Smoke Free Partnership Seminar on Combating the illicit trade in tobacco and its consequences for Europe and Africa

On 1 February 2010, EPHA participated in an event organised by the Smoke Free Partnership on illicit trade in tobacco. The meeting gathered a number of experts. The objective of the seminar was to provide an outline of the discussions that will take place at the fourth Intergovernmental Negotiating Body meeting (INB4) in Geneva in March 2010, where the final negotiations will take place on the Illicit Trade Protocol, a subsidiary treaty to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The discussion centred on how the EU can make an impact on these negotiations, with a special reference to the problems specific to Africa.


The fifth and sixth issues in the ‘Spotlight on the FCTC’ series, which cover tobacco and development policy and the illicit tobacco trade respectively, were also launched.

The seminar brought together 70 participants including Members of the European Parliament, senior officials from the European Commission, representatives from the Member States, and public health and tobacco experts.

Present on the panel were Austin Rowan, Head of Unit at the European Commission’s Task Group Cigarettes, European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF); Dr. Michael Anibueze, Director of Public Health, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria; Luk Joossens, International Expert on the Illicit Tobacco Trade and Ian Willmore, Framework Convention Alliance.

The event was hosted by Bart Staes MEP, Vice Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Budgetary Control.

For further information:

- The Full Smoke Free Partnership Report
- European Commission webpage on Tobacco
- WHO webpage on Tobacco

EPHA related articles:

- World No Tobacco Day 2009 EPHA, ERS and ENSP call for picture warnings on tobacco
- Tobacco industry leads industry lobby attempt to skew policy-making: new evidence
- WHO publishes its 2009 Report on tobacco
- Council adopts a Recommendation on smoking prevention

Last modified on March 11 2010.