European Parliament will not gain people’s trust by continuing to contribute to burden of chronic disease in form of tobacco subsidies

Amid all the furore yesterday (22 October) about the new Commission, the European Parliament also quietly voted against ending EU subsidies to tobacco crops. While on the one hand many MEPs so supportive of legislating in favour of health with regards to pharmaceutical products, it seems that over half of the European Parliament is happy to continue pumping taxpayers' money to a harmful industry instead of supporting farmers to make the shift to a more health and sustainable crop, as part of a new CAP fit for today’s challenges.

“Taxpayers money, at a time of austerity and crisis, should not be used to support the production of a toxic crop that causes the death of thousands of Europeans and leaves us with massive societal costs,” said European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) President Peggy Maguire.

This extraordinary decision by the European Parliament appears even more backward in light of its recent commitment to tobacco control shown by adopting the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). In addition, the vote is a direct conflagration of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), to which the EU is a signatory which is against subsidising tobacco growing.

"I was greatly disappointed with the outcome of the vote on tobacco subsidies. The new CAP should play a major role in tackling the current epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs), like cancer and heart disease and not subsidising tobacco farmers. Public health has to come first and these diseases are a huge threat to that as well as to Europe’s health budgets," said MEP Catherine Stihler (S&D, UK).

By supporting subsides of tobacco crops, MEPs have served the interests of the tobacco industry rather than helped to erode measures that undermine public health in Europe. It would be far more better for both population health and sustainable cost-saving measures in healthcare expenditures if, MEPs enacted policies supporting the production and consumption of produce that help to prevent chronic diseases such as: fresh fruit, vegetables, pulses, legumes and whole grains instead.

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