslisten.

However Enhedslisten does not support a ban against snus & E-cigarettes, and this is why the majority can trump the government in "Europaudvalget" - the Danish EU-committee, which had a closed meeting friday where the rejection was decided.

See Klaus's blog for more posts about the influence of Pharma and opposition to the directive in Sweden and the Netherlands.

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