ECITA in Brussels - news, updates and the latest gossip...

[doodlebug]

Hi, all,

Sorry for the lack of updates, but we have been literally working day and night, with little time for anything else!

To bring you all up to speed, then: we have now written personalised letters to every single member of the ENVI, IMCO and JURI committees. Some of these contacts have already resulted in offers for meetings – some face-to-face, some conference calls.

We shall be submitting further evidence that will be distributed to MEPs.

Following very useful discussions with Clive Bates, we are considering asking for the European Commission to look into the issue further. After all, the consultation they did was not specifically about electronic cigarettes in their own right, but merely to ask whether or not they should be included in the scope of the Tobacco Products Directive. Well, that doesn’t seem to have worked out too well, so maybe it is time to ask the Commission to look at it again, and see if they can come up with some sensible proposals.

In any event, we are continuing to offer our assistance and our expertise, in order to help the Parliament achieve its aims with regards to the TPD, while obviously being unable to accept the destruction of our industry as a ‘side effect’ of that process. We are seeing a genuine desire for constructive communication from an increasing number of MEPs, and I believe that we can get our heads together and resolve the challenges in a way which protects vaping as we know and love it.

ECITA is having an Extraordinary (as in, non-routine, not Super-Spectacular!) Board Meeting tomorrow, followed by an Extraordinary (this one might well be Super-Spectacular ) Meeting for the wider membership, specifically to discuss strategy, and for the Board to vote on how it wants us to proceed. Since ECITA belongs to its members, I merely offer advice to them on these issues. It will be up to them.

Having said that, ECITA has had a very clear goal from day one: freedom of choice for smokers, with smokers being told the truth about their options. This means having a vibrant and wide-ranging dedicated industry, providing the products that smokers AND vapers want. (In my view, these are two separate markets, and there is plenty of room for both – more choice is more choice, after all!)

I’ll keep you posted as this develops….

Cheers,

Katherine
(for those who don't know, I'm President of ECITA (EU) Ltd, for my sins )