{"id":7038,"date":"2026-06-18T06:44:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/?p=7038"},"modified":"2026-06-18T06:44:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T10:44:24","slug":"european-parliament-rejects-commissions-plan-to-hike-taxes-on-nicotine-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/european-parliament-rejects-commissions-plan-to-hike-taxes-on-nicotine-products\/","title":{"rendered":"European Parliament rejects Commission’s plan to hike taxes on nicoti …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Strasbourg, 18 June 2026. The European Parliament rejected<\/a> the European Commission\u2019s plan to establish minimum excise tax rates on vapes, nicotine pouches and heat-not-burn products. In two sequential votes<\/a> on the revision of the Tobacco Excise Directive (TED), MEPs first rejected the ECON committee\u2019s amended report<\/a>, and then rejected the Commission\u2019s proposal<\/a> outright.<\/p>\n

The ECON report authored by Czech MEP Tom\u00e1\u0161 Kub\u00edn, which proposed lower excise duties than the Commission\u2019s original proposal and enshrined a \u201cless harm, lower tax\u201d principle was rejected by the narrowest of margins: 308 in favour, 320\u00a0 against. The Commission\u2019s original proposal, put to the vote immediately after, was rejected by an overwhelming margin of 439 votes to 181.<\/p>\n

Michael Landl, Director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, said: “This vote is a clear rejection of the European Commission\u2019s misguided attempt to impose higher taxes on reduced-risk nicotine products. Higher taxes on vapes, nicotine pouches and heat-not-burn products would make it harder for millions of Europeans to switch away from smoking. Taxation should reflect relative risk and encourage smokers to move to less harmful alternatives.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The rejection of Kubin\u2019s ECON report was driven by a contradictory coalition. The Rassemblement National (RN), the largest delegation within Kubin\u2019s own Patriots for Europe group, sided with socialists and liberals to reject Kubin\u2019s report. Jordan Bardella, RN president and PfE group leader, had announced<\/a> the decision the previous day, explicitly citing opposition to new taxation on vaping products.<\/p>\n

“The European Parliament has shown that it is far closer to a risk-based approach to nicotine regulation than the European Commission. There was a clear majority against imposing new EU-wide minimum taxes on reduced-risk products, and member states should take note of this message as negotiations move forward. The final directive must reflect risk, not revenue targets,”<\/em><\/strong> Landl added.<\/p>\n

As Council negotiations resume in July under the Irish Presidency, the World Vapers\u2019 Alliance will continue to engage with Member States, MEPs and EU institutions to ensure the final Tobacco Excise Directive supports harm reduction and protects access to affordable alternatives to smoking for millions of European citizens.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Strasbourg, 18 June 2026. The European Parliament rejected the European Commission\u2019s plan to establish minimum excise tax rates on vapes, nicotine pouches and heat-not-burn products. In two sequential votes on the revision of the Tobacco Excise Directive (TED), MEPs first rejected the ECON committee\u2019s amended report, and then rejected the Commission\u2019s proposal outright. The ECON […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases"],"yoast_head":"\nEuropean Parliament rejects Commission's plan to hike taxes on nicotine products - World Vapers' Alliance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The European Parliament rejected the European Commission\u2019s plan to establish minimum excise tax rates on vapes, nicotine pouches and heat-not-burn products.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/european-parliament-rejects-commissions-plan-to-hike-taxes-on-nicotine-products\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"European Parliament rejects Commission's plan to hike taxes on nicotine products - 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