European Smoking Tobacco Association
ESTA
Founded in 1990, the European Smoking Tobacco Association (ESTA) represents the interests of the smaller and mid-sized European manufacturers, distributors and importers of fine-cut tobacco, pipe tobacco, traditional nasal snuff tobacco and chewing tobacco and actively engages with relevant stakeholders.
ID: 0138855852-93
Lobbying Activity
Response to Revision of the Union Customs Code
7 Nov 2023
The European Smoking Tobacco Association (ESTA) appreciates the opportunity to provide views on the European Commission's proposal for an EU Customs Reform. Whilst ESTA welcomes the general direction that the proposed reform is aiming at, we have attached comments and suggestions that we hope the European Commission will take into consideration.
Read full responseResponse to Targeted revision of the EU system of tobacco traceability
30 Nov 2022
The European Smoking Tobacco Association (ESTA) E.E.I.G welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback and make observations on the Commissions proposal to revise certain aspects of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/574. As ESTA stated several times since the adoption of this Implementing Regulation, the extension of the marking requirement to export products caused significant problems, hindering, if not stopping, the ability of European smaller and mid-sized companies to continue exporting their products. The extension of the scope to niche tobacco products in 2024 will worsen this situation. The European Commission acknowledged this issue needed to be resolved, but missed in this revision the opportunity to do so. ESTA believes that the marking requirement for export products is neither mandated by the Tobacco Products Directive nor by the WHO FCTC Protocol. Being unjustified, unnecessary, and disproportionally impacting European smaller companies, this requirement must be revised. In addition, and whilst certain changes proposed by the European Commission could indeed perhaps facilitate the reporting by operators and mitigate the risk of unnecessary errors and downstream blockages, other proposed changes require further clarifications. ESTA, therefore, would like to draw the attention of the Commission services, and that of the Member States competent authorities, to the attached and more detailed views, comments, and questions.
Read full responseMeeting with Gerassimos Thomas (Director-General Taxation and Customs Union) and Philip Morris International Inc. and
18 May 2022 · Videoconference - Stakeholder event to gather views on the upcoming revision of the tobacco taxation directive
Response to General arrangements for excise duty – harmonisation and simplification
27 Jul 2018
The European Smoking Tobacco Association (ESTA) represents mainly mid-sized companies including SMEs and several generation-old family-owned businesses. These companies manufacture and distribute fine-cut tobacco, pipe tobacco, traditional European nasal snuff and chewing tobacco. Many ESTA members are still rooted in their original locality and have moved from manufacturing and selling only locally, to truly European companies selling across the EU and beyond. Their traditional and artisan European tobacco products are part of European cultural heritage.
ESTA welcomes the Commission's initiative and proposal to revise the "Horizontal Directive" but believes that despite clear improvements, this proposal also misses the opportunity to tackle issues where clarification and harmonisation are necessary such as exceptional situations, guarantees or excise refund.
ESTA appreciates the opportunity to provide its views on the revision of Directive 2008/118/EC and to make the attached remarks on the content of the Commission’s proposal.
Read full responseResponse to Implementing act under Article 16(2) of the Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU
28 Sept 2017
The Commission's draft Decision fails to provide the necessary details and specifications for the Security Features to be placed on tobacco packaging. While the European Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) aims to further harmonise tobacco regulation in the EU, the optional nature of this draft implementing Decision will result in too many different Security Features in use in the EU Member States.
