A leaked revision of the European Union’s Tobacco Excise Directive (TED), recently circulated under the Cypriot presidency, has reignited the concern that Europe is drifting toward ideology-driven policy at the expense of public health outcomes. While the revised draft slightly softens some of the excise rates proposed by the European Commission last year, the underlying philosophy remains unchanged: discourage smokers from switching away from cigarettes by narrowing price differences between combustible and non-combustible products.

At the heart of the controversy is the draft’s explicit objective to prevent what it calls “tax-driven substitution” between nicotine products. For harm reduction experts, that language is deeply troubling. Substitution away from cigarettes is not a problem to be solved, they highlight, but the very mechanism through which smoking-related death and disease are reduced.

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