The EU Commission’s upcoming “Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan” proposal considers vaping the same as tobacco, seeks to ban flavours and could ban vaping in public. A leak of the Plan due for launch on 3 February is causing major concern amongst Europe’s Vaping groups.

Commenting on the leaked plans, World Vapers’ Alliance Director, Michael Landl, said:

“Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan is a historic chance to beat cancer and the Commission is about to botch it. Vaping is not the same as smoking and treating the two as the same is a mistake that could prevent thousands of smokers from quitting. What we have seen in the leaked plan is very concerning and I hope that the version announced will correct this flawed approach.”

The leaked proposal of the European Commission Europe Beating Cancer Plan looks to:

• extend taxation to “novel tobacco products”, including vaping
• extend the coverage of the smoking bans indoor and outdoor to e-cigarettes
• ban flavours.

Michael Landl added:

“We should be led by science and not by ideology on this issue. Europe’s Beating Cancer plan must acknowledge vaping is not smoking, and actively encourage smokers who are not willing or not able to quit to switch to e-cigarettes. Otherwise, the goal of eradicating cancer in Europe cannot be achieved. I truly hope that what the Commission publishes on vaping will look very different to what we see in this leaked document or the future for vaping in Europe looks pretty bleak. If this is what we get from the Commission, then I hope we see  Members of the European Parliament push back against these misguided proposals.”

The World Vapers’ Alliance’s BACK VAPING. BEAT CANCER campaign has been ongoing for 6 months now. Whilst there are voices in favour of vaping in Brussels and across Europe, the EU Commission seems to still fail to recognize the benefits of vaping.