In addition, the draft Decision is too complex and fails to cater for the specificities of smaller companies and the packaging materials and size of niche tobacco products (e.g. nasal snuff, chewing tobaccos). In particular, the following must be either clarified or amended appropriately:
• The requirements for the security features are to complex and are incompatible with current packaging materials used for traditional and niche tobacco products, which are mainly manufactured by smaller and mid-sized companies;
• The draft Implementing Decision fails to set requirements for a uniform security feature;
• The 2014 Directive does not prescribe the involvement of an independent third party in applying elements of security features, and so the draft Decision should neither. The draft Decision also does not prescribe any provision for liability questions arising from this requirement;
• The draft implementing Decision assumes that manufacturers can themselves complete tax stamps with additional types of authentication elements if so lacking whilst the 2014 Directive explicitly prohibits this;
• The security feature’s requirements must be simplified to allow Member States to use current tax stamps and their technologies as the security feature;
• In the few Member States that are not using tax stamps, smaller and mid-sized companies will be disadvantaged as they will have to bear the full cost of the technologies for the combination of five authentication elements. In the 22 other Member States using tax stamps, the cost of compliance upgrades will be supported by the state if tax stamps are used as the security feature.
Rather than listing compliant technologies, the regulation must set standards and simplify the requirements for the security feature, limiting the number of required authentication elements to three (instead of five).
For further information, ESTA has attached its detailed position.
Read full responseResponse to Implementing act under Article 15(11) of the Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU
28 Sept 2017
ESTA appreciates the opportunity to share its views on the content of the draft proposals. The Commission's draft Regulation on the one hand sets technical standards where no competency exists and on the other fails to set standards where these are mandated and badly needed. Where it correctly sets standards, many are too complex making the standards unlikely to be internationally shared. The Commission’s draft Decision on the security feature completely ignores the Directive’s harmonisation purpose, and lacks setting uniform standards.
The proposed system of tracking and tracing and the security feature therefore will be prohibitively costly and unworkable for mid-sized and smaller firms. It obliges all companies in the tobacco supply chain to re-organise and modify their business and trading processes beyond what is necessary to establish a well-functioning tracking and tracing system as specified in Article 15 of the Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU). The Commission’s draft Implementing Regulation raises many legal and practical questions. The following must be either clarified or amended appropriately:
• The Commission cannot base any measure or requirement on anything else than the delegation of powers as laid down in Articles 15 and 16 of the 2014 Tobacco Products Directive;
• Tobacco products manufactured in the EU but not placed on the market, including those for export, are not within the scope of the implementing Regulation, as they are not covered by the 2014 Tobacco Products Directive;
• The Unique Identifier must include the date and time stamp which can only be applied in real time on the packaging line. The regulation cannot derogate form Article 15.2.d of the Directive;
• The specification of information to be delivered to the third-party ID issuer includes information not mentioned in Article 15 of the 2014 Directive;
• The draft Regulation introduces a system based on production authorisation, which requires manufacturers to provide information and transmit financial information that is not known at the time of packaging;
• A too complex system will not be adopted by third countries. Cheap illicit whites are originating from some of these countries necessitating an interoperable system to effectively tackle the main source of illicit trade;
• The draft Regulation states that ID issuers will choose whether UIs will be delivered electronically or physically, thereby ignoring manufacturers’ needs and specificities and the required interoperability with tax stamps;
• The draft Regulation requires the data carrier to be composed of 50 alphanumeric characters, which is therefore too long and incompatible with current printing technologies, machinery and GS1 standards currently in use.
A well-functioning track and trace system can be established strictly following Article 15 of the 2014 Directive. Such a system needs to be fully integrated into the production process whilst being independently verified and controlled by Member States authorities. For the system to become operational by the May 2019 deadline, and for it to be compliant with competition law and national tender rules, the choice of the ID issuer should be that of the manufacturers based on standards set-, and audited by the Commission. Generating and applying the UI at the time of packaging is the only way to comply with the Directive and to overcome unnecessary complexity. The feasibility and efficiency of Track & Trace therefore depends on the ability of the Commission to adopt a uniform, feasible and clear protocol ensuring a harmonised application throughout the Union and allowing third countries to easily adopt it as well.
Export products must be excluded avoiding self-imposed trade barriers whilst export is already covered by the EMCS system.
For further information, ESTA has attached its detailed position.
Read full response